Partner in Ministry: Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan

A Fresh Start for a Growing Parish: The Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan

For years, the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Oregon had a website that didn’t reflect who they were. It was dark, hard to update, and had been pieced together over several changes in church leadership. Getting even a small change made meant going through an outside vendor who was often unresponsive, and staff didn’t have full access to the church’s own social media accounts. For a parish that describes itself as inclusive, traditional, and progressive all at once, the site didn’t match the warmth of the community behind it.

When the church brought on a new communications coordinator, the timing lined up with a broader reset already underway, including a new strategic plan and a fresh communications approach. With someone in place to lead the day-to-day, the church decided it was finally time to invest in a website that could keep up.

From Dark and Static to Light and Story-First

The goal for the new site was simple to describe and meaningful to deliver: move away from a heavy, text-driven design toward something lighter, more visual, and story-first. Rather than telling visitors about the church, the new site shows them, through fresh photos and a homepage designed to be updated often rather than sit static.

Security was just as important. Given a past experience with a site security incident, reliable hosting, backups, and protection were a top priority for this rebuild.

Bringing Worship Home

The Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan livestreams its worship services on YouTube, but previously that meant sending people away from the church’s own site to watch. The new website embeds the livestream feed directly on the homepage, automatically showing the most recent service when nothing is live, so visitors never hit a blank screen or an error. The feed was also built as a global element, so it only needs a single update to carry across every page where it appears, a welcome change for staff managing the site day to day.

Clearer Ways to Connect

As the church settled into the new site, staff found that several parish groups listed in the old navigation were no longer active. What had been two separate, cluttered menus, Small Groups and Adult Education, became a single, more accurate Parish Life section built around the groups that were actually meeting.

Room and venue requests saw a similar cleanup. Previously, anyone hoping to book church space had to email the office directly, with no easy way to see what was already scheduled. The church wanted something tidier, a simple way to keep requests organized, and the new site’s request form gave them exactly that.

The site also connects to the church’s Constant Contact newsletters. Past issues are automatically archived and viewable right on the site, and new sign-ups from the website flow straight into Constant Contact, so visitors can subscribe without any extra manual work on the church’s end.

Today, the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan has a website that finally feels like them: warm, current, and easy for staff to keep fresh as the parish continues to grow.