While compiling various lists for tutorialblog, something struck me – I kept noticing Religious and Church websites with really good standards compliant designs, something I wouldn’t have expected at first but makes complete sense – They are trying to embrace new technologies to get their message across. Here we bring together the best for you …
Revolution Church Kansas City
Soul Purpose
Bethlehem United Methodist Church
River City Church
Generation Church
Church of the Incarnation
The City Church
Edmonds First Baptist Church
Dulles Community Church
Mars Hill Church
You’re right, all those designs are great!
Hello Josh – was having a read of your blog the other day, Your Menewsha project seems to be doing really well!
Actually, I’m not surprised. Many churches are working hard to be more culturally savvy and relevant than traditional churches in the area of message content and music, so I would presume they are on top of things like web design standards. Great examples.
Thanks James.
Im from the UK and havent come across any UK churches with nice websites yet. The USA ones seem to “get the web” where as we lack behind at the moment.
Trying to embrace new technologies, or just hiring the very best design firms, a good percentage of which happen to be standards-aware, with the ridiculous amount of money they have these days?
Good point Ryan, I’m sure most churches aren’t short of a bit of cash
Check out LifeChurch.tv. There website it fantastic. They have all of there sermons available online. The video has one of the slickest web/media interfaces I have ever seen.
I always thought my church had a pretty decent web design, and only 2 xhtml errors. And minor ones at that.
http://rollinghillscommunity.org/
Here’s another pretty cool church
http://cfccnet.org/
I used to go there
I’m not suprised by the good design at all. I’m sure there are many talented web designers that attend each of those churchs.
Great way to use your talent, and support your church.
The point that most churchs are not short of cash would be mostly wrong. There are some very large churchs that are well funded but most of the time your smaller local Christian Church needs everything they can get to operate.
Yeah, I’m surprised LifeChurch.tv wasn’t on there, also [url]fotw.org[/url] gets an honorable mention in my book.
http://www.reallifecc.org/ is excellent as well. all CSS and divs. no tables.
Here’s another great one:
http://www.gracepointonline.org/
I’m surprised the NorthTemple guys weren’t mentioned. http://northtemple.com/about
Some big name guys there (including Cameron Moll), they all work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I disagree about LifeChruch.tv. I can see why it wasn’t on the list. If you look at the rest of these sites, it simply doesn’t posses the same qualities that most of these standards-compliant sites do.
@Paul Harding:
Sorry, but they meant Christian churches.
LDS is not Christian, just a cult.
Churches are very money rich.
They can afford a well done site and most likely had someone from their congregation do it. They probably all get discounts for the page too.
Of course they are well done, they want people to come to their church. People == Money.
Check out this one…
http://www.northsidebapt.com
http://www.harvest.org/
@Paul Harding:
Sorry, but they meant Christian churches.
LDS is not Christian, just a cult.
Just what makes it a cult? =/
@Maddie
Just what makes it a cult? =/
Extreme closed mindedness and ignorance, you know the stuff Jesus taught these “Christians” to do.
If people like Trevor could open their eyes, he would see that Paul was right, lds.org is a well designed church website with great features like the King James version of the Bible available online to read.
These are some great designs, and I love to see church choosing to design in clean ways that present themselves well for the web.
Our church site doesn’t have quite as much polish as some of the above, but it’s pretty well done and is solidly aimed at web standards.
http://www.youngchurch.org
And I can certainly say we’re not rolling in the cash!
@Maddie
Here’s a discourse on the Christianity of Mormons…
http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-690-29,00.html
Enjoy!
i’m not surprised. organized religion is all about controlling people and wealth; they obviously have the money to buy good design. why is this such a big deal? money usually does look good. i’d like to see a more humble approach, myself, but humility and christianity don’t usually get along all that well.
props to whoever designed those sites. they are great all in their different ways.
hey the http://www.gracepointonline.org noted above has a nice little photojournal (view our photos link bottom left) and has podcasts (top right).
http://theaterchurch.com is another one with great design and totally standards compliant
As part of the web development team at Mars Hill I can say that the design and guts of our site is all volunteer sweat. Our site, as with eveything else in our church, is an expression of worship (of Jesus). As such it’s less of a commodity and more the heart and soul of several volunteers who are on mission with with Mars Hill.
Thanks for putting us on the list!
This Church i found has a great design http://www.stlchurch.com
Great compilation of church sites! I think there are probably quite a few church websites like Mars Hill that use internal talent to develop. Pretty cool use of gifts!
I love it when people ask what religion I attend and I say Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The look puzzled then I say LDS
They say oh that Mormon cult.
I say no we are Christians.
They say I follow that Joe Smith guy.
I say no I follow Jesus Christ the one who died on the Cross and was resurrected three days later many years ago as told in the Kings James version of the Holy Bible. Joseph Smith was an important leader in the church.
I usually get some kind of nonsense like I’ve been brainwashed into believing I am worshiping Jesus but in fact I’m not.
Whatever…. anyway there are a lot of decent Christian websites – it is good to see Christianity support technology and a good way to share information and build support for our beliefs
Kinda weird, looks like some of those designs are similar to clubbing themes and music.
Yeah, that theaterchurch.com site is pretty good!
These are very nice sites, and I agree with others who’ve said that it’s nice to see Christianity embracing technology… goodness knows the other side is *grin*
On the topic of the LDS cult… it’s always seemed really ironic to me (moronic perhaps) that the very rational that closed minded “Christians” use to put Mormonism into the category of cult could be applied to any organized faith at all. Get over what your self promoting pastor told you when you were a kid (no, you weren’t brainwashed at all) and admit that Mormons are Christians, we worship Jesus Christ, the son of God. It’s also a little known fact that we rule at ping-pong
This is an interesting and relevant statistic:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hprajani/phun/god-v-satan.png
There are lots of churches that help each other with web design and work. Many churches don’t even have a budget for this sort of thing, so it’s great that there are open source communities willing to share. Web empowered church has lent a lot of expertise in this direction, and some of their websites are fantastic, and more importantly, great content as well.
http://webempoweredchurch.com/
There are some examples there, but the ones you have listed are great. Thanks for pointing these out.
Yikes! What a compliment to be listed here! There are some top-notch designs in this list and it’s an honor to have been a part of two of the site designs (Generation Church and The City Church).
In order to circumvent some of the questions I’ve been receiving since being double-dugg (or whatever it’s called when you’re linked to from a digg’d site), I’ve thrown together a Site Credits page. Hopefully it will answer any questions you might have about what CMS we’re using, who designed the site(s), how it was built, etc.
http://www.thecity.org/credits
Thanks again for listing us!
A lot of churches have begun to really embrace the web and it has helped them immensely in outreach.
I personally like the design (and especially the logo) of http://www.thirstyforjesus.org
They seem to be using a CMS from ElementFusion. I’ve played with one of their products, DiscoverSky and it was very easy to use for novice users.
one of the church websites I admire is http://www.healingplacechurch.com
It looks like they have something crazy going on for easter, but click the link at the top to skip through to the normal site.
Rather than having endless discussion about money, church, christianity, cult, etc let’s talk about how a designer can make a great church sites:
1. Church sites should be people oriented. This means more photos of its members, activities, etc.
2. The site should cater for non-christian or first-timer that wants to know more about their beliefs.
3. It should mention the word “Church”. I find it’s really distasteful when a trying to promote itself as something else
4. Natural earthy colors. (except those that’s targeted towards youth / contemporary audience)
Can anyone else add more to this?
Churches are supported by their members. It is very common that members try to help in areas where they know they can be the most help.
I’m not surprised if these websites are made by members who happens to be professional web designers. What about those who don’t have these resources? Well.. i’m sure there’re plenty of them out there too… it’s not that hard to find a ‘decent’ looking church website (or any sites for that matter)
Well, if you wanna call LDS a cult, you have to call all organized religions a cult.
Cult: “A group or doctrine with religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existent on the margins of society.”
– Wiktionary
I’m biased, but you may want to check out Desiring God.
not a church, but a christian ministry… great website:
http://www.ligonier.org/
I thought I might go ahead and throw our church’s hat into the ring. I think that it’s pretty good if you ask me.
http://www.kineticchurch.com
The other thing to remember is that a lot of these churches and ministries have members who are designers and developers who will build these sites for free/cheap.
Churches represent one of few untapped markets out there for web developers. Thats why the designs are compliant with standards, they are done by pros – i am happy they spend my donations on good stuff…
Hey here is another site that desrves a mention:
http://www.lds.org
And it has all of the scriptures on the web. It is a very extensive site.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com
not a church, but a great christian online ‘magazine’ and great music and devo resource!
Greetings in my name! My website “jesuschrist.nu” sucks and is non compliant with anything. I need help. It was done several years ago with Frontpage but now needs a facelift. Its sister site “jesuskristus.nu” in Swedish needs help too. I am not rich like many who claim to follow me but have “treasures in heaven” for those willing to help me get my message out to a very lost and hopeless world!
Contact webmaster at jesuschrist.nu.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is another good site!
http://www.venganza.org/
Check out http://www.hillsong.com, especially the Ministries > United Youth section
I think our church’s website has a great design. I don’t know how great the actual coding on it is but the design really stands out. You should definitely check it out. http://www.lifecenter.net
@moe, and various others.
Just letting you know I’m the designer of soulpurpose.co.nz, and no I’m not rich – nor is the SP organisation. You can donate to SP if you like – they need the money!
I designed and built this site with a friend of mine in our spare time. It was a labor of love, and very humbling to work for free. And like my friend above, it’s part of my worship for Jesus.
SP’s message is aimed at youth, and as such it needs a site that communicates in their visual language. Form follows function.
@Is this a shill list?
Soulpurpose site uses WordPress. Not sure about the others.
The Mars Hill Church site is actually monitored and designed completely on a volunteer basis. Almost everything Mars Hill does is volunteer work, minus the pastors of course. But most of their office work, janitorial, and most everything else is on a volunteer basis. They are just a HUGE church are are one of the fastest growing in the country, so pretty much they probably have people within their community that are mass good with Web Design. I’m probably going there tonight for their Good Friday service too, should be good times. They are an amazing church.
check out sermonaudio.com
I go to Mars Hill Church in Seattle ^^
These are BOUGHT TEMPLATES. No wonder they look like club designs & portal sites.
Care to say where they are bought templates from ?
I highly doubt it.
Check out this one… has neat flash interface.
http://www.hopechapelmd.com
Wow, these are a lot of nice website sites. I saw musicshedd.com and its ok compared to these.
It’s probably not too surprising that three of your top 10 sites (City Church, Generation Church & Mars Hill) are located in the Seattle metropolitan area. A city with a large population of tech savvy individuals. What’s interesting about that to me is that Seattle is one of the most un-churched areas in the nation. I guess that just means that there are a higher percentage of Christian Geeks here.
It great when your church has a budget to devote to the website and you can get a design firm, great software or even just pay a tech-guy in the church for a day or two. But when all your money goes to the community and third world missions, you end up with a website made by an overworked guy who is the only willing/able web guy in a church of more than 600.
Like this: http://www.hamptonroadschurch.org
I’ve been working on this site in my spare time for free for more than five years. I don’t have time to catch up on the latest web technologies and I don’t have anyone to advise me on design and implementation. I’m really the only guy I know that can do this stuff.
On the topic of church cults, beliefs, this church versus that church… a true Christian will love God with everything he has, without pointing fingers at what others teach or do. After all, “…whoever is not against us, is for us.” Mark 9:40
Eh, I’m sure they’re just paying companies to build their websites like everyone else. To the deepest pockets go the quality!
Those sites look pretty good. I stumbled upon this Christian site too. It looks great in my opinion and they developed it in pure CSS/XHTML plus the fact that the content is really amazing.
Check it out: http://www.torahministry.com/
Man, half of these sites are just premade blogs or templates with some graphics design thrown on top of them. I agree with http://www.lds.org being a well made site, especially the music section -> http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/
I am LDS myself, and I just always found it fascinating why people think we’re a cult.
Funny how religious intolerence makes people such hypocrites.
Anyway, back on topic, those are some nice layouts. It’s good to see that religion is able to keep up with the times so that they can share their message (whatever it may be) with the people of today and not just the 1600s.
here’s another one with a great design
http://www.vintagelawrence.com/
OK, I like those, but I could not help to show off the website that we have…..
http://www.th3waters.com
So, I am a designer and pastor…actually, church planter. We started a web design business for churches and ministries. check out our church site…www.mdchurch.org.
I will say that most churches don’t have money or a web site. Those that do are not all hypocrites…It is so not about externals. Anyway, good stuff. Thanks for the list.
All have ‘good looking designs’ – however, I think I might take a swing at this list in the near future as while some have excellent looks, they don’t function all that well.
Remember, it _IS_ about provided a service to the community as much as it is about providing an edifying web presence.
Ridiculous amounts of cash? Maybe some churches in the US might have money to spare but churches like the one I go to are treading water financially. Even so, the church supports a number of local ministries including soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
What you should be asking yourself is what have the humanist organizations done for their fellow many, especially the local poor lately? Many of those secular groups have a tonne of money but you don’t see them doing any “good” in the local communities.
I notice that while these websites look really good and use all the latest technologies – none of them seem to carry a clear message of salvation to the people who may look at them. None of them seem to state how you can be sure of going to Heaven. They may have really good websites but their members may be on the way to Hell and not know it!!
Our church doesn’t even have a website as such. We devote our money and energy into spreading the true Gospel and keeping people out of Hell. The time that is spent on some of these websites would be better put to good old fashioned door-knocking in their local communities.
Revolution Church’s design is amazing especially for a church.
Awesome collection, it is interesting to see how high tech churches have become. My church actually has podcasts and videos on-demand.
Several of those websites are outstanding… especially the first one, revolution.
But I have to disagree about on the discussion about limited church funds being an issue.
I think that it totally the wrong kind of thinking, and when it comes to churches, “Size doesn’t matter” in my opinion.
What really matters are these key points.
1.) Does the church leadership see the value of a website.
2.) Does the church leadership have a vision that allows for the development for a website.
3.) Is the church leadership controlling? A controlling leadership won’t make for a very artistic or relative website.
4.) Does the talent exist within a church along with the desire to develop a church website?
5.) Does the church have multiple talents that can work together on a web site.
If the leadership of the church can see the vision and are not caught up with control and power issues, then that allows the talent in the church to develop a vision. But the problem that often occurs is that too often, it becomes a one person project and obtaining information for other leaders and church ministry leaders is too difficult, causing frustration and a website that ends up never being update.
If you can pull a team together of talent even within a small church, and release them in their gifts working together then you got a winning plan.
Money. Well, money should never be an issue even for a small church. It’s just a matter of getting someone you know or someone’s, to be able to see the value of the website and catch you vision. Most people in the church know they could never do it and would never try, and therefore are more likely to contribute some money towards the project.
I am reminded of the church in ACTS that sold houses and other possessions to meet the needs of each other and the church. That should not be any less of an ideal for a website.
I believe that if church leadership is sold on the idea of a website, that support alone is enough to encourage the talent in the church to contribute their own finances towards a church website development project also.
But yes, most people I guess find it difficult to contribute anything towards a church project, none-the-less tithe at all. In that case, the person or people building the website could skip tithe once a month and use that money to invest in the cost of developing the website. Such as $6 to $10 a month to rent the domain name for a year, $10 or less (bluehost.com) per month to rent webspace, by your webpage software and any equipment on sale or for software, buy a year old version on ebay for dirt cheap.
Do it over a year with one or two people and the money won’t be such a big hit on a small church. Better yet, tithe like normal and then make your web related purchases an “Offering” beyond your tithe and have your church keep records and add it to your gifts/tithes/and contribution records – then count it off on your taxes at the end of the year.
If that doesn’t work – find someone in the church who will sponser the website in exchange for a tax write off at the end of the year. If they have a high paying salary or own their own business, they would probably be more than happy to be involved.
Money should never be an issue.
Randy
CCCI Web Team
http://www.cornerstonecelebration.com
All these faith-based websites listed are great, whether they are heavily funded, outsources, created by paid church staff, or done “voluntarily” by its members…as is the case in our church. Our site is much improved than it was 3 years ago, and I know it will only get better: http://www.solidrockcog.com
http://www.aplacetocomealive.com
It would be nice if you religious types would quit killing each other.
Hey all- I am a Pastor of a ministry called Fusion. It is a ministry of Bethlehem Evangelical Free Church in Randolph NJ. We are ministering to the unchurched in Morristown NJ and spreading that into the local state colleges in the area (Montclair State University, William Paterson University, County College of Morris, Nyack College). Just wanted to let you all know about what we are doing. Suggestions and comments are always welcome. Shoot us an email at mcardillo@bethlehemchurch.org
Sorry all- I forgot the link to our site. http://www.door2fusion.com
Except for 7 and 9 I like the new designs. I’ve seen the general template for 7 and 9 before. They need to be more original. Granted it is probably better than what they had before.
This is a great discussion; I agree with Randy, that pure examination of budget is a misguided way to decide whether to have a Website for a church. An effective Website is THE front door for your church, and if done with excellence can also become the water cooler, prayer room, and E.R. for your church members. Unfortunately, some churches think of the Website as just another I.T. expense (like computers or toner cartridges). Instead, it should be viewed as a ministry expense–like missions or congregational care.
As for the earlier questions about CMS tools, there are many out there that are actually designed around the needs of a church. This can include not only tools to manage content (and make it standards-based in the process) but also do things such as advanced audio/video management for sermons, photo galleries, event registration, member database management, online giving, discussion forums, password-protected areas, etc.
http://www.siteorganic.com
I think our youth website is pretty good considering it was put together by a uni student. http://www.bpcwa.com/ypg
Why does a church need a fancy website? Personally I’d rather see a plain information packed website.
I love Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan… cool site..
Bruce Said: “What’s interesting about that to me is that Seattle is one of the most un-churched areas in the nation.”
Its true Bruce, I live in Seattle and go to The City Church and Generation Church (the youth ministry of The city Church) and what I notice here is that while Seattle is very unchurched the people who go to church are passionate about it because it is “unpopular”.
As a result churches are growing like crazy because people are experiencing the real deal. It is really fun to watch.
For what it’s worth, I would like to see any web site, these included, pay special attention to spelling and grammar. It’s annoying to have to decipher the English language. Also, decide on a style. Is it God or god?
I haven’t read through all of the comments, but I can’t help but say that design is only as good as the brand promise it delivers. Cool, beautiful, engaging work must always reflect the culture it purports to sell. rethinkchurch.ca
Hi Well I’ve not seen too many comments about the websites in the UK.
I’m new to web development 6 – 8 months and I came up with http://www.pbce.org.uk for the church I attend.
I am a member of the Cornerstone Celebration Center International Church Media Development Team and I am researching resources for moving into producing video broadcast and podcast available via the Internet.
Does anyone have any resources you can provide of articles on preparing for video. Any good websites of churches currently doing video podcasts, recommendations for equipment and suggestions on equipment to use?
Thanks
Randy Gorden
CCCI Web Support
http://www.cccrevolution.com
Hi All,
Thank you for commending our website – http://www.torahministry.com. It was designed and coded by my husband, Wyeth Mendoza, by the grace of our Lord Jesus. All contents were written by our ministry with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We are a prophetic ministry and yes, we want to embrace the Internet to reach out as many people as we are commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to the world. We pray that many people will get saved through this website.
This website though, wasn’t paid with lots of money but with dedication and the help of our heavenly Father.
If you know churches or ministries who want to improve their websites, we could help in giving free design directions to improve your existing websites. Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@torahministry.com.
In Christ,
Kaye
We just got online last week. Would lovesome candid feedback.
Wow, cool to see technology used in a good way that can help others.
Please note the designe and crafts in this site. Pretty enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.inhisvineyard.net/home.html
Hey,
some good websites there – might just have to steal some of the ideas.
On the LDS stuff – Paul warned of those who would bring another Gospel and Christ – the Book of Mormon promposes a different way and certainly a different Christ – eg. Jesus as brother of Satan – the Holy Ghost and Spirit being different beings.
Josh
LifeCity Church Canberra
http://www.lifecitychurch.com
Hi all!
Very interesting information! Thanks!
G’night
What about this one: http://www.firstfrederick.org
try http://www.primalyouth.com