More than anything, churches want to “do something” with their websites. No longer is the purpose of a church website just to point people to the right times and locations of services or tell about a church’s mission and vision; while these things are important, Internet technology is now making it possible to combine interactive features that help connect people and bring about stronger church community by incorporating features, such as online donations, volunteer management, small groups connectedness, blogs, online communities, and more.

Whether your church already offers a few of these features or none at all, the process of turning your site into a truly interactive community of believers is now possible. Below are more details on these 10 features of an effective church website that will hopefully assist you in taking your website a step further and better using it as an outreach tool to you community and beyond.

1. Dynamic Content

Dynamic, interactive content is the most vital part of your organization’s website; although graphics branding are also important, this will not attract visitors to your site if the content isn’t top-notch. Content that's always changing will attract visitors and allow people to feel that they are a part of the site. Interactive content will encourage your visitors to come back for more — to find out about the latest church announcements, volunteer needs, donation locations, financial issues, small groups and classes, and even listen to last week’s sermon that they missed. The content of a church website can be used as an extremely effective tool to draw people in, encourage them to become involved, keep them up-to-date with current events and ministry opportunities, and become a tool to drive your church’s ministry efforts to your members, your community, and beyond.

2. Online Donations

Providing online donation capabilities on your website is another way to increase communications from the church to its congregation. Enabling people to give online from any Internet connection via your website can provide a freedom to people that encourages regular giving whether or not people are able to attend services each week. Online giving can integrate into a church’s website and provide these services seamlessly, while making the whole process easy for churches to put into practice. For many churches, this feature is top on their priority list to include on their site — they feel it's an absolute essential.

3. Online Calendars

Posting your church’s calendar online is another great way to encourage involvement and make a real impact with your website. There are always people who attend events based on what’s in the Sunday bulletin. But what if you’ve missed the Sunday services due to travel or illness? How do you find out what events are happening in the upcoming week or month?

By posting the calendar of public events online, churches can assist people with staying involved throughout their busy lives. You can even link to the calendar in the e-mail newsletter and encourage people to check out upcoming events for the church — now that’s effective communications! Additionally, it’s also possible to have private calendars that people can see only when they log in, such as calendars for their small group or committee.

4. Event Registrations & Payments

Of all the features churches are most eager to add, online event registrations and payments often tops the list. Providing a way for people to select, register, and pay for events is a great way to encourage participation and reduce the time and administrative burden it takes for people to sign up, and for the church to process registrations. Most solutions allow for members and non-members to sign up online via online checks or credit cards; people that prefer to mail a check can also continue to do so.

Moreover, some providers can link to events directly from the online calendar, making the process — from first seeing an event to registering and paying for an event — seamless.

5. Online Ticketing

Another great feature to offer people is a way to purchase tickets for larger, reserved-seat events at your church. Whether you’re hosting a popular Christian music artist, booking your Easter services, or planning your Christmas event, giving people the convenience of ordering tickets right on your church website can ease the burden for staff and make it simple for people to attend. Provide the flexibility of paying online with credit cards or online checks, and even allow online purchasers to print e-tickets or request them by mail or will-call.

6. Volunteer Ministries

Instead of maintaining the volunteer workflow within the church office, or bogging down one person with the responsibility of managing all open volunteer positions, technology offers ways to streamline this process and take the entire burden off one person, or several people. New technology online tools can put volunteer management into the hands of those who are searching for volunteers: ministry coordinators and lay leaders within your church. Online software applications can be accessed through a church website, making it possible for church staff and lay leaders to post volunteer openings online and for volunteers to sign up online. Instead of waiting for a phone call or checking off boxes in the church bulletin, attendees can go online and view possible openings whenever they want to.

7. Small Groups

One of the reasons small group campaigns often fail is that the administrative tools needed to assist with the registration and connection process just aren’t in place. Managing small groups has come a long way from a simple roster list that gets filled out by the leader and turned into the church office. Through online access to church management software, leaders now have the ability to log in from their home computers and manage small groups.

Some programs provide ways to communicate with members via e-mail, mark attendance, assign tasks to group members and leaders, create group Web pages, send reminders, and more. It can even provide a way for the staff in a church to track people who have expressed interest in groups and see which groups they join — or haven’t joined — to determine who needs assistance.

Overall, online small groups management solutions offer innovative ideas for getting people connected and involved, thereby helping members build relationships and grow spiritually.

8. E-newsletters

E-mail newsletter applications have become a wonderful way for churches to communicate with attendees, members, visitors, missionaries, youth — anyone that wants to receive information. Through secure e-mail newsletter applications that provide opt-in capabilities, churches can provide e-mail newsletters to meet the needs of its congregation, whether they send out one main e-mail newsletter for the church or one for each ministry within the church.

Newer applications make it possible to customize the look and feel, layout, images, and more. Overall, whether churches choose to send out weekly e-newsletters with event listings or monthly in-depth e-newsletters with lots of content, people can sign up to receive the exact information that they want right from your website.

9. Member-Only Areas

It’s now possible to provide access to specific church information by logging in to a special section of a church’s website. Similar to an intranet, where people need to have proper clearance to access a special site, churches can take advantage of web software services built for this function to connect their membership database to their public website. This makes it possible for church leaders and staff to access member data from any internet connection. Vital information such as name and contact information plus activity details and notes can be viewed and edited making it simple for pastors to review contacts before visitations, and even login and note conversations and visits so that members’ info is kept up-to-date and universally accessible by all.

10. Blogs, Podcasts and More

Lots of churches have jumped on the bandwagon of aiming to create more conversational and interactive aspects to their website. Some organizations opt to have the pastor or church leadership post a blog on the website, providing a place for reflections and additional thoughts. Many churches now offer podcasts of sermons online so that people can download sermons and listen whenever they want to.

Taking these types of features a step further, new Web 2.0 technology is allowing for more community to be experienced through online gated communities where people can login and extend their physical communities that already exist to the online world through personalized profile pages, individual blogs, photo sharing, and conversation forums (similar to chat rooms).

To further investigate solution providers that can assist your organization with implementing any of these online solutions for your website, see the following list of companies for more details:

ACS Technologies – 800.736.7425

ServiceU – 888.638.7439

Simon Solutions – 888.764.0633

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