It’s time to let the cat out of the bag…
OurChurch.Com is developing a brand new website builder to replace our NE1 Website Builder and we need your input to make it the best possible web builder that meets your needs.
Please take this extremely short, 4 question survey
Why a New Website Builder?
Over the last several years NE1 has made it easy for thousands of Christian churches, schools, ministries and businesses to create and manage their own websites.
Unfortunately, over time we have come to realize that NE1 has some significant short-comings. In particular, its themes are not mobile-friendly, and it’s not easy for us to add or improve functionality. We worked very hard to try to come up with solutions to these short-comings within NE1, but in the end it became clear the best path forward was with a brand new website builder.
The bottom line is… our mission is to help you live out your mission online, and you need great-looking, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly website to do that.
Many of you who have built and hosted your website with OurChurch.Com, have stuck with us in spite of NE1 rather than because of it. We thank you for your loyalty. We think you’re really going to like the new website builder and the improvements you’ll be able to make to your website with it. Hang in there for a little while longer as we finish development and testing of the website builder and the migration tool which will make it quick and easy to move your current website into the new system.
What do you think?
In addition to completing the survey, we’d love discuss your thoughts on the new website builder here.
- What suggestions do you have? What would you like to see in the new website builder?
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
21 Comments
Ease of email, for members wanting a church email address. Ease of editing.
Thanks Clarence. We are definitely making easy of editing our top priority.
All the best in this … it is easier to comment once
the framework is in place …
That's true. There will be plenty of opportunity to provide feedback after we launch the new website builder, but we would also like everyone's input now so it's the best it can be before we launch it.
I listed several things on the survey. The biggest thing that bothers me right now is when I want to upload pictures to the Gallery module I can only do a few at a time. I would like to be able to upload a large number of pictures at once. Secondly, on the News module, I would like to be able to select several items at one time to archive or delete, instead of having to do each post individually. Thirdly, on the Calendar, if I'm making entries for a future month, I would like to be able to return to the month I'm working on after I add an event; currently the module returns to the current month and I have to scroll back up to the month I'm working on.
Thanks Jean. I know the gallery limitations have been pet peeve of yours for a while. That's one of the things we just couldn't improve in NE1, but will be possible with the new web builder. I'm not sure about the other suggestions you listed here but we will review and consider them all.
I don't like seeing multiple names of the webpage posted on the webpage. That's the best way I can describe it without uploading a screenshot. Also, I was wondering if one could created a WordPress website and have it uploaded to and supported by OurChurch.com?
Dennis, I'd be interested to know more about what you mean by multiple names of the web page. If you could send a screenshot to su*****@ou*******.com our support team can look into it further.
>>I was wondering if one could created a WordPress website and have it uploaded to and supported by OurChurch.com?
I'm afraid we can't do that. We've actually tried a few times and it came back to bite us because the people who created the website used plugins and themes that had security issues and were no longer supported by the developer. The reason we are able to support the websites we custom design is because we carefully evaluate the plugins we use, and then we use the same set of plugins for all the sites we design.
I, too, would like the double page titles removed, especially the ones that are links back to the same page.
George and Dennis, I think I know what you're referring to. These are called "navigation clues." They are helpful when using sub-menus. For example, if you had an "About" main menu item and then an "Our History" page in that sub menu, the navigation clues would be "About >> Our History" enabling a visitor to tell what sub-menu they are in. However, when sub-menus are not being used, they aren't of much value.
Navigation clues can be turned off in the NE1 Admin. Click the "Config" tab at the top.
I am happy with the system as it is at present and I am concerned that the transition to the new system may not take place without a certain amount of disruption to the website as it stands now. Can you give any assurances that the changeover will be smooth ?
Hi Ray, good question. We are working to make it as smooth as possible. We are creating a "migration tool" which will copy all of the pages from NE1 to the new web builder and much of the other media and information. After you use the migration tool to copy your current site into the new web builder, you will be able to preview and tweak the new version of your website before you make it live.
My comments are offered without any knowledge of what the limits are in designing templates. I am in the "throws" of totally changing my web site using a different template for each page.
Supplying templates for all the hundreds of "wants" of the end users is a huge task; more flexablity in the templates is one answer.
Having changeable "outside background" colors as in the Love_animated template and the "text body" colors as in the Thanksgiving template would be a big help.
It would be nice to easily select a mouseover operation that allows information to pop-up of "as needed size" as in your ?box. (this is one of my wants right now).
The ability to reposition the Navigation Menu could make the template more useable; but then it would have to be able to change from stacked to in-line or the reverse. (something I could use right now).
Thank you for all you do for those of us in the trenches and blessings on your ministry of communications.
George, thanks for the suggestions. We will give them serious consideration. One of the challenges we (and all developers) face is the more features and options that are added, the more complicated it makes the tool. We are always striving to find the right balance between options and simplicity.
I would like be able to schedule web pages "off" and "on" to our churches web site, that way, when I update a page, then schedule it to appear and remove the outdated page so the site stay current. That way I do not have to trust my memory to keep our site current.
I would be nice to see the entire monthly calendar contents instead of having to click on each individual date to see what event is post for that day. The would give visitor to our site a complete monthly picture of available events. at a glance.
John, thanks for the suggestions. The biggest challenge with the month view of a calendar is what to do when there are more items in a day than can be displayed. Any suggestions?
At that point, I would say it would be acceptable to click and expand that day (maybe in a pop up window) and display the entire days events. The displayed calendar would be kind of like a teaser. When clicked, maybe much more info could be provided about that days events.
Thanks John. That's what we were thinking too.
The website works fine. The problem I have is that today, I went to update our website and found that I could not. It is very important to keep our schedule updated, since my husband is an evangelist and gospel singer. Would be nice if an email was sent noting the update and when that was going to take place. Poor communication on your part. When will the website be back up?
Hi Debbie, sorry for the slow reply. Your comment was incorrectly flagged as spam… We did not have a planned outage on 3/7. If we had we would have notified you. In the future, for the fastest response if you are unable to connect with your website or edit your website please contact our support team at 727-723-2454 or support (at) ourchurch (dot) com.