It’s easy to use church websites for outreach. But, one of the biggest mistakes I see small churches make with their websites is believing “if …
There are about as many reasons to search for a new hosting provider as there are reasons to build a website. When the time came …
Who cares what you’re doing? Seriously. Who cares about the work you do maintaining your church website? Not long ago, I spent some devotional time …
In the United States, it’s nearly Summer. And, you know what that means: Vacation Bible School! If your small church is like many others, you’ll …
Learning to say No is hard. But, I’ve discovered that learning to say No, even to “good things,” is a good thing. In fact, it’s …
To boost security and help protect your website against attacks, one of the most important steps you can take is updating WordPress. WordPress 4.2.2 is …
WordPress Security Alert For Churches Anyone running a website on WordPress version 4.2 and earlier should be made aware of this problem, and must take …
I am SO excited to announce that Church Website Ideas has a new Facebook page! YAY! That Page has been a long time coming. I’d …
My Sponsors are absolutely heaven-sent! And I’m so grateful to them! They make Church Website Ideas possible because of their faithful, generous support. Travis Sinks …
The goal of every piece of church website content you produce should be clear, simple communication. And, there’s no better way to clearly and simply …
So, do I need a website for my church? That was the key question in an e-mail I received recently from one of my newsletter …
Want to get more website traffic free? One thing you can do to increase traffic is to optimize your website for search engines. But to …
I just love sticky websites, don’t you? Sticky content refers to content published on a website, which has the purpose of getting a user to …
I’m so grateful for my sponsors! Seriously. They make Church Website Ideas possible because of their faithful, generous support. And, I’m really stoked that two …
Not long ago, while updating a couple of my social media accounts, one of the services prompted me to get in touch with an old …
What thoughts come to mind when you hear the phrase “church website maintenance”? Church website maintenance is time-consuming If you’re a busy leader in a …
What is the purpose of a church website? Good question! I’ve read several articles on this topic around the Internet. At least a couple I’ve …
It’s year-end, goal setting time! If you’ve been brainstorming simple ways to make your website a more effective ministry tool during 2015, here are seven …
Successfully picking and combining colors to produce beautiful palettes for visual design projects is both an art and science. Color pickers and palette (or color …
As a member of His family, God is deeply concerned that my life produces spiritual fruit (John 15:16). But, how do I walk that out …
God is so gracious! He’s given me many gifts, skills, abilities, and talents. Bookkeeping isn’t one of them. That’s why I’m SO GRATEFUL for my …
The interwebs are full of discussions and advice about church tech. A lot of it is rock solid guidance, full of wisdom and value. Some …
Years ago—before God rescued me—I ran with a circle of fun-loving Puerto Ricans. We were employed at the same company, and worked the same crazy-late …
I’m so grateful for my Sponsors. They make Church Website Ideas possible because of their faithful, generous support. Unique, Christian-themed graphics, images, and media products …
Visiting a new church is stressful. It’s not easy to walk into a new, unfamiliar environment. Chances are, to alleviate some of the pressure, your …
Composing ministry descriptions that are both informative and inspiring to visitors of your church website is a bit of a balancing act. It’s also easier …
Church Website Ideas is made possible because of the faithful, generous support of my AWESOME sponsors. Unique, Christian-themed graphics, images, and media products, high-quality content …
Church website design and content creation is made so much easier with the right tools. It’s been awhile since a post was published here pointing …
Summer in the U.S. may be drawing to a close (oh, say it ain’t so!), but my sponsors are still AWESOME! Church Website Ideas is …
Building and maintaining a church website is time-consuming work. Accomplishing even small, simple tasks can be a huge challenge for the lone church Web worker …
Church Website Ideas is absolutely made possible because of the generous support of my sponsors. They are AWESOME! Their high quality products and services provide …
When was the last time you checked out your website’s design from your user’s point of view? You want your church website to be appealing …
![Church Website Ideas Made ChurchMag’s Top 30 Church Tech Blogs List [2014]](wp-content/uploads/strikingr/images/4296_3414262218_3c04ec5337_z-596x250.jpg)
JUMPIN’ FOR JOY! I just learned that Church Website Ideas made ChurchMag’s list of Top 30 Church Tech Blogs for 2014! ChurchMag’s Top Church Tech …
My sponsors are truly Heaven sent, and I sincerely thank God for them. Church Website Ideas is absolutely made possible because of their generous support. …
It’s possible you’ve heard of WordPress. It powers tens of millions of websites and is a popular solution for church websites. The WordPress project began …
I sincerely thank God for all of my sponsors! Church Website Ideas is absolutely made possible because of their generous support. Their high quality products …
My last post about youth ministry websites contains a roundup of expert advice to help youth pastors think through whether or not creating a website …
So excited! Another awesome month! During April, Lightstock became a “Double Portion” Sponsor! WooHoo! “Double Portion” Sponsors provide an added blessing to Church Website Ideas, …
Results from surveys conducted by Pew Research indicate that, as of September 2012, 95% of all U.S. teens ages 12-17 are now online. It makes …
Another awesome month! During March, I launched the Church Website Ideas newsletter, and welcomed one new sponsor. I’m also excited, because a new sponsor I …
Is your church website ready for Easter? The Easter season is just around the corner. When people begin thinking about where they’ll attend services on …
I really enjoy being a creative Web worker. But, sometimes, the work can be as tough as nails. On the one hand, I just love …
Super stoked this month! Three new sponsors joined me during February to support the work here at Church Website Ideas. Woohoo! I thank God for …
Years ago, as the Media Ministry leader for a local small church, I discovered free worship loops for Easyworship. What a refreshing change they were …
In my last post, Choosing An Online Giving Solution For Your Church Website (Part 1), I presented an overview of what you can expect as …
I thank God for my sponsors! Church Website Ideas is made possible because of their generous support. Their church website solutions offer high quality and …
Choosing an online giving solution for your church website should be pretty painless, right? Well, as I’ve been researching the idea of proposing online giving …
Offering the convenience of online giving is one practical way we can use our church website to care for God’s family (Galatians 6:10). I began …
Image Credit: My personal thanks to Drew Goodmanson of Monk Development for the beautiful holiday graphic. Merry Christmas from Church Website Ideas! Church Website Ideas …
Is online giving for churches spiritually profitable? Can it be? I think so. In my last post, I talked about how some churches communicate the …
I used to be horrible at saving money. But several years ago, God used a particularly difficult season (financially and spiritually) to help me get …
I just love this image. Basically, the illustrator drew the characters “signing” (American Sign Language) the words Thank You. The image credit is at the …
WordPress 3.8 is scheduled for release on December 12th. YAY! WordPress 3.7, released about a month ago, was all about functional improvements. We saw plenty …
I’m in the home stretch finishing up site transition tasks. YAY! I’m so ready to begin creating content. But, I just couldn’t go one more …
If you follow @jesseorndorff in the Twitter-sphere, you may have seen a tweet or two at the beginning of July this year, indicating that the …
We live in a busy world. Endless amounts of data are being presented to us, and all of them are fighting for a small piece …
I am starting a new, hopefully weekly, feature were I review various church website services and offerings. This week I wanted to take a look …
Everyone who writes code does it a little differently. Sometimes we get lazy, or we don’t know any better, or there isn’t a clear standard. …
Proverbs is a wealth of wisdom, because of this, my wife and I love to read a chapter before bed. As creative people, God has …
I am writing a series of posts about setting goals for your church website. I’ve talked about goal setting before. In this post I want …
The Old & New Project launched last week and it is an amazing showcase of illustrations from the bible. The Old & New Project features …
I am running a test. Something that might drastically change how a user interacts with Church Website Ideas. Last night I decided to remove the …
I love WordPress. When done right, using WordPress for your church website is a great choice for a CMS. Unfortunately, there are not a lot …
From time to time I post random things from my life in a effort to possibly help encourage people. I want to share part of …
It seems like responsive web design is here to stay. I recently started designing and developing my new projects around the responsive web design methodology. …
Life can be crazy, it can be busy, it can be hard, but if you are following what God has called you to do, you …
What are you afraid of? You’re afraid. Getting more done would mean exposing yourself to considerable risk, to crossing bridges, to putting things into the …
Creative Bible Verse is a feature that explores the bible and what the Word has to say about creativity and our relationship with God. For …
Original Server Photo by: Tom Raftery via Flickr For some of us, paying a hosting service is worth the monthly cost. Being able to hand …
Well, I suck. It took me FOREVER to pick out a winner for the Dribbble contest! Thank you to everyone who entered! I am happy …
Enjoy the long weekend with your family & friends!
Dribbble is one of my favorite sites! It is a huge invite only site for designers to share what they are working on, and I …
Creative Bible Verse is a feature that explores the bible and what the Word has to say about creativity and our relationship with God. and …
It’s coming up on the holiday season, and it’s time to start thinking about gifts for family and friends. It might also be time to …
A great way to learn how to design is to look at other designers PSD files. I spend a lot of time breaking apart other …
I often get asked, what type of blogs do I follow? As part of my effort to stay in touch while living outside of the …
Creative people have a bad reputation. We have a perception that we are unorganized messes. The problem with this idea, is that being creative takes …
Creative Bible Verse is a new feature that explores the bible and what the Word has to say about creativity and our relationship with God. …
Make your church website better. That’s the battle cry I have been trying to shout for the last few years. It’s the reason I started …
I have no words.
With the ebb and flow of life, I have to remind myself to slow down. To be intentional. To focus on what is important and …
I found this website this week and thought it was a great example of a focused church website. Irving Bible Church’s website features a large …
It’s official. Adobe has bought one of my favorite startups – TypeKit. TypeKit is a service that allows you to legally embed web fonts on …
If you have have been a visitor here over the last few years, you know that I change the design randomly to appeal to my …
Drop what you are doing and check out David Fokos. He’s been my favorite photographer for years and his minimalistic photography will mess with your …
I have to make a confession. I hate Twitter. Hate is such a strong word, but Twitter is a blackhole, sucking the life out of …
What is driving your actions today? When we love something, emotion often drives our actions. This is the gift and the challenge entrepreneurs face every …
So Google+ is really cool. But it’s still in beta and you have to be a cool kid in order to get an invite. Well, …
Ok. It’s been well over a month since I have posted anything. It would be an understatement to say that life has been crazy, it …
Most churches are just starting to get their presence built on Facebook. Getting your Facebook fan page is the first step. This short tutorial will …
First, you need to find a great image. This starts by identifying what message you want to convey. An image the matches in tones, and …
Image Credit: mnsc @fickr The internet is always changing, it is always adapting, and it is always has something new to offer. The concept of …
Free stuff is awesome! If you are a designer, you will love having this nice and simple 16px icon set laying around. PSD is included …
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love Apple products. I especially love my iPhone 3GS. But iOS doesn’t have all the features I want, …
Last week I was notified from our advertising network, Beacon Ads, that Church Website Ideas was featured in an advertising bundle focusing on the creative …
Each week we highlight cool things we found on the internet. We spend way too much time looking at blogs and archiving websites in our …
What is your tipping point? “Often times a single act of courage, is the tipping point for something extraordinary.” – Andy Stanley
I chat with web design clients all the time about their website projects. We talk about website goals, budgets, features, competitors, and technology. Looking back …
This site is my new favorite. I am always looking for nice, clean, high quality patterns for my designs. Subtle Patterns gives you the ability …
I save just about every helpful web article I come across. At the end of the week, I would like to share the coolest ones …
Since launching this blog I have had the chance to meet some great people and very interesting companies. Once again I want to highlight our …
So I have no connection to Bundle Hunt, but whenever I see a pack like this for sale, I jump on it. The great thing …
Are you trying to make a change? Will you accept the responsibility without anything else? “Change is made by people who eagerly accept responsibility without …
I always enjoy when people share the tools they use everyday to do their jobs. Today I am sharing with you a few of my …
I have previously blogged about pastors being really bad at updating their blogs. Blogging is hard work, takes time, resources, and patience. Recently a client …
What are you passionate about? “When people are passionate about what they do, they are far more effective in what they do.” – T.D. Jakes
This is our first in a series of content management system previews. Church Website Ideas is taking time to highlight content management systems that we …
Happy Easter from Church Website Ideas! I am praying that today people will come to your church and experience the joy of the God who …
Twitter is a big deal to some people that attend your church. I have believe that we should use as many platforms as possible to …
One of the hardest battles for small to mid-size churches is how to get their sermons online. The benefits of adding your sermons to your …
I’ll be honest, I really hate meetings. I never really knew why I hated meetings until I read Re:Work from the fine folks at 37signals. …
I love finding new fonts. I wanted to share with you five recent fonts I have come across that I am loving to use in …
I ran across another social community building application for your church. The Table Project is a very interesting and free application that will allow you …
Let’s be honest, you haven’t given any thought to making your church website mobile friendly. With smartphones everywhere in the US, as web designers we …
I am a big fan of clean and simple websites. I also believe that your contact forms should also be simple and easy to use. …
At Church Website Ideas, this blog is supported by our advertisers and we love them for supporting our mission for helping kill ugly church websites. …
Getting people to your church can be hard work. You would be surprised how many church websites I see without a directions/location page! But even …
I have made a few changes to Church Website Ideas today. First is the new design, which really was pushed by our move to the …
Ok, I am still here and still focusing on church websites. I wanted to start off this new year by laying down my predictions for …
Adobe’s Flash technology has recently come under much debate in the design community. One one side of the debate, the strong willed Flash designers and …
Facebook is where you church is at. Most people at your church use their Facebook account just about as much as they use email. So …
Well, this has been a slow week for posts, but I have one piece of news that I want to share with you. We are …
This was just too good. Had to share it. Source: Web Designers vs. Web Developers
Website Ideas is a new series that features quick tips on how to better improve your church website. Personalize your church website by featuring your …
Developing your church website on WordPress is a great solution for most churches. It’s free, there are thousands of great themes, and you can extend …
I am big fan of Seth Godin. If you don’t know who Seth Godin is, you can visit his site here. Seth Godin is a …
Taking on a new design project is exciting, I love feeling God’s inspiration, working hard, and delivering a great design project. But with each new …
I want to introduce you to Westwood Christian Assembly in Seattle, WA. Westwood is your typical mid-size church located in a urban community. Westwood has …
I love blogs. I love finding great content to read on a daily basis. Today I wanted to share a few links from my Google …
I heard an interesting sermon last Sunday at my church about inspiration. It made me think, where do we reach for inspiration. The christian answer …
I have been extremely busy the last few months. I am a full time flash designer and developer, I run a freelance business, and I …
Yep, I said it. I think pastors and churches are cheap. Now, I am not saying all are, I know there are some churches that …
Recently we posted a list of top content management systems for churches and ministries. While all of these systems are great for building your website …
This week was a slow posting week for Church Website Ideas, we have been undergoing a few changes and unfortunately I didn’t have the time …
“This will change how I work!” That is what I told myself anyway. When I saw the Apple announcement for the iPad, I started to …
Make no mistake about it, some of the largest companies in the world are technology companies. Right now some of the most innovative, lifestyle changing …
As a church you have special needs when it comes to marketing. It has to have a large reach, have impact, generate a response, be …
Today I am doing something different. I wanted to share my heart, my passion, challenge you, and I want to pray for you. We all …
As a web designer, developer, or church staff member, you have to update your church website. Usually it is a small change, updating an event, …
One of the most powerful words in the English language is my least favorite word: No. I am someone that likes to hear the word, …
Once again the Internet is at a turning point, with HTML 5 moving to web standards, everyone is on Facebook, and for the first time …
This is more of a rant post than anything. Being the website guy/girl at your church often you get asked to do a variety of …
Summer is over, well at least in the Northwest it is. So time to retreat to our offices and get back to work! Today I …
After our last post about setting goals for your church website, we felt it was important to highlight a few tools pastors can use to …
Goal setting, whether it is for your job, or your website can be a difficult task. Often I find myself forgetting to set goals for …
Your church website is likely the first place most people will visit long before stepping through your church doors. But today, most church websites read …
I am always on the look out for great church websites. We have highlighted some of our favorites on our Top Church Websites of 2010 …
We are all fans of free fonts. I bookmark every free font I come across and today I want to share some of them with …
This post discusses one of the primary issues concerning online giving for churches. A pastor I know is looking into adding online giving to his …
CSS is the style guide for all websites, it tells the browser what the page should look like. Today I share with you 22 resources …
Studio Press is a WordPress template company that has over 20 different WordPress themes that are ready for your WordPress site. StudioPress is also one …
I wanted to share with you 7 links I was challenged to post. I looked back at all my previous posts to share with you …
We have all been there, upset, angry, and really, downright pissed off. It happens for all sorts of reasons, missed deadlines, unreasonable requests, endless after …
PSD to HTML conversion services are nothing new to the industry, but if you enjoy design more than coding or if you don’t have the …
Talk to most church website compaines and they will tell you that your pastors should be blogging. That it will connect your congregation with your …
Planning church events can be time consuming and overwhelming. Today we bring you 8 tools that will help you manage your next church event, party …
This is a follow up to one of our most popular blog posts, 21 Free Video Loops For Churches. As some have pointed out in …
I spend hours everyday finding great resources, images, galleries, and code to share. Each week I want to share with you some of my favorite resources I …
There has been a lot of news recently about HTML5 and the use of video. Apple is endorsing a codec (a way of encoding video) called h.264, but with any new technology it is important to understand the licensing issues involved and to make sure your church is not breaking any type of licensing requirements. After the break I will walk you h.264 and what to expect if you are posting videos to your church website.
This morning I emailed Steve Jobs. My full time job is designing and developing flash ads and I wanted to make sure that I am …
I bought an iPad this weekend. I had to wait 2 hours in line. Would I wait in line for two hours to get in …
Everyday, I try to bring you a free item to use for your website, in your church, or for any project you might have! Today …
After nearly a decade of rumors Apple finally unveiled the much hyped Apple Tablet, the iPad. While this device could never live up to the mass hype that internet has built over the last decade, most people seem to be disappointed in Apple’s latest gadget. Not me. I see a tool that can help pastors and the church. After the break I outline few a reasons why this device will help you.
Churches have always have a hard time fighting the persona of being slow to adopt new trends. In web design churches have made up a lot of ground. I am very happy to see that a lot of churches are putting emphasis on their church websites!
A friend of mine recently introduced me to CreativeMYK, a site dedicated to providing church designers free resources for their designs. The idea is simple, create an account, provide some of your stuff to share and network with other designers. The site is very cool and provides a ton a resources for designers new and old.
“I just don’t think our church is using our website.” It’s an issue I hear all the time. The truth is that this has very little to do with your website design. It really has to do you and how your church utilizes your website.
Everyday I am bringing you my lastest finds from around the ‘net. Today comes a free fully functional website from Forest Theme! Check out the …
Everyday I am bringing you my latest free find of the day! Today is a very cool HD After Effects video source file from the …
Today I wanted to share with you a small collection of free mobile apps for your smart phone. I love gadgets and I love being …
Well all love free! So in honor of free, everyday I am adding a free resource for you to use on your website or something …
Today I am going to start sharing with you all a free item of the day. What type of item? Depends! It can be a …
The most common question I get when talking to pastors and church website staff is: “How can I get my church to show up on …
Two weeks ago we shared 21 free video loops for churches. Well, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. This list includes …
We all need a little inspiration from time to time. Today I share with you 22 websites you can use that will inspire your next …
It can be difficult if you are tossed into updating your church website and have no idea what you are doing. I want to provide …
I am going to start sharing with you all more from my Google reader. I currently have 67 christian blogs the I subscribe to. These …
Video can provide a wonderful dimension to a worship service, it can serve as a great tool for intro for sermon series, and can provide …
A lot of the questions I have received over the last few weeks have been in regards to podcasting. Podcasting is a great tool we …
Last November Zondervan bought a community building platform from Mars Hill Church, named simply, The City. Zondervan has now re-launched The City out to the …
It has been awhile since our list real update, so now that things have calmed down over at Simple Church Marketing, we will be getting …
I wanted to take time today to share wit you some images in honor of memorial day. Often it is easy for me just to …
This is the last of the online application posts for awhile, I think. Today we look at file storage and email marketing apps. Churches should …
Yesterday I shared Top Chart, Diagram, and Whiteboard Tools for Pastors. Today we look at the top applications for collaboration with your team! Managing your …
Yesterday we covered online calender and scheduling tools for pastors. Today we move on to online chart, diagram, and whiteboard tools for pastors. Each of …
I wanted to take time this week to organize my thoughts about what the overall vision is for Church Website Ideas. To be honest, I …
This week I am going to share with you online tools that pastors should be using. Today is part one: Appointments and Calendars. I have …
I love blogs! I love that all the content I want is sent to me so I can read it on my time. I enjoy …
Happy April Fool’s Day! Instead of the typical jokes, fake news articles, or photoshoped images I am happy to share with you some Spring images …
This week we are reviewing the bottom three reasons to use Google Docs. G-Docs (that is what we call it in the hood) is an online service that allows you to manage documents online.
A lot of companies have really embraced the Web 2.o movement and the church can make use of a lot of the applications available online. …
It’s all about Joomla today! Joomla is a free, open source Content Management System that is used to power a ton of websites. It has …
Today we wanted to take a look through Outreach Magazines 100 Fastest Growing Churches and see what those churches were up to online. We were …
Yesterday we shared with you 45 Twitter App For Your Church, today we are going to share with you 21 Facebook Apps for Your Church! …
Today we share with you 45 Twitter apps that churches can benefit from! Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users …
Here are the top three reasons that Google Docs will help your ministry team get the word out to your church. None of these ideas …
MySpace has been around for six years now, it’s not going anywhere. I still talk to churches that are not sure if they want to …
We are always looking for new icons. We are happy to share with you over 200 icons that you can use for your design projects …
I love photography. I am always looking for new inspiration when it comes to designing websites. Exploring other mediums of art and design give us …
This is a follow up article to “Make Your Website Better“. I wanted to take a chance over the next few days to dive deeper …
This was a post I originally made on my business website simplechurchmarketing.com. The idea was to get some basic information to pastors to help them …