This is a snippet from our latest white paper, "What Every Team Needs to Know About Building A Church Website." You can download the entire white paper here for free to learn everything you need to know about building a church website.

Building a website is a bigger and more complex undertaking than most people realize. No two project are the same just like no two organizations are the same. It takes time to think through the necessary website strategy, content, team and technology.

Maybe your church has done a construction project to your physical church building. If so, I imagine there was a budget, blueprints and trained contractors to oversee and lead the building process. Oh, and A LOT of planning.

Have you done the necessary planning to properly build your new church website?

Let’s do an exercise. Raise your hand if your church has clear ministry results you seek to achieve with a new website.

I mean it. Don’t just read along – really, raise your hand. This one’s easy. I’ll wait.

OK. Now, keep it raised if your church has a clear plan in place for the content that will achieve your ministry results.

Is it still up?

Now keep it raised if your content plan considers both internal (staff, faculty and key volunteers) and external (larger community, donors, etc.) communities.

I know your arm may be getting tired.

Keep your hand raised if you know your audience segments and understand their respective online critical paths.

Last question. Are you considering the future growth of your church and considering technology that will easily grow along with your church?

If your arm is still up, you probably already have an effective plan in place to accomplish a mission focused church website. Congrats – give yourself a fist pump!

Church Website Readiness Worksheet

Everyone else, we created this worksheet based on hundreds of projects to determine if your church is ready to build a church website.

For each category, select the appropriate number. If you strongly disagree, choose 1. If you strongly agree, choose 5. The numbers in between 1 and 5 correspond to your level of agreement, neutrality, or disagreement. Tally your score when you’re finished, and follow the instructions at the end.

To interpret your results, tally your score.

• If you scored > 35, you’re ready to build a church website and we’d love to help make your plans a reality.
• If you scored between 20 – 35, you’re moving in that direction. You should consider getting started with building a website very soon. We can help you through the process
• If you scored under (20), you may not be ready quite yet and should consider going through a strategy process. Regardless of your score, there’s good news: where you are now is exactly where you need to plan for the online tools that will help communicate your mission online.

If you'd like to download the complete worksheet to share with someone on your team, click here.

Happy planning! Our desire is to have your church build a website that achieves ministry results that matter.