When was the last time you updated your church website? Could you make a change to the online calendar yourself, or would you need to call a professional? Maybe your church doesn't even have a website yet. Why not?

Churches often complain that websites are expensive, time consuming, and difficult to manage. If these complaints sound familiar, you'll be excited to know that new technologies have made managing a website cheaper, faster, and as easy as using word processing software.

As recently as a few years ago, to properly manage a website you needed an expert who understood Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), affectionately referred to as "geek speak." These professionals were the only ones who could help you create and update your web pages, yet they seemed to speak a foreign language your ministry staff didn't understand.

Times have changed. Now there are several companies offering you the ability to set up a web page without knowing "geek speak." If you can type a sermon using a word processor, you can create and manage your own web page. No expensive experts needed! To learn more about these new services, we asked professionals to give us their best advice.

We're a small church with less than 100 members. We'd like a website, but we're not sure we're big enough. What size should a church be before getting a website?

"Every church needs a website," says Josh Woodward, owner of ThisChurch.org. "In today's world, it's one of the most important ways to reach out to your community and attract new members."

For most churches size isn't the real issue—it's the cost and the ease of maintaining the website. ThisChurch.org can help with both.

"Our pricing scheme is unique in that we offer almost every feature to everyone, regardless of your monthly fee," says Woodward. "The price is based solely on your church's size and includes all hosting, support, and automatic software upgrades." For a church that has between 100 and 249 people attending on an average week, the cost is just $29 a month.

To see how easy it is, ThisChurch.org offers an online demo that allows you to create a web page for your church in seconds. Subscribing to their services maintains the functionality of the page, (the geek speak part) while you control what appears on the page (the content). You never update the functionality, you only change the content, and doing that is even easier than typing a weekly bulletin. With new tools that make websites cheaper and easier to manage, even the smallest church can have a "size-defying" web presence.

How do these new website services work?

Think of it as filling out a form, but with much more sophisticated results. The company provides you with a professionally designed template; you enter your information, and send them an e-mail with your logo or other images. You choose from existing design options and click a button.

In a matter of seconds, or days, depending on the company, you will have a fully functioning website, online and ready to use. Updating the website is as easy as having the password and typing in the new or updated information.

Some companies allow your members to key their information into an online membership directory. There are two benefits to this system. First, members get to decide what information they want to reveal. Second, you don't have to do the typing!

Adding special features such as chat rooms or discussion forums can increase interactivity between members, classes, and committees. Additionally, many sites allow you to keep online sermons (printed or audio), documents, and images that are important to your church.

The web services company ensures everything is working smoothly so you don't have to be an expert—you just update the information.

We love our church website, but listing all of our events online takes a lot of time. Is there an easier way to keep our calendar updated?

Check out DynaCal, whose online calendars are created specifically for churches and schools. DynaCal offers separate full-functioned calendaring services, but when combined with your existing website, visitors won't know the difference. "It fits right into your existing web page," says Arlan Yoder, president of DynaCal.

However, your staff will know the difference because any staff member with access permission can easily update DynaCal's calendaring solution. The calendar is resource-based so you can track people (the pastor), places (room 101), and things (the church van).

You decide how to organize your calendars. You can have separate calendars for women's and men's ministries, age level groups, Sunday school classes, or any other designation of your choice. Most importantly, the staff member in charge of that ministry can add and change the events to their group calendar. No more waiting for a central person to make all the changes!

Additionally, each visitor to your site can create a customized view of the calendar so that only the activities he is interested in shows up on his "personal" calendar.

Example: If Mark and Susie Smith create a calendar for their family which includes two elementary aged children, they won't have to wade through events for preschoolers, high schoolers, and seniors. Instead, just the events they or their children are involved in will show up on their customized calendar view. They can add or change the groups or activities they view at anytime.

"If you create your family calendar and then elect to receive e-mails when something gets changed, you will automatically be notified," says Yoder.

Example: If the children's choir rehearsal will be moved from the sanctuary to the fellowship hall due to a funeral, the choir director changes the online calendar once and DynaCal automatically sends e-mail messages to all choir members notifying them of the change.

Once members learn that the online calendar is always current, your church may be able to reduce the number of paper calendars you print (and mail) and reduce the number of phone inquiries you receive.

We'd like to have a church website, but need committee approval. What additional justifications will help us sell the idea?

You already know that a website gives you an online presence and is a convenient way for visitors to learn more about your church, but there are other benefits, too.

"I would say cost savings and communications capabilities are the least understood [benefits]," says Dan Nuckolls, president of MinistryPresence, a web services provider. "Churches spend hundreds and thousands of dollars producing directories, mailers, printing bulletin inserts, prayer requests, etc. All of those things may not be replaced by a website, but they certainly can be minimized."

Membership directories are out of date as soon as they are printed. With MinistryPresence the membership directory is always current because church members manage their own account and update their information online. They can also use the directory to search for people with similar interests. "It's always a struggle to get 'plugged-in,' and this capability is especially appealing to folks who have just begun attending your church," says Nuckolls. "If done effectively, you can have a website that creates and improves the relationships with and within your church."

Using the Discussion Forums feature of MinistryPresence, a congregation can connect with one another by sharing needs, prayer requests, testimonies, and interests. "It's part of the site that stays 'alive' on its own," says Nuckolls. "It is always new, and has something of interest for almost everybody in the church."

A good website does more than just promote your church—it helps people make connections.

Our church is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but all of our existing communication tools still look like the seventies. We want to develop a new look along with our new website, but we're not sure how to get it.

Your image must remain consistent across all forms of communication, whether it's paper, signs, or electronic. Visitors need to know what to expect. If your church offers contemporary worship services but your logo is very traditional, uninformed visitors may be disappointed. For an image makeover, consider a design and development company out of Lincoln, Nebraska called aijalon. Their trained designers work with both print and website design. They can even create a new logo for you and incorporate it into your letterhead, bulletins, brochures, and business cards, as well as design a matching website.

Is it possible for our Sunday school classes to create their own websites, too?

Yes. Reaching Branches offers a software service that allows each Sunday school class to set up their own website for information and announcements. The class sites can stand alone or be integrated into the church's existing site. Each Sunday school class will have a page for class notes, a prayer board, a secured class directory, and a full calendar of events.

We've moved beyond the basics and are looking to do more sophisticated things with our website. Do we need to hire a custom programmer, or will these services provide advanced functions?

Companies like Kintera, Inc., offer their basic system, and when you are ready they will help you customize a solution to meet whatever needs you have. "Our software complements other software applications at a church. We deal primarily with relationship management, community outreach, missionary outreach, and outreach to individual members," says Ephraim Feig, Ph.D., chief technology officer at Kintera. "We also help facilitate day-to-day business transactions such as online registration, scheduling, and task assignments." Kintera's system also helps volunteers coordinate project details among themselves without having to involve staff members.

Whether you want to send information to specific groups or have individuals request it from your website, Kintera allows you to set up a series of criteria to customize your message for each recipient. Example: If someone visited your "How to Become a Christian" web page more than twice this week, you could send a personalized message asking them to respond if they have any questions or would like a minister to call. Likewise, if a member is dealing with the loss of a loved one, each time she visits your home page a Bible verse on dealing with grief could be displayed.

Our church sells books, tapes, tickets to upcoming conferences and retreats, and other items. What's the best way for us to do this online?

You can easily sell items online using faithHighway's E-Commerce Store. For a one-time set-up fee of $530, faithHighway sets up an e-commerce application for your church. After set-up, there is a monthly fee of $40, which also allows you to use their E-Giving tool for no extra charge. E-Giving allows supporters to donate money on-line using their credit card.

Even churches that never sold products in the past can do so now. Working with Riverside Distributors, one of the largest wholesalers of Christian products, faithHighway can either add a link to their bookstore or customize and brand a virtual bookstore specifically for your church. Your bookstore can offer almost 90,000 different products including Bibles, Christian best sellers, video games, and cds. The best part is that your church will get to keep five percent of every purchase made from the virtual bookstore.

How much does it cost?

Like most service providers, each company offers options based on your church's needs. Depending on the incentives offered and the amount of customization, prices can range from almost nothing to tens of thousands of dollars. Example: ThisChurch.org has a referral policy that pays you for every church you refer to them who in turn becomes a ThisChurch.org client. Refer enough clients and you could earn enough to maintain your site for free.

Companies that do a lot of customized development work such as Kintera can charge ten thousand dollars or more depending on your needs, yet this is still much less than you would pay an independent designer to create and maintain your website. Many churches and, in some cases, even secular companies use these programs, so the development costs are spread among a greater number of clients, reducing the cost your church pays.

In the past, conversations about websites involved words such as "HTML," or "navigation design." Today's website discussions use words like community, content, and interactivity. That's good news for churches because these concepts are what churches are all about. As a ministry professional, you understand the value of presenting good content, what it means to be a part of a community, and how to encourage membership interaction with the church. With new technology, website service providers can finally speak your language. You can have the "speak" and leave the "geek" to someone else.

Jennifer Schuchmann (jschuchmann@bellsouth.net) is a management consultant and writer in the Atlanta area.