Seven (Plus One) Deadly Sins of a Church Website

Allow me to begin with a couple of negative comments.

Most church leaders don’t grasp the value of a website to get guests to their churches to hear the gospel.

Most church websites are terrible.

I just finished looking at over 100 websites from a variety of churches of a variety of sizes. I am not an expert in either design or technology, so my primary purpose was to look at the sites from the perspective of a person considering visiting the church. Forgive my judgmental words, but I was not impressed with most of the sites.

I do not have confirmation of these statistics, so I am hesitant to put them in writing. Nevertheless, the unconfirmed numbers indicate that between 75% and 90% of potential guests to your church will first look at the church’s website before making a final decision to attend.

Did you get that? As many as nine out of ten prospective guests will get their first impression of your church based on what they see when they go to the church website. That’s huge! It may be the most overlooked outreach tool we have. The church that minimizes the value of its website is the church that is missing many opportunities to reach people.

Certainly the website should have features for the members, but it’s the guests who are often overlooked. Allow me to share the greatest omissions on the websites; what I humorously call the seven deadly sins.

  1. The website is dated in both design and content. You are communicating an uncaring attitude and a sloppy approach to ministry.
  2. The website was built cheaply and looks like it. From a ministry perspective, the church is missing many opportunities. From a stewardship perspective, one guest who becomes a member will pay for the cost of a good site. Though some web designers and builders are too expensive, it makes absolutely no sense to try to get by with a cheap-looking site.
  3. The service times are either hard to find or non-existent. This information is probably the first information a guest tries to find. If the times are not clear and apparent, you probably have already lost the guest.
  4. The physical address of the church is either hard to find or non-existent. Most of your guests will likely put the address in their GPS system. They won’t be seeking your church in the Yellow Pages. You are probably missing out on the majority of your guests if you don’t have a clearly marked physical address.
  5. Not enough information on childcare. You’ve lost your young families with this omission.
  6. Minimal information on your staff. Guests want to know as much as possible about the staff of the church. The best sites I’ve seen include personal statements from the staff along with their photos.
  7. No place to listen to recent sermons. A number of your prospective guests will listen to an entire sermon before deciding to visit. They may assume that you are not very proud of the preaching ministry of the church if you don’t have podcasts easily available.

(Plus One). In recent years, more prospective guests have wanted to know the basic beliefs of the church. If you don’t have a statement of faith on the website, you will miss out on some of your more discerning guests.

For the last twenty-five years, the worship service has been declared to be the front door of the church. If we are to keep the metaphor consistent, the website is now the foyer. Guests may never make it through the front door if you have a lousy website.

I sense that many church leaders are underestimating the value of a great website. It should be a mandatory investment of all churches at a reasonable price. And the price is too great to pay if your church does not have a website.

How good is your church’s website? What are many sites lacking? What would you change on many of these sites, including your own?

Posted on May 25, 2013


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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88 Comments

  • I’d say a major missing problem with church sites is that too few are mobile Friendly. If you don’t have a responsive theme theme then your missing out on a majority of your people.

    • Absolutely right. By next year, that may be the top of the list. Your site must look good and function well on phones, pads, tablets, etc. By the way, a “responsive” website is one that is functional on multiple devices.

  • Thom,
    This is a great article. I’m going to put a link to it in our blog. I’ve been a Creative Director for a web site design firm that also specializes in developing custom-branded church websites that are very simple to update (http://churches.yourcreativepeople.com), logos, custom-branded print materials, etc. We also provide an app for all of our ministry clients called Ministry Compass (www.ministrycompassapp.com). Probably the biggest hurdle we see churches consider is whether to simply buy a template off the shelf, or establish a recognizable brand within their community. The latter works, the former is cheap and works for maybe a short time but not long-term. I didn’t see that as one of your points, but it might be a help to someone here! We have found that most of the content management tools out there are very complicated, so we created one called Backstage CMS that’s very intuitive, powerful, and easy to use (http://yourcreativepeople.com/backstage-cms). Thanks for your thoughts and your ministry. I enjoy reading your blog and posts about this topic.

  • I wholeheartedly agree with your work here, Dr. Rainer. After taking a small church last year, I immediately set out to setup a website, and I was able to find a hosting site that used modern templates that were attractive and easy to update. My experience would echo much of what you said, but these pointers may be helpful additions:
    1 – I spent a considerable amount of time searching and browsing a great host and variety of websites and decided what I did and didn’t want. That research made my choices much easier.
    2 – I spent considerable time selecting a domain name. Many churches share the same name and simple domains are already in use, and I didn’t want my site hidden because the site domain was obscure, confusing, and hard to remember. I also choose to use .com instead of .org because it is the most commonly recognized domain.

    How that helps someone. Please keep the blog articles coming!

  • Thom is right about this: modern, professional looking websites are getting so cheap and easy to use that there really is no excuse for a church with a bad website. Last year our church of twenty people got a new website, and I guarantee that if you are computer savvy enough to be reading this blog, you could keep our site up to date. Check it out: libertyspringspca.com

    • Thom Rainer says on

      Thanks Jeff.

    • Jeff, I don’t doubt what you say about cheap and easy (and your site looks very nice!). Regarding expensive, I was thinking more of paying someone to do a professional web site. What may be happening with some of us older non-techie types is that we didn’t know enough to pick the best web hosting site that can be made professional looking and/or that is user-friendly. My wife is much more computer savvy than I, and yet she had to fight with the devil to get our sermons uploaded to the web site. Perhaps that is a sign that we didn’t begin well and should even junk it and start over with else when our year is up.

  • I echo the sentiments of Dave Miller above; and would add that many times the helpful suggestions that people give don’t take into account those of us who are still taking taking baby steps in trying to start a church website.

  • Kenneth Freeman says on

    I really appreciate the enlightenment on your opinions on websites. My church website is in the process of being designed. The points that you brought to my attention will be quite helpful in designing the website. Thanks

  • Erik Maloy says on

    Great post!!! I have said for years that churches need to put up quality websites that share pertinent and up to date information. I know a guy who does great, affordable work. He just re-did our site, http://www.srfcowlitz.com check it out and if anyone is interested in having him do one I can connect you. I know he would appreciate it.

  • I live in a rural area where it seems that many of the 55-and-over crowd are recently discovering the internet. Of course the 40-and-under crowd are plugged-in regularly. However, the ratio (in the community; we lean younger as a church) of 55+:40- is somewhere around 1.5:1. (There isn’t industry here and we’re too far from the nearest city to be honestly considered a “bedroom community” so the younger adults don’t stick around long after high school or college.)

    What advice could you offer to me, a pastor, as I try to help the older crowd place a realistic value on a professional website for our church? Modern, but not necessarily ultra-modern, technology might as well be one of my “love languages”. 🙂

    (In their defense somewhat is the fact that we are reaching those 40- who actually do live here.)

    • Thom Rainer says on

      Clay –

      Form a task force of four or five key influencers in the church. Give them supporting material such as this post. Ask them to look at several church sites (give them the URL addresses). Then ask them to share with you and some other key leaders what they see as the benefits of a website. In other words, let the influence come from the grassroots rather than the top. Make certain the task force disbands after four or five weeks or you will have another committee draining time from the church.

    • The church I attend has similar demographics. What I’ve seen to be helpful as the older generation comes to grips with the twentieth-century, is to approach a website/online presence/podcast/etc. as a part of evangelism and missions, both global and local. The older Christians I talk with get excited when they hear, for example, that the sermons we have available on Sermon Audio are being downloaded by people all around the world and sometimes in “closed” countries. Similarly, they can send their kids and grandkids (who may never set foot in a church building) to the church website/podcast to listen to sermons on their way to work, etc..
      Just some thoughts. God bless!