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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.

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