The church website shouldn't be the pastor's second job

Why this matters

Who should manage the church website? One named volunteer with a short monthly checklist, not the pastor. The pastor approves a few things once, then steps back. On the pastor's to-do list, the website competes with sermon prep, visits and Sunday morning, and those rightly come first.

In our 2026 State of Small Church Websites study, an audit of 2,000 church websites, 72.8% of small church websites (n=1,734) showed an update within a year of the July 2026 crawl, about three in four. Our view is that ownership makes the difference. When nobody owns the task, it lands on the person with the least time, so the plan below starts with a name.

At a glance

• One named volunteer should own the church website, not the pastor, with a short monthly checklist.
• Keep three things current every month: service times, the next few events, and the give button. The rest can wait for a yearly look.
• The pastor approves the structure once, then only hears about the site for a few judgment calls.
• Keep the logins in a shared place the church controls, and hand the site off if it goes stale whenever the volunteer is away.

The principle

A church website only needs regular attention in a few places: service times, the next handful of events, and whether the give button works. The about page, the beliefs page and the staff photos change once or twice a year at most. Once you separate the "check monthly" parts from the "set and forget" parts, upkeep becomes a job one person can carry.

The trap is treating the whole site as one big ongoing project. A short list works better than a vague instruction to "keep the site updated."

The pastor's part is to set direction once: what matters to a first-time guest, who approves event wording, and the tone of the site. After that, the pastor hears about the website a few times a year.

Decision framework

Step 1: name one owner

Pick one person and say their name in a meeting, so the job never drifts to "the office" or "whoever has time." One volunteer or staff member owns the monthly checklist. When two people share it, each can assume the other did it, and the site can sit untouched for months.

Step 2: separate living content from stable content

Make two lists. Living content is service times, the next few events, and the give button. Stable content is everything else. The owner commits only to the living list each month, which keeps the routine to one sitting instead of an all-day project.

Step 3: write the monthly checklist

Give the owner a short checklist, so there is nothing to decide:

• Open the homepage on your phone and read the service times and address.
• Remove any event that already happened, and add the next one or two.
• Tap the give button and make sure the giving page opens.
• Search your church's name on Google and check that the listing shows the same service times as the website.

Our estimate is about an hour a month once the two lists exist. The first pass takes longer. If your volunteer wants the fuller weekly, monthly and quarterly version, it is in a church website maintenance checklist you can actually keep up with. Here's a version you can send to whoever updates the site:

> Once a month, on your phone: check our service times and address on the homepage, remove past events and add the next one or two, tap Give and make sure it opens, and check that our Google listing shows the same times. Anything about beliefs, staff or new ministries goes to the pastor first.

Step 4: set the pastor's approval points

Decide in advance the few moments the owner should check with the pastor: a new ministry page, a change to the beliefs or about content, a staff change. The owner handles everything on the living list without asking.

Step 5: plan for the day the owner steps away

Keep the website, domain and giving logins in one shared place the church controls, such as a password manager or a sealed note held by the treasurer. If the domain sits in a former volunteer's or a vendor's account, move it into one the church owns while everyone is still easy to reach. Then agree on the signal that doing it yourselves has stopped working. The clearest one: if the site goes stale every time the volunteer is away for two weeks, it's time for a setup someone else maintains. If the checklist gets done every month, you don't need to hire anyone for this. Name the trigger now so the decision isn't emotional later.

Examples

These are illustrations, not cases from real churches.

In our 2026 study, 41.2% of all judged church websites (n=1,930) showed current content, meaning an update within about three months. Say a family looks up your church on Saturday night to plan a first visit, and near the top of the homepage is an event that ended four months ago. They may wonder whether the service times are current, too. The monthly checklist takes the old event down and gives the times a fresh look.

The same study found 64.2% of small church websites (n=1,734) had a working online giving path. Separately, 55.1% of all reachable church websites (n=1,930) were both updated within a year and able to take a gift. Say a member is traveling and wants to give from her phone on Sunday morning. If the button opens an old giving page, she can't. A monthly tap on the give button is how the owner catches that first.

One more, and this one is our opinion: a site the pastor keeps alone can look great after launch, then freeze in the next busy season. A volunteer with a narrow checklist is better placed to keep it going.

Common mistakes

• Making the whole site the pastor's job, so it competes with sermon prep every week. Hand the living list to one volunteer instead.
• Assigning upkeep to a group instead of a person. Put one name on it.
• Handing a volunteer the whole site with no checklist, so the job feels too big to start. Give them the four checks above.

Frequently asked questions

Who should manage the church website if we don't have a tech person?

A willing volunteer with a checklist is a better fit than a tech expert with no routine. The monthly job is reading, tapping and swapping a few lines of text, with no coding. Pick someone reliable, give them the checklist above, and they'll do fine.

How often does a church website actually need updating?

The living parts need a monthly look: service times, the next few events, and the give button. The rest of the site, like your about, beliefs and staff pages, changes once or twice a year. A monthly check of the living parts keeps the homepage current for a first-time guest.

Should the pastor ever touch the website?

Yes, but rarely. The pastor sets direction once and approves the occasional judgment call, like a new ministry page or a change to core beliefs content. Routine edits shouldn't reach the pastor at all. If the pastor is making website changes every week, hand the living list to one volunteer.

What should we do when the website volunteer steps down?

Get the logins before they go. Ask for the website, domain and giving logins, save them in the shared place the church controls, and walk the next volunteer through the same monthly checklist. If nobody is ready to take it on, that's your handoff trigger from Step 5.

Where this connects in our work

• Read the 2026 study for how often small church websites show an update and a working give button.
• See examples of church homepages Church Digital has built, to compare with your own.
• Request a free homepage review for a video of about 4 minutes, sent within 2 business days, that walks your site like a first-time guest, including service times and giving.

Next step

If you want to take the website off the pastor's plate for good, start by seeing what's current and what's stale on your homepage today.