Continuing this month’s theme Church Website Builder Tips and Tools…
One factor to consider when selecting a church website builder is the features (or functionality) you want to have in your website.
What features do you need in your church website?
To answer that question, we have to think about the purpose of the website. What do you want it to accomplish for your church?
Most churches want their websites to:
- Provide information about the church to prospective visitors
- Provide information about events, groups, and ministry opportunities to members
But there may also be other things your church wants to accomplish with its website:
- Provide materials for discipleship
- Provide an easy way for members to send their tithes and offerings to the church
- Help people connect with the church via email or social media
- Help people get in touch with staff, ministry leaders or other members
- Help people sign up for events
- Sell books, Christian gifts, or church merch (branded shirts, coffee mugs, etc)
Once you know what you want your church website to do, you can then consider the features and functionality to accomplish these things.
We looked at the features most requested by our Custom Web Design clients, feedback from our WP-EZ Church Website Builder users, and church website trends to put together this list of:
The Top 5 Must-Have Church Website Builder Features
1) Calendar. If you want church members to get more involved and better connected, they need to know when things are happening. A calendar is essential. Additionally, not every new person starts by coming to a Sunday service. Sometimes people start by going to a bible study, Celebrate Recovery, or some other event.
2) Sermon Manager. Putting audio, video, and/or notes from your sermons online can accomplish several different goals. It helps prospective visitors get a better idea of what to expect, it helps members stay connected when they miss a Sunday, it can help with discipleship, and it can even help with outreach if you encourage people to share sermons or snippets of sermons online.
3) Online Giving. Most people pay their bills and manage their money online. By facilitating online giving on your website, you can help your members give more consistently.
4) Email Subscription. The number one form of communication for many churches is email. Yes, most churches still do announcements during their gatherings and most hand out a printed bulletin, but many people don’t hear/read these. Plus most people miss one or two Sundays every month. Email is the most reliable way to communicate with people during the week, so providing a way for people to subscribe to receive your emails is important.
5) Social Media Integration. Another good way to help people stay connected with your church is through social media. Having icons/links to your social channels on your website helps with this. And having social share buttons on pages and posts helps people share things from your church with their friends.
The bottom line is…
Make sure your church website builder has the functionality to connect and communicate effectively with visitors and members.
If you are searching for the best church website builder, we’re pleased to inform you our WP-EZ Church Website Builder has all these features and more. Save yourself time and start building your church website now!
Or if you would rather have OurChurch.Com build your website for you, fill out the consultation request form below.
Comment and Discuss… What are the most important features you want in your church website?
5 Comments
Spot on! all the 5 point are necessary for a church website. Calendar necessary for mention every event. Contact us and request prayer are second crucial point. I am learning web developer and i note your instructions. thanks Mark!
Thanks for your feedback T!
Is there a way to add CAPTCHA to the Prayer Request page? We get a lot of spam.
Hi Terry, not exactly captcha but you can add a “turing question.” Take a look at this video tutorial on How to Combat Prayer Spam
I’m a website developer and currently working on Church related website. These 6 pointers really assist me to create more fine version of web. Thanks