3Sixty Creative Blog

In the last couple of years, most churches have caught up with the 'online revolution' and UK church websites have matured to a point where they generally fall into one of 3 main categories. There remain a lot of decrepit 'first generation' church sites around but they are disappearing as most churches recognise that investing in a good website when funds are available is an important part of church growth. This post focuses more on functionality than design but of course good design remains a big part of any site's success.

1. The basic 'brochure' site

These are the most common type of UK church website and suit small-medium size churches. Typically 10-15 pages with basic fixed information about the church which tends to remain unchanged for long periods, the only part of the site that is regularly updated is often restricted to a just a few news items on the homepage. Once set up, the site requires very little time or expense to maintain and if the church is small and has only a few areas of ministry, a site like this may be all that is required. Its main purpose is simply informing potential visitors about the church and acting as an online signpost.

Examples are:
www.hoddesdonparishchurch.org.uk (Hertfordshire, UK)
www.andovervineyard.co.uk (Andover, UK)
www.southamptonvineyard.org.uk (Southampton, UK)

2. The mid-ranking all rounder

Typically these sites have anything from 20-30 pages with in-depth information about a church with a broad range of ministries. The site has dedicated news and events pages which is well maintained and will often have photo galleries of events. The site is probably has several people contributing content from time to time and there may be some use of Twitter or Facebook to support the site. Most of these sites will also feature regular sermon podcasts in MP3 format but video content does not generally feature. The sites may also have a blog written by the church leader. Although the initial set up cost of the site may be higher than the basic brochure site, the on-going costs are not particularly high and only require a modest weekly investment of time.

Examples are:
www.stlukeschurch.org.uk (Battersea, UK)
www.minchbc.org.uk (Minchinhampton, UK)
www.kingscentre.org.uk (Catford, UK)

3. The church 'super site' / online hub

Not only are these large websites; (by church standards) 50 or more pages but, more importantly the defining feature of these sites is a large volume of media -, video, audio and photo content that is added on a weekly basis. These sites are really a 'hub' not just a site on its own, linked into third party services such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube which are used to publish parallel or additional content. This allows the church to hook into the vast existing online social networks and spread their message and reach far beyond the just website itself.
To sustain an online presence as strong as this needs a dedicated team of contributors and web managers who can record audio and video and write, edit and upload quality content. It requires a coherent communications strategy that is focused on building the church brand and will need frequent assistance from designers to produce quality graphics to promoting the current and future events. With such a wide range of materials being published it needs careful oversight by the leadership to ensure the message is consistent and reflects the church's values.

These sites may feature member-management features and have fully implemented the system that allows logged-in members of the church to access quite different content to visitors and to see pages tailored to their own needs and roles within the church. The benefit of this is that the content is directly tailored to the needs of the user. The casual visitor is being presented with general information about the church while church members use the site for weekly reminders, information about their involvement and to download media resources.

The set up and, in particular the on-going cost involved in this kind of site is significant and this means only large churches can usually afford to commit the funds needed to reach this standard. However the benefits are huge and with such high quality content these websites can have worldwide influence with visitors coming back time after time or subscribed to the various feeds. Often there will be participation, feedback and comment from many outside the church and these sites have truly started to become a community that is an expression of the church far beyond it's members or geographical location. With a younger generation that is completely web-savvy and used to high quality websites and online services, sites like these can at last, properly compete for attention and demonstrate the diversity and excitement of church life to a world that mostly has very low expectations of churches.

Examples are:
www.cck.org.uk (Brighton, UK)
www.mosaic-church.org.uk (Leeds, UK)
www.marshillchurch.org (Seattle, USA)