By Cary Mayo
Each individual church is unique because of its members and the surrounding community. As organizations, church staff and volunteers work tirelessly to maintain a healthy church that accomplishes their mission by serving their congregation, pouring into their communities, and reaching the world for the gospel.
However, church attendance has declined throughout the United States across almost all Christian denominations in recent years. The bottom line is that in a post-Covid, digital-first world, many churches and other faith-based organizations are struggling to understand and take the necessary steps to maintain and grow their congregation.
Our increasingly digitalized society is understandably intimidating for many people, with 45% of church leaders saying they are anxious or unprepared when making decisions relating to their church’s digital technology. That said, churches, their members, and the overarching community can benefit from investing in their digital presence, particularly their website.
Leveraging modern technology helps bring a ministry’s vision to life more effectively and efficiently while reflecting a church that is in touch with and welcoming to potential new members while continually engaging current ones.
Antiquated websites fail to connect with modern congregants
In 2024, more than 80% of churches view their website as their primary means for attracting new congregation members, while more than 33% of churchgoers discover their church from a digital platform such as a website or social media. Outdated, clunky, and disorganized websites hinder user experience for both internal staff and external audiences. Beyond making a bad first impression with a digitally inclined audience, outdated websites make life more difficult for staff members or volunteers who regularly update content.
Churches offer numerous services and benefits to their members and community beyond weekly service gatherings, including hosting community events, serving the most vulnerable, and providing child services like after-school care. Because of an outdated or badly managed website, people might never be aware these services are available. Common issues like a malfunctioning scheduling tool, broken links to other site sections, or just a difficult and unintuitive layout can all serve as hindrances to attending services or participating in programs.
That said, churches which use best-in-class technologies and integration options for their websites will find themselves both reaching more new members and successfully converting simple clicks into active community members.
Church website best practices
To create the best online experience, churches must tailor their sites to the specific needs and goals of their main target audiences, which includes both potential new members and newer ones actively to get connected and involved in their new home. Monitoring the traffic to and through your website with tools like Google Analytics is important for determining what content is most valuable to your visitors and can help make data-driven decisions about your navigation, homepage design, and more.
The first and overarching website best practice churches must follow is simply to highlight what matters. Many churches share overlapping pillars such as outreach initiatives or sharing their mission and vision, but churches with specialty offerings, such as a pre-school or food pantry, should be sure to emphasize that pillar of their congregation. These key focuses help visitors easily understand the church’s priorities and feel aligned with its core beliefs and values.
Secondly, as more and more churches use some sort of website backend and church management software, it’s key to ensure that they are not only taking advantage of best-in-class options but are also aligned on mission messaging, internal capabilities, and staff roles. The best software options allow for church staff of all technical proficiencies to build and manage websites seamlessly using ready-to-edit drag-and-drop templates. With cloud-based technology, the process is immensely simplified as it enables users to pull in content such as event information and sermons without uploading files multiple times. By updating and managing content and optimizing website SEO, churches of all sizes will quickly see their organization increase its reach and engagement.
Lastly, regularly keeping content, the events calendar, and streaming capabilities up-to-date fosters a culture of engagement, helping to engage current members, create new churchgoers, and expand their audience beyond the local community by communicating their mission with audiences around the world.
Update your benefits: discovery, engagement and giving
Churches that embrace digital transformation efforts create a unified community built on a culture of engagement around each ministry’s vision and outreach efforts. Modern websites clearly communicate service times, special events, age and stage of life ministry offerings, local and international missions’ impact, and volunteer opportunities, creating a solid picture of what the church brings to their community.
Websites that integrate with the church’s backend operations software not only reduce the manual burden for staff to update events and other public facing information on the site but also provide a secure portal where key congregation members can effectively access and manage key digital information such as contact information, notification settings, engagement opportunities, giving initiatives, and more. This digital centralization process helps maintain a healthy mission where all stakeholders feel welcome and empowered to contribute as members.
While an outdated and out-of-touch website can negatively impact a church both internally and externally, a modern and up-to-date website can fully engage and connect with current and potential congregants by clearly and effectively communicating the church’s mission, values, and offerings. The result? A church website allows you to communicate and invite potential new visitors into the church while engaging existing members in the life of the church and community.
As VP of Product Management for Ministry Brands, Cary Mayo leads a team of Product Managers responsible for the customer facing product experience across our portfolio of brands. With more than 20 years of experience in product, development and ministry, Mayo is passionate about helping churches and ministries use technology to impact their congregations, communities, and our world for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
