Ditch Your Church Website
Use Planning Center and Substack to build a thriving digital presence.
Begin and deepen conversations and relationships with one another - and with God.
and Bring Church to People.
This 11 module course covers 9 points: detailed set-ups for ministry communication and connection.
We’ll use an real-life example and walk through setting up each point, to demonstrate how to use these platforms to build your own thriving digital presence.
The points:
Planning Center (PCO) (6 points)
‘What time was that meeting again?’
Move from calendar clutter no one sees to targeted events everyone needs, using PCO Calendar and Publishing.From Announcement to Belonging
Instead of a static bulletin board (your old website), create a doorway into relationship with God and one another. Use PCO Groups and Calendar to create real community: people get the info they need (and not what they don’t), know how to join, what to expect, and how to stay connected.What Digital Ministry Can Really Mean
It’s not just live streaming your worship service! Design sign-ups and registrations that give a sense of belonging to digital (and in-person) members, using PCO Registrations and Groups.No More Generic ‘Contact Us’ Forms!
Replace black-hole forms with specific pastoral pathways that lead to immediate response - and ongoing relationship, using PCO Automations, Tasks, and Forms.What It Means to Be a Member in Today’s Church
Move beyond Member/not Member into a spectrum of categories that reflect the multiple ways people can be in relationship with your community, using PCO Customized Fields, Lists, and Automations.No One Walks Cold into Your Church
They want to know something about you first. And they want you to know something about them. ‘Communication’ is not just output - it’s a conversation. Start new conversations online with those who are new - and deepen the conversation with longtime members - using PCO Workflows, Email Templates, and Automation.
Substack (3 points)
Move Your Church’s Digital Doorway to a Place of Welcome
Don’t just host a static bulletin board about your ministry - create a place where ministry actually happens. Move your ministry domain (url) to Substack and customize the settings for engaging ministry.Here’s How to Bring Church to People
Turn ‘announcements’ into a pastoral, theological, and evangelical publication that grows an email list and nurtures discipleship, using Substack Settings and Formatting (+ connect your PCO Pages through Church Center).Build a Meaningful Bridge between ‘Digital’ and ‘In-person’ Community.
Digital members are still members! Connect with them - and those in your pews - with Substack Notes, Chats, Live streams, Welcome Emails, and Paid Subscriptions (+ the pros/cons of ‘Chat’ and ‘Paid Subscriptions’ between PCO and Substack).
When we’re done, you will have built these for your own ministry!
And you’ll have the tools to keep building ways to share God’s love in the 21st century.
Why?
The internet no longer works like it did in the early 2000s
Your church website is out there gathering digital dust - not reaching the people who are seeking a deeper relationship with God.
We no longer need information - we want connection
Most people who land on your traditional website aren’t really wondering, “How many committees do you have?”
They’re wondering, “Is there a place for me here?’
’Does God love me?’
‘Am I going to be ok?’
When we’re building a church website, we often think, ‘let’s share everything about our church. But in today’s world, people don’t want to know about you. They want to know you. And they want to feel known.
Before they will ever show up at your door.
They still may not ever show up at your door. They likely won’t. But today’s platforms and tools allow us to:
Invite participation
Nurture belonging
Help people actually grow as disciples
Fully online.
(We can also create a deeper sense of belonging and discipleship for those who are current members, faithfully in our pews, through dynamic digital presence).
Ministry happens online and in-person - and the two need to go hand-in-hand
‘Communication’ is not just output - it’s a conversation.
And that conversation starts online.
For thriving ministry today, we need to be able to start conversations, and continue to deepen them. We need ways to develop our relationships with God and each other - and to keep up with them.
All with dwindling budgets and not a lot of people on staff.
Using Planning Center and Substack together can help you ditch your church website
and build engaging, connected ministry that reaches people online and in-person - and bridges between them.
Ditch Your Church Website is not a course you have to be super techie to understand and implement.
At the same time, it’s not a course for those who are too nervous to try new things (and probably fail at a few…)!
It is a course for those who are ready to make the necessary changes for thriving 21st century ministry.
It’s for those who are ready to bring church to people.
Why ‘Ditch Your Church Website’?
Substack and Planning can both feel a little overwhelming
They are each complex platforms with tons of features. It can be hard to know where to start.
This course and consulting focuses on a few important features, used together, designed to create the foundation for dynamic ministry that is easy to keep up with. You don’t need a lot of tech knowledge and you don’t need to spend a huge amount of time on church busy-work.
Spend a lot more time growing in faith and helping others do the same.Most congregations are stuck using early 2000s technology - without knowing why.
Static websites and anemic social media accounts are not really helping you share God’s love and stay in conversation with others.
You’re not really reaching new people - much less creating true online members.
And you’re not really reaching the members you already have - helping them grow in relationship with God.Why both Planning Center and Substack?
DYCW is is not primarily a ‘how-to use tech’ course.
Both PCO and Substack have robust instruction and help on how to use the platforms themselves.
This is a digital ministry course - it’s about how to use these two platforms together for more effective ministry that’s not too hard or expensive to maintain.We’ll be doing this together
Throughout the course, we will use one simple formation offering - a Bible study - and one new domain (url), and walk through setting them up as an example. So you can see how it works from beginning to end.
And do it yourself!
Today we can move technology to the center of our ministry life: to make organization, administration, communication - and above all:
Create an online presence to a custom platform that is alive, engaging, and sharing God’s love directly.
‘Ditch your Church Website’ is a course and consultation package that helps you:
Use Substack as a dynamic front door for teaching, invitations, reflections, and stories that actually reach people where they are (it’s also free - and provides a potential income stream).
And Planning Center (PCO) for a flexible, practical structure of membership, communication, forms, sign-ups, and organization behind the scenes (along with their built-in public facing platform - Church Center) - for member engagement, organization, and deep knowledge of your community. The database function is always free, and the rest is sliding scale according to usage..
Together, they create a powerful and evangelical digital ecosystem: less about maintaining an institution and more about cultivating community, formation, and following Jesus.
Ditch Your Church Website
is not just a course!
Start with the course - and get personalized help if you need it. If you decide to do a ‘bundle’ consultation of either Substack or PCO ‘points’ - the cost of the course is deducted.
The Course
$127
Walk through the vision of moving from ‘church database software, static website and anemic social media’ to ‘true digital membership and walking with others as they grow in their faith’.
Use two of today’s best digital platforms - Planning Center (PCO) and Substack - as the center of ministry.
We’ll stop at 9 points along a digital reimagination journey - 6 Planning Center features and 3 Substack features, customized for agile, networked, technology-based ministry (scroll down this page for what the 9 points are).
This course is available in May 2026. If you’re interested - and want early access and 25% off, just fill out this form:
The Assessment
$250
Schedule a one hour consultation and roadmap-building session. If you’re new to Substack or PCO -
or you’re using these platforms but need direction about how to best use them for more dynamic ministry
- let’s go through where you are, and create some steps to get you where you want to be.
The Assessment cost is automatically deducted from any Bundle of ‘Done with you’ or ‘Done for you’ services.
Done with you
$250 per point
You do the work, I guide you.
We work through one of the 9 points together in a session. Includes session recordings and notes, plus directions to specific PCO training resources.
Discounted ‘bundled’ rates for multiple points. Focus on only the features - in either Substack or PCO - that you want to maximize for your ministry.
Schedule a 30-minute video call to talk about the details…
Done for you
$500 per point
Free Range Priest builds it for you. Using tested templates, customized for your ministry.. Includes a walk through so you can maintain it yourself.
Schedule a 30-minute video call to talk about the details…
The 9 points
each point is a module in the course, and a unique consulting area that you can mix, match, and bundle
Planning Center (PCO) (6 points)
‘What time was that meeting again?’
Move from calendar clutter no one sees to targeted events everyone needs, using PCO Calendar and Publishing.From Announcement to Belonging
Instead of a static bulletin board (your old website), create a doorway into relationship with God and one another. Use PCO Groups and Calendar to create real community: people get the info they need (and not what they don’t), know how to join, what to expect, and how to stay connected.What Digital Ministry Can Really Mean
It’s not just live streaming your worship service! Design sign-ups and registrations that give a sense of belonging to digital (and in-person) members, using PCO Registrations and Groups.No More Generic ‘Contact Us’ Forms!
Replace black-hole forms with specific pastoral pathways that lead to immediate response - and ongoing relationship, using PCO Automations, Tasks, and Forms.What It Means to Be a Member in Today’s Church
Move beyond Member/not Member into a spectrum of categories that reflect the multiple ways people can be in relationship with your community, using PCO Customized Fields, Lists, and Automations.No One Walks Cold into Your Church
They want to know something about you first. And they want you to know something about them. ‘Communication’ is not just output - it’s a conversation. Start new conversations online with those who are new - and deepen the conversation with longtime members - using PCO Workflows, Email Templates, and Automation.
Substack (3 points)
Move Your Church’s Digital Doorway to a Place of Welcome
Don’t just host a static bulletin board about your ministry - create a place where ministry actually happens. Move your ministry domain (url) to Substack and customize the settings for engaging ministry.Here’s How to Bring Church to People
Turn ‘announcements’ into a pastoral, theological, and evangelical publication that grows an email list and nurtures discipleship, using Substack Settings and Formatting (+ connect your PCO Pages through Church Center).Build a Meaningful Bridge between ‘Digital’ and ‘In-person’ Community.
Digital members are still members! Connect with them - and those in your pews - with Substack Notes, Chats, Live streams, Welcome Emails, and Paid Subscriptions (+ the pros/cons of ‘Chat’ and ‘Paid Subscriptions’ between PCO and Substack).
Bundle Pricing
Not everyone is ready to do everything at once - or ever! Bundle the 9 points and get the help you need where you want it
Substack only (all 3 points):
Done-With-You $600 (save $150)
Done-For-You $1,200 (save $300)PCO only (all 6 points):
Done-With-You $1,350 (save $150)
Done-For-You $2,700 (save $300)Full build, all 9 points:
Done-With-You $1,800 (save $450)
Done-For-You $3,600 (save $900)
All bundles include the Online Course for free!
Already purchased the course?
Cost credit applied to any ‘Done with you’ or ‘Done for you’ bundle
(this can feel confusing! schedule a free 30-minute chat about getting the consultation need)
Creating your own, customized and dynamic digital platform with Substack and PCO makes it easier - and way more JOYful! - to Bring Church to People.
At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.
