Ekklesia 360

Providence Baptist Church Reorganizes Around Telling Stories and Increases Online Engagement

We love it when we get the chance to brag about how great our clients are doing. We’ve got the one year review stats for Providence Baptist Church (www.pray.org) and we couldn’t be prouder of them and the way their church website is performing. 

Their Goals:

Story Telling

Providence really wanted to tell better stories and help more people find the amazing stories they already have. They have a growing emphasis on video testimonies on their church website.

Missions

Providence has a very strong missional focus with people and groups they support around the world. They wanted to be able to share and get excited about that in new and meaningful ways.

Leadership

They were on a senior pastor search, as well. Their church website needed to provide a really solid home base for them during transition. 

The Providence Story At-A-Glance

Providence has been a growing and vibrant church since the very beginning. When we met them, they were coming out of a year-long web project. Their current plan lacked strategy and wasn’t truly making them happy. Now, after a year of working with us, they are completing their senior pastor search and their new website is, according them, “one of the most valuable things that we do.”

Their Results - The Providence Baptist Stats

Not only has Providence seen some great stories coming out of their new site (see below), their numeric growth is exciting, too! Take a look at how much more use these pages are getting just a year after their new site is live:

• Live Streaming is up 187%: that works out to more than 225 additional people each week. 
• Mobile site visits increased 82%: that’s more than 400 additional visitors each week.
• Small groups page views increased 68%: that works out to more than 50 a week.
• Visits to their Sermons page increased 45%: that’s more than 35 additional people each week.

The Solution - Ekklesia 360

We began working with Providence Baptist on their website when they were already mid-stream -- but they weren’t really headed where they wanted to be going. The Ekklesia 360 Strategy, Design, and Implementation teams stepped in and came to the rescue. 

Strategic Services

Providence Baptist went through the Ekklesia 360 Strategic Services process and we were able to really dig into some of these goals with them. We helped shape their new website and understand what kind of growth and maturity they were looking for. “It was very helpful. This was worth the time it took and it wasn’t a difficult process at all. There are a lot of really good questions asked. Ekklesia 360 Strategic Services actually made my job more fun because I understood what we were trying to do. It helped the entire leadership team as we rolled it out."

Custom Design Services

Providence has a long legacy that they didn’t want to ignore. But, they needed to freshen up their site and focus more visually on the Stories they were telling and the people they were serving. Now they have plenty of room for stories, graphics, and announcements. “I enjoyed the design process. Jenn did a great job. She was very helpful in guiding us through [how design and the technical end interact] to get the best product.”

CMS Website Services

As a result of our Strategy sessions with Providence, we provided a site map, custom design, artistic guidance, technical skills, and tons of features for the new pray.org. Our team was able to integrate with other tools Providence uses and keep communication open through all the steps of a web project. 

"Whatever we needed, Ekklesia 360 can do it."

Andrew Barnes, Communications Director
Providence Baptist Church

Their Success - Pray.org in Action

Our favorite story from the new pray.org, centers on a young lady who lived across the street from their church. Providence meets in the ballroom of a 30-year old hotel and doesn’t really look like a church from the outside. This woman got on the new site, checked out the new “Plan Your Visit” page, and, well, Andrew tells the rest of the story:

Andrew Barnes
Director of Communications

“So that next Sunday morning she came, she sat next to one of our members and they started talking. Long story short, the girl had just come back from her uncle’s funeral and was questioning life and all sorts of things. She came to the 9:20 service and by 12:30 she had given her life to Christ. It was cool to see the result of just making sure that your website is easily connecting people.”

As you can see from their stats, website usage has gone off the charts. Their website has become a true hub for Providence Baptist. It has become critical for them, as more and more of their congregation (and more and more new visitors!) heads to their website for answers and information. Andrew’s final thought: “I couldn’t imagine getting rid of the website by any means.”