A short guide for pastors and church staff

Your website is the front door.

Most people who visit your church this year will look you up on a phone first. They will not call the office. They will not hunt through last year’s bulletin. They will give the homepage about thirty seconds.

Three questions a stranger is asking

1. When do you worship?

   The Sunday hour should be readable without scrolling, without opening a PDF, and without guessing which of two old “worship” pages is current.

2. Where are you, and which door do I use?

   Address, a map, and a plain note about parking or the entrance belong next to the time | not only in the footer.

3. What should I expect?

   A short Plan Your Visit path: how long the service is, how to dress, where children go, and that a guest is welcome to sit anywhere.

What this is not

It is not a request to look like a campus church. Historic, liturgical, rural, and small congregations need a clear door, not a megachurch template. The job of the homepage is the same job a roadside sign already knows: when, where, and you are welcome.

A five-minute check you can do today

1. Open your homepage on a phone, not a desktop.
2. Start a timer. Count until you can say the Sunday hour out loud.
3. If it takes more than a few seconds, a first-time guest has already left.
4. Look for Give. If it is the only clear button, the front door is facing the wrong way.
5. Look at events. If the next listed Sunday is last fall, the calendar is telling visitors you are closed.

What usually needs to move up

• Service times in text, not only in a picture of the bulletin.
• One Plan Your Visit link a stranger understands.
• Kids and parking in the first screen, not six menus down.
• A current next Sunday | even if it is “ordinary time, 10:30, as usual.”

If the site already does this

Leave it. A clear, kind homepage that a volunteer can update is doing its job. You do not need a redesign for its own sake.

If the times are buried, the visit path is missing, or the site has not been touched in years, I can review your needs and scope a guest-ready refresh or a new website. The homepage and visitor-page refresh is $450 after checking your platform. Beliefs stay in your words.

Ask about website help

Andrew Osborne · Church Tech Solutions · andrew@churchtechsolutions.com