Web Hosting and Web Design Solutions
for Churches and Ministries
Hi, I'm a Pastor, a freelance web designer (user interface architect to be exact), and a blogger who has a keen interest in helping churches and ministries establish their web presence. Why? Because in my own church ministry, about 70% of our first-time guests first found us online, or at least researched us on the web before attending.
A plethora of tools are available for churches to have a great church website, pastor's blog, etc., but sometimes the choices can be daunting. Exactly what is "web hosting?" And what's the difference between web design and web development? Isn't there some kind of template or turnkey system available to make it all easy?
The fact is, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to having a church website. Budget, target, time, and personnel all factor into the choices you have available. I'd like to use this little one-page website as a means of offering advice and help for churches who want to have their own website for the purpose of reaching out to their communities. So read on! And if you have questions, don't hesitate to shoot me an email.
Sincerely,
Brandon A. Cox
Church and Ministry Web Hosting Solutions
Unless your website is hosted by someone already, you're going to need a web hosting package. This is essentially your server space where your website files will reside. It's like a computer that you access remotely to store your website files. Your web hosting will usually offer your email solution and other tools as well. Most of the solutions I suggest using require at least shared hosting, which means that you share server space with other sites, but have an administrative panel all your own.
Below are links to web hosting packages that I recommend. I've used the services of most and am currently hosting some of my own sites with three of them. The thing to remember is that there are a ton of options out there, but not every company offers the same kind of reputation for uptime, service, and support. I'm confident about these three:
Web Design & Development Solutions
After selecting your web hosting package, you're going to need a design. Let me re-state that - you're going to need a good design. I say this because there are a lot of ugly church websites out there and we don't want you having one! It's possible that a template or pre-built theme may be a good fit for your budget, so if you have a decent handle on html or perhaps a language like php, I'd go that route if you're on a limited budget. I'd also encourage you to consider getting a fully custom solution. I've listed some providers of both below.
Custom Web Design Providers
Web Design Templates and CMS Theme Providers
Content Managment Systems for Churches & Ministries
A content management system is basically the engine that runs a web site, allowing dynamic content to be produced without actually creating each and every page. You match a nice-looking theme to the right content management system and you have an easy-to-maintain solution. I'm biased toward Wordpress as one of the best solutions for churches, but there are certainly other options as well, such as Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine. There are a multitude of others but if you're not familiar with the concept of CMS's, these may be deep enough waters already. Don't hesitate to reach out for help.
Web Design and Development Software
If you have a good knowledge of software, you may be interested in developing your own site from scratch. You can do this with any image editing program and any text editor, but there are a few software packages designed specifically for web and graphic design. I personally use Adobe's Dreamweaver and Fireworks for most of my development work. I've recommended a couple of packages below...
If you've reached the end of this page and you're still in need of help with a solution, just reach out and I'll help!
© 2009, Brandon Cox. This site designed and maintained by eGrace Creative.