Elevation Church is one of the most innovative and creative churches in America. They’re known for their cutting-edge technology, fresh worship style, and relevant messages that connect with people.
If you are a pastor or church leader who wants to learn from the best, then this podcast is for you!
What Elevation is doing is clearly working, and we’re going to look at eight things to love about the Elevation Church website and app.
Table of contents
Well Designed and Functional
Both the app and website have a clean and modern design. Websites used to feel like an online brochure or directory listing every possible detail about the church, but most have realized that’s not necessary.
It’s better to give people critical information, hit the high points, and reduce clutter on your website and app.
Elevation includes everything you need to know without feeling overwhelmed by options. That’s quite a feat considering that, at this time, they have 24 campuses plus an online campus!
Both the app and the website primarily focus on one thing: the weekend service experience.
At the same time, the app and website menus make it easy to find links for kids, youth, worship, giving, groups, and serving.
Clear Navigation
We’ve seen some church websites with complicated menu structures – you click the “Ministries” button and find a dropdown with 15 different options!
That can be overwhelming for people who are new to the church, but Elevation keeps it simple. Each item in the top menu navigation leads to a landing page with more info.
The footer also contains a clear outline of website content. If you have a question about a specific topic or ministry, you can easily find it.
Customized Experience
When you visit the Elevation Church home page, the first thing you see under the most recent sermon is the option to tailor your experience with one of the following three options:
- New here?
- I’m part of eFam
- I’m already part of a campus community
Offering these customized options does a few things for the visitor:
First, they don’t have to do the work of sorting through all the information on the website to find out what applies to them. The church is filtering that for them.
Second, people feel a sense of belonging as they identify with one of these groups.
In addition, you can search the app for sermons by topic. When people are going through a difficult time, they can open the app and find a message that speaks to their specific situation.
Personalized Experience
This may seem similar to the previous point, but Elevation Church does a great job of making you feel like the content is specifically for YOU.
Sometimes, churches can fall into the trap of being insider-focused, and the message sounds more like
- Come to us
- Sign up for our program
- Attend our event
Elevation’s content sends the message that whatever you’re going through, this is a place you can come get encouraged and build you’re faith.
It feels like the church is there to serve you.
Even if you aren’t local, encouraging scriptures and messages are displayed prominently and applicable to anyone who visits.
Fresh, Quality Content
Both website and app are updated weekly with the most recent sermon; you can depend on that.
Elevation has always been willing to get creative with graphics, videos, and media, whether on the app and website or social media.
Sometimes you try a new approach, and it doesn’t land well. But it’s hard to be innovative unless you’re willing to fail forward and be comfortable with some trial and error.
Accessible Social Media Platforms
The website and app are not the “be all end all” of your church’s communication strategy. Elevation makes it easy to connect with social platforms by featuring those prominently.
Social media provides an opportunity to see updates on events and registrations and behind the scenes footage. Rather than try to cram all the information into the website and app, every communication channel has its purpose.
Community
Elevation has done an incredible job of building an online church experience and community, which they call the “e-fam.” Whether you’re attending in-person or online, the website and app show you clear ways to get support and build relationships through live service chat, groups, and volunteer opportunities.
Pastoral Presence
Whether your church is big or small, people want to feel connected to the pastor. And one of the primary reasons people love Elevation Church is because they love Pastor Steven Furtick and his preaching.
Of course, the same is true for most churches and their senior leader.
So give the people what they want: make it easy to access recent messages and information about the pastor.
Even though Pastor Steven can’t interact personally with every individual that’s part of Elevation, when the first thing you see on the homepage or app is an upfront shot of him speaking directly to you, it helps you feel connected.
People love that encouragement and want to be connected to a person, not an entity or organization.
In Conclusion
We know that creating a great website and app is no easy task. It takes time, effort, and a lot of hard work to get it just right.
It’s true that Elevation Church can commit a significant amount of budget, staff, and resources to their creative efforts, more than most churches. So it’s not necessarily fair to compare your church’s efforts to Elevation.
However, there are some great takeaways and inspiration to glean from Elevation’s app and website!
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