Selecting the Right CMS for Your Church Website

Cut through the confusion of content management systems and find out exactly what features your church needs to easily manage its website.

74 min

Free to watch

What you'll learn

What a CMS is and why it matters for your church team
How to compare WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and church-specific platforms
Questions to ask before committing to any CMS
How easy updates and training affect long-term site health
When it makes sense to switch platforms

Notes

A content management system is what you log into to update your site; it is the foundation that shapes how well the site works.
The biggest complaint from pastors was a site that was hard to manage, outdated, and embarrassing to share.
First consideration: the skill level of whoever manages the site now and later, since people come and go.
Features to look for: sermons with audio and video, podcasting, live streaming, and a calendar with built-in event registration.
Also consider a church directory, social media scheduling and the ability to change designs without starting over.
Inline editing makes updates quick, and the harder something is to do, the less likely it gets done.
Avoid systems that rely on outside plugins that can break when something updates.
Signs of an easy CMS: no old events left up, a relaxed site admin, and a pastor confident sending people to the site.
Social media is not your website because you don't own it; your site is open around the clock as your first door.
Demo: add a weekly recurring event with a location, registration, live stream option and edit one occurrence only.

Companion article

Notes and resources that go with this session

CSL 005 – How do I Select a Content Management System for my Church Website? →

Transcript

Full transcript of this session

Isabelle Faletti (00:00:00):

Hello. Hello, welcome to ChurchSpring live episode zero zero five. We are so excited to have you here today. We are going to talk about the number one pain and frustration that pastors and church leaders experience with their church website. And yes, we will talk about what you can do about it. Don’t worry. We won’t just focus on the pain and frustration! When Rohn and Mike our co-founders of ChurchSpring founded ChurchSpring. They polled hundreds of church leaders and they found that church leaders and pastors, they were super frustrated with the church website because it had outdated content. They didn’t even know how to log in. It was just really difficult to edit their website. So today is personal and close to ChurchSpring and the heart of what we do here. So we will talk about how an easy content management system can save you so much time and stress when you were managing your church website. So hello, I’m Isabellele. I I’m on the customer success team and joining me today is Rohn Gibson cofounder at ChurchSpring.