“Our church website should be a hub, a center for valuable resources. And if your website is not that in 2021, it is going to deter people from seeing that you will have a value in their life.”

Your website can be an amazing tool for ministry, but it can also be a barrier.  Do you know which one your website is operating as? And if your church is called to the Hybrid Church model, then your website is likely the place where your digital ministry happens the most! In this article, we are getting super practical about how to effectively bring your church website into the day and age we're living in.

(We believe in you!)

Hybrid Church amplifies the importance of how people use websites today.

This has been a trend for almost a decade now, but people don’t just go to websites for information anymore. They are going to websites to get resources and make connections with a community. Sure, people still need to be able to find your address, email, and physical service times, but they are looking to engage with content, get resources, and receive value from your church website.

As we’ve said in other parts of this series, hardly anyone will walk through the front door of your church without taking a look at your website first. For hybrid churches, your website isn’t only the information center for your ministry, it’s a hub for building connections with people.

This actually applies to social media as well. There are some people that will use your social presence to vet your church before they engage with your website or walk through your front doors. So be sure you don't skip the step of evaluating the demographic of people in your community and updating every channel where they are likely to seek value from your church.

“Our church website should be a hub, a center for valuable resources. And if your website is not that in 2021, it is going to deter people from seeing that you will have a value in their life.”

- Aimee Cottle, Director of Marketing

If a livestream is central to your digital strategy, now is the perfect time to ask why that is.

It's no secret that COVID-19 pushed us to go online really fast. And livestreams were a great temporary fix, but when we think about hybrid churches specifically, a livestream can give your digital ministry the feeling that people watching are outsiders looking in. Instead, we recommend your digital ministry should prioritize specific content created or filmed for the digital format.

What you MUST have on a 2021 church website

Let's cover the obvious thing now:

In 2021, your church website needs to have an authentic picture of your physical experiences. This is not the most important thing for a Hybrid Church, but this is usually the first thing people think of so we wanted to mention it right away. It's valuable to capture what your physical ministry offers and, without shaming those who engage with your digital ministry, show people what they won’t want to miss out on!

Alright, now that we’ve acknowledged that, for a Hybrid Church, the most important things you need to have on your website are value-based resources and content that builds engagement. Those can be blog posts, videos, podcasts, or discussions.

Consider some of the following:

  • What are the topics that really matter to your audience?
  • What issues are impacting the community you are in? 
  • Are there any struggles or challenges that are common in your congregation?
  • If you have staff or volunteers that are passionate about a certain topic, start by having them partner with you to address those topics and track how much people engage and connect with it.
  • Engage your congregation online and ask them directly what topics they would like to know more about!

As you begin to think about what kinds of resources and content you need to have on your website, remember that the ultimate purpose of all this is to build connections. If you are unsure if you are creating the right content, start by asking yourself, “How does this connect people to our church and make them feel valued?”

“A website is just a website, unless it's combined with a strategy to reach people with the content and a strategy to build and nurture relationships with people.”

- Shayla Kenworthy, Partner & Director of Business Development

Taking the first step

Alright, are you ready to take the first step?  Pull out your phone (or a pen and paper if you are old school! 😉) and start looking through every page of your website. Keep track of the pages that are purely informational and pages that add immediate value to your audience. (If you're writing blogs, don't worry about counting those here!)

Once you’ve completed that, what’s the ratio of informational pages to immediate value pages?  If your informational pages were more than one out of every three pages (or more than 33%), you need to start shifting your website to be more value-driven!

  • Update your pages for authenticity - Update your copy, content, and photos if you need to!

  • Update your messaging to focus on your audience - Be sure you are sharing a specific message with a specific group of people. Add value everywhere you can!

  • Update your website to prioritize next steps - People should always know how to connect with you more and take the next step. Every page on your website should have a call to action.

We know this isn’t easy work, but it’s work that is well worth doing and you’ll see the fruit in people’s lives as they connect more with your ministry and more to Jesus.  If you are looking for examples of churches that have updated their websites well, we recommend checking out a few that we have worked with:

White Water Crossing

Grace Church

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We also covered this topic on a recent podcast episode. You can listen to the full episode here!

Up Next: Hybrid Church is Weekday Church. Are You Ready?