This era of technology is probably the most difficult one to keep up with. It seems as if every year, services and ideas change the landscape of effective communication. This can be frustrating and unnerving, but with all that change, churches can seize the moment and become effective with little capital!

It’s time to take your website, video and graphics to the next level with these great, free (or cheap) resources you can use right now.

Do-It-Yourself Website

Whether you’re planning to start a church or you’re a multi-site mega-church humming along doing great work, no doubt you need a presence on these interwebs. Before you go and spend big bucks hiring a developer to do your next project, spend a few minutes checking out the resources below. It’s easier than you think to put together a site that is both beautiful and functional.

Squarespace is an affordable and easy to use website building platform

Wix.com
Wix is an easy drag-and-drop website building platform with many designer templates and free features to get your ministry or event a website quickly and easily. Wix does offer additional premium features as needed.
www.wix.com

Squarespace.com
Squarespace is another drag-and-drop system with beautiful templates to get you started on your next redesign. Most Squarespace templates are mobile-friendly so your website will look great on every device. 14-day free trial; packages starting at $8/month.
www.squarespace.com

WordPress.com
If you want something more custom than just drag-and-drop then WordPress.com is the best place to go. WordPress offers thousands of free themes and many plugins to extend the functionality of your site. WordPress is the most popular CMS on the planet. In fact, LouisianaBaptists.org is powered by WordPress.com.
www.wordpress.com

Online Giving

Has your church started accepting donations on your website? What about allowing event registration with a credit card? It’s now easier (and more affordable) than ever to get setup with a event registration kiosk or donation button on your website. Here are a few resources to check out:

Paypal is an easy and affordable way to begin accepting online donations and online event payment processing

Easy Tithe
Easy Tithe is a ministry-focused online payment gateway which offers a way for churches to easily accept credit cards for event registration, online donations and mobile giving with automatic recurrences and full monthly financial reports. Transaction fees start at 3% + 0.25¢.
www.easytithe.com

Paypal
Paypal is a great way to quickly begin accepting donations online with a low transaction rate of 2.2% + 0.30¢. Paypal also offers convenient card readers you can attach to any tablet or smartphone to accept credit cards for an event or special donation kiosk.
www.paypal.com

Graphics and Video Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Bookmark these sites now. Next time you do a sermon series or need a great event graphic, check out the resources below for just the right video or background image.

CreationSwap.com
CreationSwap is a network of Christian artists freely sharing creative resources such as photos, mini-movies, motion graphics, sermon graphics, logos and more.
www.creationswap.com

Unsplash.com
Unsplash.com is a resource for completely royalty-free, beautiful, high-resolution photos. They feature 10 new photos every 10 days and include a wide variety of styles and scenes.
www.unsplash.com

From the Makers of the YouVersion Bible app, open.lifechurch.tv offers many free tools

StuffICanuse.com
Stufficanuse.com features sermon series related high-resolution graphics in JPG and PSD formats.
www.stufficanuse.com

VintageChurchResources.com
Vintage Church Resources has beautiful cutting edge sermon series related graphics and videos.
www.vintagechurchresources.com

Open.LifeChurch.tv
From the Makers of YouVersion, Open Life Church is a vast resource of graphics, templates, age-graded curriculum and more.
open.lifechurch.tv

Resources.ElevationChurch.org
Elevation Church features a large catalog of sermon series related graphics and PowerPoint backgrounds. They offer JPG and PSD formats and categorize items by general audience or specifically for kid’s ministry.
resources.elevationchurch.org

Seeds.Churchonthemove.com
Church On the Move features top-notch artwork, sermon series graphics, videos and more. Seeds offers graphics for children’s ministry and student ministry. Don’t forget to check out their blog for additional details on their creative process.
seeds.churchonthemove.com

Need help getting started? Wondering how to implement these resources in your church?

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