If there was an award show for church websites, we’d be there, walking the red carpet in diamonds and fancy suits. We’re proud to be ministry partners with churches of all sizes, denominations, and locations––and when we look back on the year in websites, we can’t help but deem some of them “Best of Show.”
These 12 rockstar church websites have propelled their campuses onto the web in 2015 with the panache and excitement that is typically reserved for a Hollywood premier. So consider this as a moment in front of the paparazzi.
Contact Us, to learn more about how we can help your church have a fantastic website, too. The sooner you get started, the sooner we can get your site launched!
Why we love it: This was a fantastic update. They did a lot of work to pare down their content and present Woodbury in a fresher, truer way. This allows them to more easily (and more accurately) show the public who they are. Woodbury also has an easy-to-use invite template. And we love that you can post images directly to Facebook and Twitter.
Why we love it: I love that I can immediately imagine myself connecting with this church and finding ways to grow in its community. The homepage billboard design uses a strong, static call-to-action without additional rotating images that may distract me from joining a group. All the basics about the church meeting times and location are easy to find. The latest sermon video is right on the homepage instead of being a few clicks in. After a taste of the video, I’m more likely to try a Sunday gathering.
Why we love it: We created a custom campus menu (located at the top of the site) and a custom campus page. The key information is presented in an interesting way, and we were able to use photography to help create an environment. I feel like I get a glimpse of what it is like at First West just from the homepage. One of the surprising things about First West is their use of video. Each menu item also has a welcome from church leaders, which makes even the menus personable and inviting.
Theme used: Augustine
Why we love it: The River was very smart with their navigation organization. This theme’s menu shows all the primary and secondary items at one time, which makes navigating the site incredibly quick, as long as there is good organization. Their Gather, Grow, Go, and Resources content have great descriptors and simple content.
Theme used: Augustine
Why we love it: Red Stone is also one of the first sites to launch using our newest theme, Augustine. They’ve got some beautiful imagery in their subpage headers, and the short video in their homepage background makes us want to know more and find out which of those people we’d be friends with. Red Stone takes full advantage of the slide-in menu to the left to offer us plenty of categories and ways to contact them.
Theme used: Ten Boom
Why we love it: August Gate’s images and graphic design are beautiful, and they’ve chosen a really nice color scheme. Working with a theme allowed them to focus their energy in other places. They have links to nice Discipleship Guides and a link to bandcamp.com, where they have three music albums available.
Theme used: Wilberforce
Why we love it: Revision Church is launching both a new website and a new church this fall. We love the clean design, coherent color scheme, and beautiful graphics. They’ve also put a 60-second “What to Expect” video right in the homepage rotator. We hope their new launch goes smoothly!
Theme used: Nouwen
Why we love it: Presbyterian Church of Madison landed on a style that is classic without being either too edgy or too old-fashioned. They’ve got a great logo, clean design, engaging color scheme, and a really well-organized menu system. The “I’m New” page is great, and (even better!) it’s really easy to find!
Theme used: L’engle
Why we love it: Redeemer uses the hovering mega-menu built into L’Engle to organize a ton of information about ministries and services. We love their graphics, welcome video on the “New Here” page, and awesome color scheme. They also have an excellent and responsible use of bright yellow. Bonus: Redeemer is only about 5 blocks from where some of our staff live. We’re glad to be neighbors!
Theme used: Wilberforce
Why we love it: Woodridge uses compelling and interesting graphics to balance a very simple, nice use of the Wilberforce theme. Particularly noteworthy are the “New Here” page, the repeated menus (top and bottom in case you got distracted), and exciting photos throughout.
Theme used: Wycliff
Why we love it: The People’s Church website works in both halves of our brain. It’s got great photos of their church and a feel for what to expect, but it also has a lot of text right there on the homepage. They are both showing and describing what their church is like. Wyclif can be a tougher theme to customize, but they did a great job with their color scheme and graphics and the amount of information they were able to share.
Your church can look just as beautiful as these. We have a wide variety of e360 themes that you can use––check them out here to see which ones fit your ministry!