Leading Churches to Web 2.0: Church Web Site Provider Delivers Powerhouse System Priced for the Masses

Modern web technologies have amazing potential for churches looking to expand their ministries’ reach. Unfortunately, while many churches are aware of this potential, they're also keenly aware that they often lack the technical expertise and financial resources needed to make that potential a reality for them. The Church Site Project intends to change all that.


The Church Site Project is an integrated web-content-management system and online church community suite. Designed specifically to meet the needs of the modern church, using industry-standard, open-source programs, The Church Site Project provides an enormous feature set that's surprisingly easy to use.

Founder, Brooks Patton, knows a thing or two about web applications and what they can do. A published technologies author, he has more than a decade of experience leading web design and web application companies. He has spent the last year of his life quietly fine-tuning a service offering that will, in his opinion, change the playing field for these churches.

"Our mission is to provide small- to mid-sized Christian churches, often under-represented and overlooked on the Internet, with the same powerful, full-featured web systems, that are typically reserved for larger, better-funded, technically staffed churches and ministries," said Patton. "We equip these churches with the tools and technical expertise needed to launch successful, web-based, community-driven, extensions of their church and ministries, but at a fraction of the cost and necessary technical skills associated with comparable systems."

From sermon podcasting to blogging to web communities, The Church Site Project seems not to have missed a trick in providing leading-edge web tools that churches can use to leverage their message to the world. Laughingly referring to the company's function as "geeks by proxy," Patton explained that while many churches consider using such features on their own, they are usually overwhelmed by the technical knowledge needed to effectively use, let alone configure and optimize, such capabilities into their own websites.

"Our program is unique for a number of reasons, but what's immediately obvious is that we don't have ‘packages’ of progressive features and prices. We don't advocate feature up-sell, as it only defeats the purpose of our stated mission. In short, clients get the most possible features for the lowest possible price. More importantly, we don't hand our clients "empty" systems, which they then have to populate with their existing or new content. We build the entire system to their specifications, then fully populate it with their content, handing them a completely finished, turnkey site, ready for public use.

Patton admits The Church Site Project's hands-on approach is not capable of supporting limitless clients and, in fact, sees that as a positive benefit to clients fortunate enough to get a spot on their busy schedule.

"This is more than a business to us; it’s a ministry. Our approach favors a limited number of high quality relationships over impersonal mass production. We know our clients, and they know us, and we like it that way. Mass production and cookie-cutter solutions have their place, but this isn't one of them."

Another aspect that separates The Church Site Project from the pack is their approach to training. Clients have access to an ever-growing video library which teaches them by showing them how to perform every possible function on their new system.

"We believe our system is one of the easiest to use. By balancing control with custom configuration, we allow our clients to focus only on updating and adding new content to an already populated and configured system. Nonetheless, there is always a learning curve to anything new, and experience has taught me that the best way to teach someone is by actually showing them. In effect, we've provided the very same instruction we would provide, in person, if we were with them and demonstrating the task."

Often overlooked by other systems, search engine ranking strategies are something which The Church Site Project also pays close attention to. With a suite of search engine optimization features built in to the core product, churches will quickly find their search engine rankings improving with minimal effort. Site traffic, after all, is the key to spreading a church's message and The Church Site Project is pulling out all the stops in providing every possible online vehicle for their client's message.