Best Church Web Design Gallery - Top 85 Sites
Church Relevance’s list of the top church websites has now grown to 85 sites. And by far, it is the best church web design gallery I’ve created yet. As a designer, it is thrilling to see more and more churches recognizing the importance of quality design and launching great websites.
Ten new church websites have been added to the list. Here they are in alphabetical order:
Edgepoint Church (Powell, TN)
Igreja Batista Missionaria (Ipatinga, Brazil)
James River Assembly (Ozark, MO)
New Life Church (Conway, AR)
North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA)
Now using the same design as their Buckhead campus launched earlier this year.
Planetshakers City Church (Melbourne, Australia)
The Church at South Las Vegas (Henderson, NV)
The Embassy of the Kingdom of God (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada)
Watermark Church (Grand Haven, MI)
Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL)
For more great examples of church web design, check out the complete list of the Top 85 Church Websites.
For Discussion:
- What are your favorite church websites and why?
Greg Simmons Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 7:21 am
Wow. Great sites. Makes smaller churches like mine quite envious at times (I know, I’ll pray about that in a little bit!) of the resources available to larger churches.
But, we have to remember, our message is the same.
Kent Shaffer Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 7:35 am
@Greg
Actually there are a good number of smaller churches on the list. That is the great thing about church websites. You don’t have to be a gigachurch to have a great design. In fact, I’ve seen some church plants launch some incredible websites.
stockbridge consultants Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 7:56 am
theres lots of beautiful designs, i love all the design, church web sites has there own art and thats a great thing
Greg Simmons Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 9:06 am
@Kent I stand (or sit, actually) corrected.
I guess in our case, it’s just a lack of available talent and funding. I volunteered or was volunteered to maintain the site. I have minimal web skills - check my blog or our church site http://www.rrbc.org to confirm that. Since we don’t have access to any affordable (read: free) true web talent, we’re using the templated sites available from LifewayLink.
Also, I guess it doesn’t help too much that it’s all being maintained by a volunteer.
Brad Zimmerman Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Thanks for adding us tot he list! The iammarked.com has a sister site, wearemarked.com be sure to check that one out. The iammarked.com site is just a front door for people. Also we are a church plant(5 years in) and are pretty small, so size doesn’t matter when it comes to the web!
Josh Willaford Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
If I have to identify my favorite I would have to say northpoint.org. The reason I like it is because it is so good at getting people the information they need. They don’t expect the user to know how to navigate their information (though they give them the freedom to do so if they wish).
This is a great list of sites. It really opens up the creativity for what we can do.
neil Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 11:54 pm
Thanks for adding us to the list. The overall idea of the site for New Life Church was to be as simple as possible without the clutter that can sometimes be overwhelming.
Props to the boys at S8e8.com for coming up with the design and the amazing engine that makes that baby run.
Marco - CHOG Bremen Said,
May 22, 2008 @ 3:16 pm
I love webdesign and love to see people working well on church-websites for GODs sake! Be real, be update, be a bridge!
volunteer at CHOG-Bremen, Germany
Nick Mattiuzzo Said,
May 23, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
Hey I’ll have to tell Ben Bennit at James River Assembly that his work made your list. He’s a great Web Designer.
Ken Sear Said,
May 24, 2008 @ 10:14 am
All right, a friend of mine sends me this link for “the top 85 church links”. I go to the site and, well, Where are they? I mean the top 85. I’ve never been to your site before, and it is obviously self serving, and that’s OK, but come on give all the sites or the links, and let me decide! So, where’s the gallery? You got a link? You got a button? Who are you trying to reach with this fluff? Well now, please forgive me! So I hope you see my frustration.
Kent Shaffer Said,
May 24, 2008 @ 11:35 am
@Ken
Thanks for stopping by. The full list is hyperlinked to twice in the above article. This is common formatting for blogs.
However, if this is still confusing, the long url for the list is:
http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-75-church-websites
For future reference, often the text that appears in bold is hyperlinked to additional information.
Aaron Said,
June 1, 2008 @ 7:18 am
Hey found this while checking out my site’s referrals - awesome to see Planetshakers make this list!
For anyone who’s interested, our site was developed completely in-house and is maintained almost entirely by volunteers. I guess that just shows you don’t need a huge budget to build a quality site!
Jonathan Longnecker Said,
June 4, 2008 @ 11:34 am
Hey guys, Thanks so much for listing EdgePoint!
I’ll second the notion that churches don’t have to be big to have a nice site. We’re only about 15 right now as we just started. I guess it helps that I design websites for a living, though.
I promise I’m not trying to link build, but we did just do a blog post on helping non-profits get more out of their websites; thought it might be relevant here.
http://fortysevenmedia.com/blog/archives/a_non_profits_guide_to_websites/
ANoah Said,
June 11, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
I’m a little biased, but I love our church website… and it looks very different from what is commonly seen in the church world!
ANoah Said,
June 11, 2008 @ 6:25 pm
Sorry… Didn’t finish my previous comment… The website is http://www.dublinvcc.org... Valley Christian Center in Dublin, CA
Logan Duarte Said,
June 18, 2008 @ 3:11 am
This is a great web design. It is the young adults group from Crossroads Church in Corona California. Generatelife.com
Darryl Darwent Said,
September 13, 2008 @ 9:01 am
Last January our church went from messy html to a content-managed system. It has some limitations like not being very dynamic and you cannot post a lot of images, but its strength is that its compact and well organized. It is also easy to operate. Right now I am the webmaster, but should I leave it wouldn’t take my replacement too long to adapt and continue its operation.
We have also taken the approach that the look of the site is the basis of our brand, and is now reflected through our street sign and publications.
Josh Said,
October 1, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
Hey,
some great sites there HOWEVER Planetshakers City Church is NOT in Surry Hills, Sydney Australia but in Melbourne Australia. Different Cities
Anyway, love the sites
4 Life,
Josh
LifeCity Church Canberra
http://www.lifecitychurch.com
Kent Shaffer Said,
October 6, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
@Josh
Thanks! I’ll update it.
Matthew Dykstra Said,
October 11, 2008 @ 11:30 am
Hey,
thanks for adding my church “The Embassy” in Oshawa to the list of top websites.. I was really impressed with the site when I first saw it. I do the sermon section and just love it. If you are ever doing a list of church ministry sub sites check out http://www.embassyonline.ca this was an amazing redesign (our 3rd) and the first under our Young Adults New Name.
Brian Said,
November 8, 2008 @ 8:42 pm
These are some awesome websites. But what about baby churches? For years now my heart has been with churchplants. I have helped start 2 churches in the Boston area and baby churches just dont have the money or the talent to produce and maintain something like these. Bridge Element http://www.BridgeElement.com is a new web design company that has amazing flash websites for churches and best thing is they have a content management system that allows you to update the entire website yourself!!!
Check it out and tell me what you think
Kent Shaffer Said,
November 8, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
@Brian
Please read the comments, particularly before posting an absolute statement like “baby churches just dont have the money or the talent to produce and maintain something like these.”
As I stated in the second comment-
***Actually there are a good number of smaller churches on the list. That is the great thing about church websites. You don’t have to be a gigachurch to have a great design. In fact, I’ve seen some church plants launch some incredible websites.***
Thanks for letting us know about your new web design company. As a word of advice, try to tone down the hype and please read the comments and familiarize yourself with the post before commenting.