Welcome to Great Church Websites
Updated September 2011 I launched this website in 2004 to provide examples of well-designed church websites in a searchable directory. The purpose was to provide design inspiration to church webmasters. Over time, I reviewed 14,000 websites and chose the best for inclusion in the directory as reduced-sized screen shots.
I believe that my directory served an important need. However, it was immensely time-consuming and financially unrewarding to maintain. Besides, other websites sprang up doing the same thing, which was good. I closed the directory in Summer 2009.
Over time, I added other resources, including searchable vendor directories (see links above) and The Church Webmasters' Forum. I also added a list of 25 church website design tips, based on my review of 1000s of church websites.
In June 2011, I added to the forum three dozen RSS feeds of blogs and forums around the internet with articles of interest to church and parish webmasters. See the "Other voices" link above. Follow this link to view the forum archives, which are still available.
In August 2011, I decided to re-launch my directory of church website design, in beta form. See the "Gallery" link above.
Future plans for this website include launching an online magazine for church webmasters. This will be a magazine of profiles, not technical articles about coding, etc. The internet abounds with resources on those subjects. Instead, I'd profile:
- church and parish webmasters
- churches with cutting edge internet ministries
- web design companies that focus on the church market
- companies that market web CMS solutions for the church market
(My background is in journalism; in fact, I helped to launch Worship Leader magazine in the early '90s. I was the magazine's managing editor and graphic designer for its first three years.)
That's me below, spending time with my children Joshua and Julia. Photo taken in summer 2008. The kiddos are 6 and 4 years old now, respectively.
Finally, I want to say a special thanks to my advertisers, who have faithfully supported my website for several years now.
© 2012 by David Gillaspey, founder (resume), Great Church Websites
Website last updated: 7 March 2012 | Email: David Gillaspey