Faithlife Blog

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Introducing Faithlife Sites: Church Websites That Run Themselves

When you entered the ministry, you probably didn’t dream of sitting at your computer tinkering with your church website.

And now you don’t have to.  

Faithlife Sites frees you to focus on what matters most by giving you a church website that runs itself.  

Plus, it’s free.

Set it, forget it, and get back to ministry

Faithlife Sites takes the work you and your staff already do every week—like keeping a calendar, creating announcements, or uploading a sermon—and uses it to automatically populate your church website.

You can get your site up and running in minutes and leave the updating to us.

When you send newsletters, create events, or post sermons through your Faithlife church group, all that information shows up on your website instantly. You never have to worry about conflicting or out-of-date information on your site, because Faithlife keeps everything in sync automatically.

And if you already use Faithlife tools like Proclaim and Faithlife Sermons, your work is even more effortless.

Now when someone asks, “Who runs your church website?” you can truly answer, “No one.”

Engage your community

Your church website is the front door of your church. When families are searching for a new church home, they start online. When they hit your homepage, you want to be sure you’re putting your best foot forward—accurately representing the heart and mission of your ministry.

You also want to be sure everything is clear and up to date.

Visitors will easily find:

  • Service times and locations, including maps and text directions
  • About us pages—such as staff, beliefs, mission & vision, and special ministries
  • Links to sermons, study guides, curriculum, and more
  • Your church calendar and newsletters
  • A prominent link to online giving
  • And more

Plus, Faithlife Sites offers members-only pages, revealing custom content to anyone in your church’s Faithlife group. That way sensitive information—like your church directory—isn’t exposed to the the whole internet, but is still easy to find for those in your church.  

All of this helps bring more people into your church family, and bring your church family closer together.

No more waiting on the tech guy

Why rely on one tech-savvy person to make changes to your church website? If you or your staff need to change something, you should be able to do so immediately.  

With Faithlife Sites, you can. You can grant anyone admin access, and no one needs to know any coding.

Simply update the relevant information in your Faithlife.com church group—such as event details or a new small group discussion PDF—and it will show up instantly on your website, beautifully designed and ready to go.

All your information lives in one central, easy-to-navigate place.

If you can type, you can have a website.

Get started with a free church website now.

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Why People Return to Church

The US Congregational Life Survey shed some light on why people visit a new church, and why they return after their initial visit. Four questions from the survey stood out:

How people find out about a church

  • 49%: Someone invited them
  • 23%: They passed by the church
  • 9%: They’re looking for a specific denomination
  • 6%: They saw advertising

Why people make a return visit

  • 55%: Friendliness of people
  • 34%: Sermon quality
  • 30%: Overall worship experience

How churches follow up after the first visit

  • 24%: No follow-up
  • 20%: Letter or postcard from the pastor
  • 18%: Call from a church member
  • 13%: Call from the pastor

How churches attract new people (growing vs. established churches)

  • 72% vs. 43%: Call visitors
  • 85% vs. 72%: Use email
  • 50% vs. 31%: Visit visitors
  • 70% vs. 71%: Church website

 Observations

  • Denominations aren’t the most significant factor. Only 9% of visitors heard about a church because of its denomination, compared to 49% who became aware because of a specific invitation.
  • Personal invitations are more important than flashy advertising. 49% knew of a church vs. 6% knowing based on advertising—that’s a huge margin.
  • Children’s programming didn’t rank high for return visits. General friendliness gets credit for 55% of return visits.
  • Nearly a quarter of visitors never receive any kind of follow-up.Visitors should feel welcomed and valued when attending a new church, and following up is an easy way to acknowledge that.
  • Phone calls are effective. 72% of growing churches call visitors, but only 43% of established churches do.
  • The website makes no statistical impact on church growth.

What surprises you here? How does this data suggest you should operate differently? Tell us in comments.

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