Having an up-to-date church website is nonnegotiable in 2025, yet some churches are still hesitant to invest in their digital footprint and make sure their website reflects who they are and communicates what faith seekers need to know. Here are some things a church website can do that are necessary in today’s virtual world.

Keep People Informed

Whether a user is a prospective or current church member, they may have questions about your church. Having a church website gives users an easy way to find the answers they need by being a hub for all the information regarding your church. Make sure your church website is written and structured to answer users’ questions in a way that is clear, concise and accurate. This means making the most important information easily accessible and keeping it up to date.

Tell Your Church’s Story

Apart from having basic information, a church website is an opportunity to tell your church’s story and give users a sense of what your church is like before they even enter your doors. An easy way to do this is to share information such as your church’s history, mission, vision and values. However, the story of your church goes beyond just telling people what that story is. A website is an opportunity to also show your church’s story by sharing engaging photos, keeping an updated events section and making sure the language you use across your site feels the way you want your church to be perceived.

Facilitate Online Giving

A church website means you have an opportunity to link to or embed a virtual giving service so that people can give online. This opens up another avenue for people to give or tithe without the need to regularly bring checks or cash in person. It also allows church members to set up automatic recurring payments. Make sure that there is an easy-to-find giving button in the navigation of your website so that people immediately know where to go to contribute to your church’s mission and ministries.

Create a Worship Hub

After the pandemic lockdown, many churches have continued to offer virtual worship services as an alternative to in-person worship. A church website gives you a hub to link to wherever each of your worship videos are live-streamed or posted. We say “link” because it isn’t a good idea to upload your videos directly to your website and slow it down. Rather, churches should upload videos to a service such as YouTube or Vimeo and embed them on a central page on their site that acts as an organized repository.

Help People Find Your Church

According to a Pew Research Center study, 30% of U.S. adults say they go online to search for information about religion. In order for them to find your church, you need to meet them where they’re at. When people go on search engines and look for churches in their area, you want to show up, and having a website is the first step toward doing so. The next step is making sure your church website is optimized for search engines, which we have already written a guide to help you with.

Are you a United Church of Christ church, Association or Conference in need of a new website? The UCC Everywhere (UCCE) program is a state of the art website builder for church leaders within the UCC. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, churches get their own site along with other digital marketing tools and support to make sure their message is reaching faith-seekers in their community via the appropriate virtual channels.