online church

This week has brought with it unprecedented events as churches throughout the United States comply with state recommendations to promote 'social distancing,' thus suspending Sunday services until further notice. It's been a fast-moving train, or perhaps more like a race car, as local, state, and national protocols have changed by the hour.

Church management software is a valuable tool for effectively organizing and overseeing operational and institutional projects, including registration for special events, camps, conferences, and classes. There are full-service full church management software solutions like ACS Technologies' Realm and Church Community Builder that offer robust solutions that can handle all church management needs, yet online church registration tends to be one of the more popular standalone areas that many churches need help with.

Last month, we took a closer look at expanding your church through an online campus. Often called an internet campus, iCampus, cyber church, digital church, virtual church, or even church in the cloud, expanding online is a great way to expand your reach--without expanding your physical space. Below are ten helpful online campus tips as you prepare to expand your campus virtually:

There are many studies that track eye movements when people go to a webpage. It helps us to understand what most expect when they go to websites. That’s called the web paradigm. If you break the web paradigm, people won’t understand where things are, and things won’t feel natural to them.

Church websites are important business. Aside from word of mouth, they are the next most popular way for people to hear about your church. If your site doesn't have current information, locations and times for services, along with mission and doctrinal statements - plus a host of other ways for people to connect - chance are you might be losing potential visitors. Below, I've rounded up 10 articles from around the web that offer fantastic advice on how to improve your church website. Your church website truly is your digital front door and can't be ignored.

I am writing this during the weekend where much of the Northeast (and some of the Southeast) of the United States is reeling from a series of blizzards that dumped 18-30 inches of snow. I just received a message from one church regarding how they are cancelling service in order to maintain some of the wisdom of keeping folks off the road. And while I do agree with keeping folks from driving in dangerous conditions, many of our weather-cancellation messages just stop at "don't come out this week, we'll pick up next week."

A couple of months ago I started live streaming on my site five days a week.  Like many smaller churches, my budget for all this was pretty much nothing.  I’ve since talked to a couple of churches that are in a similar situation, but really do want to live-stream their services for shut-ins or military personnel stationed abroad.

The church website is still one of the most useful ways to draw in new visitors and reach the community. While social media gets most of the press these days, it's important to revisit your church website from time to time to make sure that it's meeting your needs and matching up with your goals for both inreach (within your church) and outreach (into the community).