For churches · Lost access
Recovery steps · domain ownership · prevention
It is one of the most common ways a church loses its website: the person who built it moved, got busy, or passed away, and the domain, the hosting and the login were all in their name. Here is the order to work in.
Step one
The domain (yourchurch.org) is the one asset that matters most, because everything else can be rebuilt behind it. Look it up on any public WHOIS lookup tool: the registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, Squarespace Domains) is usually visible even when the owner's name is private.
If the registrant email is the church's, you can recover the account through the registrar's standard password reset. If it is the volunteer's personal email, contact them first; most registrars will also transfer a domain to an organization with proof of the church's legal name, but it is slower. Check the renewal date while you are there. An expired domain can be bought by anyone.
Step two
The site footer usually says it: "Powered by The Church Co," "Made with Squarespace," a WordPress login at /wp-admin. Each platform has an account-recovery path that starts with the billing email.
Whoever pays the bill can recover the account. Check the church's card statements for the monthly or annual charge; the vendor name tells you where the account lives.
Once in, export the pages, the sermons and any form data before changing anything. If the account cannot be recovered, save the public pages by hand: the copy and photos are what you will rebuild from.
Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, the giving platform, Facebook admin, the church email. They are usually in the same person's name.
Step three
Domain, hosting, and site login on a church email address (office@ or web@), with the password in a place two people can reach.
Every platform allows more than one administrator. Add the pastor or the office manager to each one today.
A named person, or a company. A site nobody owns goes stale within a year and gets lost within five.
This is the situation Church Digital is built for: we run the site, hosting and updates for $120 a month flat, no setup fee, no contract, and the founding rate makes the first 6 months $60 a month. Your domain stays in your account, and when a volunteer leaves, nothing changes.
Common questions
In this situation right now
A free five-minute walkthrough of the homepage as it stands, plus a straight read on whether to recover and refresh it or rebuild. No pitch, no call required.
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