Living Open Source

Nominations for the coolest and worst church websites

Apr 2nd, 2007 by Tim 10

(Image: Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc – www.reverendfun.com)
I’m on the scrounge for examples of the coolest and not so cool church websites on the planet. The mega churches have fancy websites, a lot of which are not really that great, but my interest is in those churches who are sharing their story online well or are just putting people off.

What do you look for? Good clean designs, relevant, regular content and that living quality that is emerging from churches that blog rather than bloat.

Filed under: Web Design |
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10 Comments on the Comment Wall

1 On April 2nd, 2007 at 10:39 pm Tim said:

Let me start you off.

I think these are pretty cool:
Dulles Community Church
Bethlehem United Methodist Church
Eastpoint Community Church
2 On April 4th, 2007 at 5:19 pm mrben said:

I agree with Tim – the Dulles church website is one of the cleanest, most usable sites I’ve seen. The lifechurch.tv guys also have an interesting take on it all.
3 On April 5th, 2007 at 6:38 am James said:

My Church website: http://www.stfaiths.org.au is slowly making progress to an online portal for our Church. I’m leading the way at the church to move to a full multimedia cycle – but that’s time.

Feedback is appreciated.
4 On April 5th, 2007 at 7:50 am Tim said:

Thanks James, I think yours is a great example of what WordPress can do for a church. You have made some neat customization of the Alpha theme.
5 On April 6th, 2007 at 2:09 am Rob said:

Best sites:
Church on the Move – http://www.churchonthemove.com/home/
Mountaintop Church – http://www.mountaintopchurch.com/
Edmond’s First Baptist Church – http://fbcedmond.org/
6 On April 7th, 2007 at 9:55 am Tim said:

Of these, I like Church on the Move best, though all have great design. I think Church on the Move is less busy and therefore easier on the eyes.

A lot of church sites fall into the trap of putting absolutely everything on the front page – information overload. In those cases it doesn’t matter how great your design is, you have lost your audience.

A great minimalist example would be Mars Hill who’s front page simply declares with one picture their passion to love others.
7 On April 30th, 2007 at 5:20 pm scott said:

worst church site ever FUMC
8 On April 30th, 2007 at 5:21 pm scott said:

and another GFUMC
9 On May 1st, 2007 at 2:23 pm Tim said:

They are not great, but I’ve seen much worse!
10 On May 18th, 2007 at 1:07 pm Scott (not the same one) said:

How about http://www.gbgm-umc.org/galena-warwick/21912.htm