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10 Stunning Church Websites You Should See

tutorialblog.org — While compiling various lists, something struck me - I kept noticing Religious and Church websites with really good standards compliant designs, something I wouldn’t have expected at first...

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  • andenario, on 10/12/2007, -105/+31As much as I am against religion those websites are damn clean and nice
    • kooft, on 10/12/2007, -5/+302I refuse to pass judgment on these websites, for my website may also be judged.
    • SqueakyWheel, on 10/12/2007, -47/+18Staggering Religious Phobic Statement
    • captinherb, on 10/12/2007, -36/+9judge not lest ye be judged
    • MikeMcG, on 10/12/2007, -34/+90Jesus Christ! Those are all damn nice.
    • bsolidgold, on 10/12/2007, -32/+22www.lds.org
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -37/+55They forgot The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
      http://www.venganza.org/
    • ChronicColonic, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28http://www.churchs.com/
    • jakebarnes, on 10/12/2007, -34/+20Being "against" religion is funny. I can only imagine that you are fun to be around.
    • gr8one, on 10/12/2007, -18/+115Good design is created, not evolved.
    • sloof70, on 10/12/2007, -16/+9Mars Hill! That's mine!

      Churches have always been on the cutting edge.
    • clockworkORANGE, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4@iamcitizen: actually they didnt forget it, that website wouldnt even make the list, its ugly.
    • RubeusEsclair, on 10/12/2007, -28/+7Digg is athiest. Marked as inaccurate.
    • newezra, on 10/12/2007, -6/+46[sarcasm]
      They forgot this gem - http://www.newbirth.org/
      [/sarcasm]
    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9I don't know why bsolidgold is being buried, that's a very well-designed and nice looking website.
    • MattZed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19@newezra

      with all that fast-paced blood pumping action who wouldn't want to go to church!
    • axiomata, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3beer + keyboard + "I refuse to pass judgment on these websites, for my website may also be judged" = not good
    • Koopa, on 10/12/2007, -5/+51All very intelligently designed websites.

      Har har =)
    • bsolidgold, on 10/12/2007, -5/+32@neuropsychguy

      I didn't submit it as a clickable link... http://www.lds.org/

      Maybe that will help :)
    • nunbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+36i wonder where sites go when they get dugg to death
    • sjm20k, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4eh, nothing stands out there really. great, you hired a web designer to make you a generic web 2.0 looking site that will probably get 10 hits a day. I'm getting kind of tired of the web 2.0 look. One person innovates, everyone else bites it until it's done to death.
    • wdfjxe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think it's pretty sweet that a lot of churches are becoming more contemporary in their designs.
      http://www.rockharbor.org http://www.oceaster.com
    • BryanUT, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Call me fair and balanced:

      www.exmormon.org
    • aluminumpork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3[newezra], wow, I couldn't stop watching that damn introduction. It's addicting!
    • mrfoos, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2"- I kept noticing Religious and Church websites with really good standards compliant designs, something I wouldn’t have expected at first..."

      Why not expect it? Religious people are always religious. Whether it's about supreme beings or relatively pointless web "standards". They believe in that which cannot be proven and act on faith.
    • themastersb, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5I expect most church sites to have only text and a couple of 256 colour images.
    • aussieNickuss, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I kept noticing US church sites come up on sites like cssmania etc all the time. In contrast, most church and community sites in Aus are usually made by the volunteers in Frontpage! Makes me feel a little backwards.
    • Sumyunguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2http://www.go2faith.com/
      http://www.harvest.org/
    • revenge7, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Hey, they forgot http://www.godhatesfags.com/

      /sarcasm

      Well, it IS stunning...
    • KSUdesigner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3They forgot:

      http://www.wayofthemaster.com/

      Hey, that's the guy from Growing Pains!
    • CthulhuDawn, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1What a waste of talent.
    • gr8one, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I could say the same thing about a person who's smart enough to use Digg, but feels the need to insult churches with nice websites......
    • crazyjeff0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Let the website that has no glitches cast the first bug report.

      Okay that joke is dead...
    • Gaki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0@ksudesign

      Yes, and Kirk claims to be able to debunk, permanently, the debate between Intelligent Design and Evolution without referring to the Bible or faith ... in less than three minutes. I hated seeing that clip on the site because I actually like that show back in the 80s. Seeing him as a Creationist really ruins my opinion of him.
    • Asianwaste, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"...and then God said, "Let there be site" and so there was, and it was good."
    • cathode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Church sites are often done by for free by a lot of designers who, because it's free, get tons more creative license. It's a sweet deal if the designer has the time to burn.
    • Snoz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1God 2.0?
    • DiggDawgg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ qaki -
      "Seeing [Kirk Cameron] as a Creationist really ruins my opinion of him."

      I find it interesting that people can feel so strongly against Kirk Cameron being a Christian and now "his show is ruined forever", yet crazy lunatics like Tom Cruise and John Travolta can be outspoken Scientologists without one ill-effect to their popularity. What's wrong with this picture?
      If Kirk Cameron is a born again Christian, that's great, you don't have to be (and maybe he's right). It doesn't mean his show sucks now (other than it's way old school).
  • keepclear, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28Not commenting on Religion at all - thats a big can of worms!
    Just appreciated the designs ...
    • artofwar420, on 10/12/2007, -25/+9Very awesome, you would think they'd be stuck in the past... with their designs.
    • cubbieco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8artofwar - what you are not realizing in some cases those churches could get good designers to donate the page. If you have enough members somebody is bound to be a good designer. The bigger churches probably have a web staff like business would.
    • FoxifiedNutjob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I know a guy that does great church sites. He also does very nice porn sites. He says porn and Church website design are two of his main gigs.
    • jls8705, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yes! Mars Hill was on there!

      For those of you that don't know:

      Rob Bell (the pastor and founder) has a book out call Velvet Elvis.

      Great GREAT stuff.

      If you want a different approach to Christianity - you'll find it in that book.

      http://www.zondervan.com/cultures/en-us/Product/ProductDetail.htm?QueryStringSite=Zondervan&ISBN=031026345X
    • Wogna, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Too bad that's not the Mars Hill Rob Bell preaches at...
  • amal3k, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5nice
  • xutopia, on 10/12/2007, -7/+30Never judge a book by it's cover... nice designs!
  • hitnrun09, on 10/12/2007, -17/+2"I'm hip. I'm cool."
    • Wiini, on 06/10/2008, -1/+1ahh ducka ducka ducka ducka ducka ahhhh ducka ducka ducka ducka ducka ducka ducka huuuh!
  • codyodell, on 10/12/2007, -63/+9It doesn't take much skill to buy a template.
    • kidtux, on 10/12/2007, -4/+53If that's true why do so many websites suck?
    • haqattaq, on 10/12/2007, -8/+32@kidtux

      not everyone can afford to buy one.
    • Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -8/+55It doesnt take much skill to be a troll ether
    • MikeMcG, on 10/12/2007, -10/+9It does take a lot of skill to be a good troll. Most trolls these days are just poserpants.
    • tippmann1, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4@ atomic1fire

      really? because whenever I try to get people to buy my really cheap v1agra no one seems to want to buy it. Could you help me out?
    • nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3there's a lot of really nice looking free ones. But if you want your website to be any good, you still have to know how to do a lot of stuff with them. Databases and all that good stuff.
    • dralezero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Someone has to be skilled to make nice templates to sell though.
    • watermelongunn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@Codyodell: That's like saying, "it doesn't take much skill to hire a web designer." You're right, it doesn't. We're everywhere. No one said the pastors were making these sites. And you obviously know nothing about web design. Templates don't come with content specific illustrations and photographs...
    • gr8one, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What's a template?
  • lu88ke, on 10/12/2007, -46/+3sweet websites, however, i can't help but thinking "gee, what a waste of time"
    • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -2/+68A waste of time? You're on Digg right now... :P
    • klawz, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7more like a waste of MONEY - you see the multi-million dollar pristine church (no capitol c so it's the building), and then after it's built you see them asking for donations to feed the hungry.
    • smallestmills, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@klawz
      Some people (or members of the church) will donate services to the church. Perhaps the only person who lost money on this was the designer who did the work for free. (S/he can probably write off his/her service as a donation.)
    • tony23, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1@klawz -

      Only at Christmas and Thanksgiving...
    • picklepete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Like the Edmunds First Baptist church on the list?

      "The biggest step in easing the space shortage came in November 1989 when the church voted to start construction on a 6.76 million dollar building complex."

      http://fbcedmond.org/history
  • carwasher24, on 10/12/2007, -29/+8What's equally as stunning is what they teach
  • ninephoenixes, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1in b4 bs
  • Neiby, on 10/12/2007, -17/+9Well, it's not like they don't have the money to pay for really good web design.
  • aldomatic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9those are some nice church designs
  • whalefarmerjohn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+55Haha there's so much rage in this thread it's hilarious. You might not agree with religion as a whole, but you can appreciate the graphic design. What's next, the Statue of David isn't appreciated because it's about a religious figure? Get a life guys.
  • uncle_jesse, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9http://www.duggmirror.com ?
  • miradastone, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3WOW a top 10 list, how ***** cool.
  • 7of7, on 10/12/2007, -16/+3Why is it surprising that religious organizations like to follow arbitrary rules? That's the whole basis of religious belief.
  • fabDisaster, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4PRAISE THE LORD!!!
  • tullj01, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12Glad to see Mars Hill Church in Seattle on there, I've been following the evolution of their website for the last few years, really a top notch site, and the amount of multimedia on there puts most other teaching organizations to shame. If churches wish to remain relevant they should follow some of these churches in adapting their messages to the way people receive information. Good Job.
    • codyfrisch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13It's fine to adapt the delivery of a message to the way people receive it, just as long as you don't go overboard on adapting the message to the people. The Message is what it is, its not something to go changing it to suit people, especially when its point is to change people. But I'm all for changing the presentation of the message within reason to reach people, as i said within reason.
    • MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I went to Mars Hill College in North Carolina. Small world!

      http://www.mhc.edu/
      • mt4055, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1No connection to Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
    • wakkow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@codyfrisch: Mars Hill is a member of the Acts 29 network of churches which takes correct interpretation of the Word seriously.
    • moffettman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Mark Driscoll does anything BUT change the message.
  • redavni, on 10/12/2007, -21/+3These all are templates, that are entirely to similarly marked up to be made by different people.

    The site probably some kind blogspam intended to get churches to buy this guys services/templates.

    I'm burying as spam.
    • forehand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23I worked on the Mars Hill site. All the html, css, javascript and xslt are from scratch. Can't speak to the other sites though.
  • thefoxtrot, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2www.rockharbor.org
  • dxmzan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20I am certain that each of these websites were slowly evolved through natural selection to become so stunning.
  • CurtHowland, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2I don't visit church websites, my system might get infected with the Virus of Faith.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_UI-EBGnqk

    But seriously, http://www.landoverbaptist.org/ seems pretty standard to me, as far as church web sites goes.
  • cmer, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4I never thought I'd ever digg something about church!
  • shibainu, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3watch out!

    here comes the atheist hackers.
  • shibainu, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3watch out!

    here comes the atheist hackers
  • Empyrean, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Whats the big deal? I work for a web developer, and about 15% of our clients are local churches who want an easy to use website. Going through the list in the article, I noticed at least one or two who had links in the footer to the development company that built the webpage...so...the point of all of this is? Churches can contract out someone to build a website too, just like the rest of the world? Who would've thought?
    • Moskie, on 10/23/2007, -14/+4I think this is mainly indicative of the amount of money churches have to blow on things like their web sites.

      Or maybe being W3C Compliant is what Jesus would do. Take your pick.
    • nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9no, the point is just that most people don't consider church "hip" enough to want cool looking websites, and this just kinda changes the perception of it. It's not about wasting all their extra money, it's about trying to get their message (which you might not agree with) to the largest possible audience, and they know the internet is now the way to do that.
    • stonewaljacksn, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4what losers. find an anti-church article to try out your stupid jokes. no respect whatsoever.
    • Moskie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6if you can't laugh at the notion of Jesus being pro-W3C-compliance, i think you need to lighten up a bit.
    • forehand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Some of them, like Mars Hills, were all built by unpaid members. Why drop cash when you have members who want to do it for free?
  • schenz74, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I have been known to volunteer time to churches and small local government organizations to be able to practice developing really good standard compliant sites.

    It is a win-win situation, I get good experience, and they get a free design. Most of the time they will also let me place a link to my site to generate extra leads as well.

    If you want to get experience with design, look at a local church as a lead.
    • jellomizer, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6Too bad a lot of people on Digg think Religion and churches are evil places, they miss out on a lot of real social networking.
  • jellomizer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+58Why would you be surprised?
    Religious people know how to use computers, They know how to be artistic, they have a larger then average volunteer base. Just because some (minority!) religions say they hate science it doesn't mean the bulk of religions wouldn't embrace new technologies and use their skills to make nice looking web sites? I Swear the general population of Digg vastly misunderstands religions, and only think religion is from those people who yell and scream that your are going to Hell, or knock on your door every day trying to convert you. Most religious people actually follow the principals of religion to make their lives and others better. If they have talent in web design they will make wonderful web site. Being Religious doesn't make you non-technological just as being an Atheist means that you immoral.
    • moffettman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21best comment on Digg in a long time
    • panicofficer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24I don't know why people are knocking on churches. Most churches today realize how important the internet is for communicating. I'm a graphic designer who has worked for churches like others that have posted. I'm also a Christian, so yes, Christians can be artistic just like people of other believes, non-beliefs, whatever. I'm sick of arrogant diggers knocking Christians.
    • kelly, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19For the record... Religion does not hate science. (I hate it when people make such bold false accusations.)

      They hate science that creates theories based on conjecture which is then sold as fact to the masses.
    • chrisbarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Thank you, as a digger, a Christian AND a web designer, it's nice to hear this from someone else on here.

      I love looking at church sites because I'll be redoing the one for my church in the near future. this page is certainly bookmarked.
    • FoxifiedNutjob, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2""Just because some (minority!) religions say they hate science it doesn't mean the bulk of religions wouldn't embrace new technologies and use their skills to make nice looking web sites?
      -------------------------
      Just like moderate Christians use technology to bomb other countries into their twisted idea of Democracy?

      Feel free to believe in whatever religion you want, but when those beliefs begin to turn into laws and campaign platforms, you've overstepped the boundary separating church from state.
      -------------------------
      ""I Swear the general population of Digg vastly misunderstands religions, and only think religion is from those people who yell and scream that your are going to Hell, or knock on your door every day trying to convert you. Most religious people actually follow the principals of religion to make their lives and others better. If they have talent in web design they will make wonderful web site.""
      -------------------------
      I would beg to argue that Atheists usually understand religion and the Bible better than most Christians do. I ask some moderate Christians to tell me things about their faith and they know absolutely nothing. See moderates, YOU are the problem. YOU are the ones who are ruining our country.

      A moderate Christian is just as likely to be divorced, absentee, or lecherous as the next guy, he likes to think of himself as a lover of home and hearth, a defender of decency, and the protector of his children. An moderate Christian's greatest dread is a future world where his or her children are wild and "pagan," having been lured from the faith by video games, hip-hop, and homosexuals. It's notable that the leading quasi-Christian radio network has the slogan "Safe for the Whole Family." One of the leading Christian retailers is "Family Christian Stores." The major Christian radio programs is "Focus on the Family." Spot a trend?

      Christian decry America's "moral decline" even while financing it. This contradiction is the most hypocritical yet. A moderate Christian will buy a family video with one hand and a porn video with the other. He or she will hand-wring over whether to give to charity, yet drive two thirsty SUVs. The secret of Christian leaders is to exploit the moderate Christian's sense of terror and guilt by offering information that promise to guard their children and strengthen their family while still providing the thrills and personal fulfillment Americans demand.

      Moderate Christians only believe, "Just in case".

      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • KMartSheriff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The internet (tech/news forums mostly) seems to hate religion, so this is a very refreshing post to read. Thank you.
  • VivaNOLA, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Thou shalt not shamelessly rip off the style of hipper websites in my name.
  • aeonoftime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I like this one too: http://www.lds.org
    • d4rthsid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The website has been redesigned recently and presents a very clean interface complete with ajaxy goodness! I'm surprised that this wasn't on the list.
  • munky100, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I especially like the river city church site (rccjax.com) - very Church 2.0!
    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The problem is that it looks likes someone's blog and doesn't look like a good website for an organization. A little too "Teen 2.0" for me (i.e., too informal for an organization).
  • Grub, on 10/12/2007, -3/+210 Stunning Church Websites You Should See but you can't do to the Digg effect
  • shibainu, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1wow.

    how rEvolutionAry
  • dralezero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14They look like emo band sites
  • HigherLogic, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I think the point here is that churches have more money to throw around than most people are willing to pay for a website. Typically with web design, clients are cheap bastards. Churches pool in hundreds of thousands of dollars, and with the not paying taxes an all, they can justify spending a couple grand on a website to get it done professionally.
    • jkoke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Every sentence you wrote is wrong, but the worst mistake is the idea that "a couple of grand" is a lot of money to spend on a professional Web site. As a professional Web designer, I can tell you that a couple of grand won't even get you a splash page.
    • lotsofish, on 04/16/2008, -0/+0I agree... but I don't think that any professional web designer I would use would ever think about creating a splash page...
  • thesixthdesign, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Well DUH. There's millions of kick-ass church websites out there.
  • RJZ797, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I thought this one was a Myspace Music page,
    http://www.kcrevolution.org/
  • rcktwnmad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1another really god one is http://www.journeyecclesia.com/
    • stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"another really god one is"

      Is that meant to be a pun?
  • dbarefoot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Is anybody else struck by the increased Christian and aetheist content on Digg in recent weeks? It's like a holy war is brewing.
    • popothebright, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Uh... that battle's been going on for quite a while now.
  • joeychips, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0It's nice to see some attention put on this topic, especially since in my spare time I do admin for the chicagoicc.org church site. I find this helpful.
  • stuntant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5From the re3volution site, 1st on the list.

    "We will worship with relevance- worship (link to worship page here) at revolution is sometimes exciting, sometimes touching, and usually thought-provoking...but it's always relevant to life in the 21st Century.

    Churches have money and pay people to create aesthetically pleasing sites for them. How ever leaving "(link to worship page here)" in your content is pretty sloppy.


  • jonesin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What's the scientology website look like?
  • hurricanefever, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://www.lifechurch.tv should be on there too!
  • TheVillain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0here's a church that has a site with both killer design AND content..
    www.cp-ministries.com
  • audible, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2our church website isn't so nice to standards, yet. we're working on it though. pastor rick's www.saddlebackfamily.com
    • garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1At first I thought that read, 'brokeback family'.
    • amosharper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i don't know - it's good
  • lxplicit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24God loves CSS. How do you think he seperated the Earth from the Sun?
    Earth {
    margin: 93,000,000 Miles;
    }
  • axiomata, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2They were inspired by the CSS of God.
  • garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Sorry, but almost all of those may look nice, but usability is thrown down the pooch with all the images and huge headers.
  • DrScott, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1R3V0LU710N!!1!
  • rebelxtnut, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4***** RELIGON
  • dkneppra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2A couple others which at least deserve honorable mention:

    http://www.marshill.org/

    http://xxxchurch.com/
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