If you decide to go for the "in-house" option (and someone else is building it) it's worth asking for an example website to look at first to make sure you're going to get the right results. Also stay hands on in the design process even if you don't understand the technical stuff - ask for regular updates on how things are going.

Advantages of building in-house

• If you have someone with enough time, skill and commitment they can be a great free resource.

• A webmaster that gets involved with church activities is handy in terms of keeping the content fresh.

Disadvantages to building in-house

• Getting a site that looks too "home-made" - whilst it can be quite easy to build a website it is not always easy to meet the required standards.

• If your webmaster leaves you could end up with a site that no-one can work out how to update, or you may be left with a site that can't be removed.

• Whilst in-house volunteers can be very useful they need to be committed to regular updates - if they lose interest or become too busy with other things the information on your site will quickly become out of date which will then reflect badly on your church.