I use open source and love it for many circumstances but it isn’t “free”. Often the cost is support that isn’t easy, painful systems and steep learning curves. Particularly if a church does not have a dedicated IT person to manage it. This means the long term cost of ownership (support, training, etc) is more costly than using a company that supports their product. It works when you have a team who can manage it, but a lot of churches don’t have that team in place.

This was part of what was presented at the Internet Ministry Conference and my subsequent conversations with David T. Bourgeois who conducted the Internet Ministry Survey – Best Practices research.

Of course I’m biased because of my involvement with http://www.ekklesia360.com.

Our church site is (if you want to see one of the many canned templates): http://www.rrbc.org

LayGuy – Thanks for the feedback and I am no geek either. The reason I didn’t include Joomla is because I was trying to pass along companies I have worked with personally and really have limited knowledge about the open source options.

Michael – Thanks for your input. I am only telling what I know and not what I don’t.

I will disagree in that boxed CMS solutions often lead to cookie cutter sites because there ARE companies like Lynchpin Designs who will implement the CMS around the design. In fact, all the guys I have worked with take my designs and plug the guts into the skin.

I also think the designer or company has a lot to do with the cookie cutter designs. Sometimes companies that end up doing the whole deal tend to re-use some of the general layouts or they offer template designs because most churches can’t or won’t invest in a complete custom solution.

My overall experience from 20 years of doing what I do is that there are great solutions which are cheap or free if you know what you’re doing, but it usually ends up frustrating for the novice or churches who have to train volunteers to help with the site. When you pay for a service, some companies provide technical support and training which is worth the monthly fee. Yes, this can be more than buying a hosting plan from GoDaddy but you also receive the extra benefits.

Last thought. We all deserve to get paid for our work or our investment for developing these types of platforms which takes time, experience, and money. I know this has been a battle for some PROFESSIONALS whose focus is on serving churches because there ARE churches who feel they should get everything for free because they are a church…which is another post altogether!

Sorry for the novel guys!

I also think it’s a mistake to not point out the a CMS doesn’t have to come in a box. In fact I think boxed solutions often lead to cookie cutter sites. I shouldn’t be able to tell that you are using a CMS…your site should look like YOU, it should carry your personality.

Though there are times that budgets don’t allow it (which I will then use Joomla or Drupal) we start with design and then fit the CMS to it, not the other way around.

This not only gives you a great custom site tailored to your personality and look but it also doesn’t require you to be tied down to high monthly fees as some boxed solutions require.

I am no geek by any stretch of the imagination but, with a bit of effort, put together my church website for about $75 using Joomla and a custom theme.

Check it out at: http://www.citywestchurch.com.au

It’s still under construction and I know it’s simple but it works well. We chose our theme from Rocket Themes and there are a tonne of different themes to choose from.