If you've been following along, you've done a lot of work. You've chosen a platform, secured your domain, built your key pages, thought carefully about your audience, and turned your website into a connection point. That's worth celebrating.
But here's an honest truth that every church website eventually faces: launching your website is the beginning, not the end. A website isn't like a church sign that you put up once and leave for twenty years. It's more like a garden. It needs regular care, or it slowly becomes overgrown and neglected.
In this lesson, we'll talk about why keeping your website current matters so much, what tends to go out of date, and most importantly, how to make sure it actually happens by making it a clear responsibility and weaving it into the everyday life of your ministries.
Why Keeping Things Current Matters
Picture this. A young couple is looking for a church. They find your website on a Saturday evening in October. The home page still has a big banner for Easter. The events page lists a fall festival from two years ago. The youth pastor in the staff photos left last spring. And the service times say 10:30, even though you switched to 10:00 in September.
What do they conclude? Probably not that your church is warm, active, and full of life. More likely, they quietly wonder whether anyone is paying attention, and whether the church is even still meeting. Many will simply move on to the next search result.
Outdated information causes real problems:
It breaks trust. If one thing on your website is wrong, visitors start to wonder what else is wrong.
It sends people to the wrong place. Wrong service times or an old address can mean a visitor shows up to an empty building. That's a hard first impression to recover from.
It makes your church look smaller or less alive than it is. Old photos and stale events hide all the good things happening now.
It undoes your connection points. A ministry contact who no longer serves, or a form that goes to a deleted email, quietly closes the door you worked so hard to open.
It can affect search results. A website that's clearly cared for and kept up to date is generally more helpful to people, and search engines tend to reward helpful sites.
The flip side is encouraging. A website that's clearly current, with this week's sermon, next month's events, and recent photos, tells visitors something important before they read a word: This church is alive, and someone here cares.
What Goes Out of Date, and How Often to Check It
Some parts of your website change every week, while others change once a year. Knowing which is which makes the job much more manageable. Here's a simple guide:
A helpful rule of thumb: if it has a date on it, it needs an expiration date too. When you add an event, decide right then when it will come down. Many platforms, including Squarespace, let events disappear automatically once they've passed if you use the built-in events feature.
Make It Someone's Responsibility
Here's the most common reason church websites go out of date: everyone assumes someone else is handling it. The pastor thinks the office manager updates it. The office manager thinks the volunteer who built it is keeping an eye on it. The volunteer thinks the ministry leaders send updates. And meanwhile, nothing changes.
The solution is simple but powerful. Name one person as your website coordinator. This doesn't mean they do everything themselves. It means they're the one who makes sure it gets done.
A website coordinator might:
Keep the weekly updates (sermons, events, announcements) moving.
Collect updates from ministry leaders and post them, or help leaders post their own.
Run the regular checks from the table above.
Keep track of who has access..
Remind the team when seasonal updates are coming, like Christmas and Easter service times.
Make sure forms and connection points are answered and working.
This person could be a staff member, like the church secretary or communications assistant, or a dependable volunteer. What matters most is that they're organized, consistent, and comfortable with the platform, not that they're a tech expert.
It helps to write down a short description of the role, just like you might for any other ministry position. Include what they're responsible for, roughly how much time it takes each week at your church, who they report to, and who serves as their backup. That way, if the coordinator goes on vacation or steps down, the website doesn't fall apart.
And one important caution: having a coordinator doesn't mean that person becomes the only one who knows how the website works. Keep the backup trained, keep the logins shared safely, and keep the knowledge spread across a few people.
Share It Across Your Ministries
A website coordinator is essential, but one person can't possibly know everything happening in every ministry. The kids' ministry leader knows when VBS registration opens. The women's ministry leader knows the new Bible study start date. The pastor knows next month's sermon series.
That's why the healthiest church websites follow a simple principle: the people closest to each ministry own their part of the website. The coordinator keeps everything organized and consistent, but each ministry is responsible for keeping its own information accurate.
Here's how to make shared ownership work in practice:
Assign every page an owner. Make a simple list of every page and section on your website, with the name of the person responsible for keeping it current.
Give owners an easy way to send updates. This might be a simple online form, a shared email address like website@yourchurch.org, or a standing item in your staff meeting. The easier it is, the more likely it happens.
Decide who can edit directly. Some ministry leaders may be comfortable updating their own page in Squarespace with a limited contributor role. Others will prefer to send updates to the coordinator. Both are fine.
Set a deadline. For example, Updates sent by Wednesday will be posted by Friday. Clear timing prevents last-minute scrambles.
Use the same template. Ask ministry leaders to send updates using the simple ministry template from Lesson 10, so every section stays consistent.
When everyone owns a small piece, no one carries the whole load, and the website stays connected to what's really happening across your church.
Build It Into the Rhythms of Church Life
The secret to a current website isn't working harder. It's building updates into the rhythms your church already has. When website care rides along with things that already happen every week, month, and season, it stops being an extra job and becomes part of how your church works.
Here are some natural places to fit it in:
Weekly staff or leadership meeting. Add one simple question to every agenda: "Does the website need to know about this?" Any new event, change, or announcement gets passed to the coordinator right then.
Sunday follow-through. After each Sunday, post the sermon, update the home page highlight if needed, and remove anything that's passed.
Monthly check. Once a month, the coordinator walks through the site on a phone (remember Lesson 6), checks events, and tests a form.
Seasonal planning. When your church plans for fall kickoff, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer, add website updates to the planning checklist. Holiday service times should be posted several weeks ahead.
Ministry season changes. When a ministry starts, pauses for summer, or changes leaders, updating the website becomes part of that transition.
Annual review. Once a year, perhaps during budget planning, review the whole website with your leadership team: Is it still speaking to the audience you identified in Lesson 13? Does it still reflect your goals?
You can combine this with the security calendar from Lesson 6, so all your website care lives in one simple schedule on the church calendar.
Treat It as a Ministry
Here's the heart of this lesson. If your website is truly part of your church's ministry, and not just a brochure (as we've said since Lesson 2), then the people who care for it are doing ministry too. It's worth treating that way.
Think about how your church supports other ministries. You recruit people, train them, pray for them, thank them, and give them what they need to serve well. Your website team deserves the same care.
Recruit intentionally. Look for people with the right gifts: organized, detail-oriented, good writers, people who enjoy photography, or those who simply love helping newcomers feel welcome. Invite them personally, just as you would for any ministry role.
Train and equip. Give your coordinator and ministry contributors time to learn the platform. Squarespace and other platforms have free help guides and tutorials, and a short training session together goes a long way.
Commission and pray. Consider recognizing your website team during a service, just as you might for teachers or greeters. It sends a clear message that this work matters.
Include it in the budget. Your platform subscription, domain, and any tools should be a regular line in the church budget, not an afterthought paid from someone's personal card.
Say thank you. Website care is often invisible when it's done well. Make a point of thanking the people who keep things current, and share stories of visitors who found your church online.
Plan for transitions. People move, retire, or step away. Keep the role description, logins, and processes written down so a new person can pick up where the last one left off.
When website care is treated as a real ministry, it stops being a chore that nobody wants and becomes a meaningful way to serve. And a well-cared-for website quietly welcomes people every single day.
Your Five Action Steps for This Lesson
Do an "out of date" sweep. Walk through every page of your website and list anything that's old: past events, former staff, outdated photos, wrong times, or broken links. Fix the most important ones this week.
Name your website coordinator and a backup. Choose one person to own website care and one person to back them up, and write a short role description together.
Assign an owner to every page. Make a simple list of each page or section of your website with the name of the person responsible for keeping it current.
Add the website question to your staff meeting. Starting this week, include "Does the website need to know about this?" on every staff or leadership meeting agenda.
Put website care on the church calendar. Add weekly, monthly, seasonal, and yearly website checks to your church calendar, and plan a moment to recognize and pray for your website team.
