What host do you use? Where do you host your domain? Why?
Currently we use Wix for our website, but I find it rather clunky. fpcjindiana.org if you want to check it out and give me some helpful critiques. I have done a lot of clean-up over the past year and tried to make it more user friendly but it still has a lot of work to be done.
I’ve been looking into Faithlife (parent company of Logos software) this last week. They are reasonable hosting service ($20 per month) and also offer many easy to use tools that churches regularly use. (Announcements, special programs, online giving, sermon uploading) They also offer lots of advanced features (people management, check-ins, event-planning, a slack imitation of sorts).
Anyone else using or thinking of using Faithlife? Or, what other services exist that you can add on as you need?
Good questions… but you’re actually talking about a lot of different things. So let me start with the big picture.
The only thing I would recommend about your website is that it needs more pictures of smiling people. Getting those pictures can be tough, and you have to pick the right ones, but smiling people have a major emotional impact when you’re looking at a church website.
Otherwise, you’ve done a great job with your website. Really. You’re at a small church, and your website gets the job done. I wouldn’t invest much more time in it until you really need to.
I am predisposed to despise everything about Logos, so I will not make any comments about Faithlife except to say that what you’re talking about there is not simply your “church website”, but what is called a Church Management System (ChMS). There are a bazillion of them to choose from, and everyone has their favorite for this or that reason.
TRC here in Bloomington is using Planing Center. We have used Church Community Builder in the past. Other Evangel churches use Realm. And there may be others I’m not thinking about.
Anytime these companies are trying to sell you on their product, they throw in all kinds of things, and it’s difficult to sort through what you really need, ie. what will help you get back to pastoring the quickest.
We can talk more in person sometime, but, for starters, I would think you would want to focus on 1) a database for church members, visitors, etc, 2) a giving system that includes online giving (and you should get an idea of the fees and compare them to other companies), and 3) a system to communicate regularly with church members.
We should definitely talk. Having messed around with Faithlife today I think it might do us for now, without having to pay anything.
The reason I’m leaning towards them is out of convenience more than anything. Having several different systems and companies gets confusing. Especially for this guy. I don’t have a very administrative brain, so simple wins the day.
Hey Pastor Helt! First off I think your site is clean and it looks good. I agree with many of the things that Pastor Weeks spoke to about the functionality of the site. I think the biggest thing I can think of is that your site needs to be functional for your people and guests. As long as that is the case then I think you are good to go.
Hey there, Joe! We’ve used WordPress.com fort out housing for as long as I can remember. I’m happy with it, but I’ve used the software for more than a decade, so familiarity is key.
I recently installed a new template and I think it works pretty well for our congregation and for visitors.