Northshore Church
Northshore Church in Kirkland, Washington has grown into a new season, but its old WordPress site was stuck in the last one. We built a custom Webflow site that welcomes newcomers, puts families and the next generation first, and is built to be found on Google and AI search.
Project Overview
Northshore Church is a church in Kirkland, Washington, led by Senior Pastor Scott Scruggs. Their heart fits in one line: "Everybody's welcome. Nobody's perfect." Since the pandemic, Northshore has changed in real ways, with new people, new leaders, and a fresh focus on young families and the next generation.
But their website was still telling the story of the church they used to be.
The Challenge
At our kickoff, the Northshore team described a church with a new makeup and DNA. Their old WordPress site didn't show any of that, and it didn't give a newcomer an obvious way in.
Here's what was holding the old site back:
- It didn't reflect the church. The site felt outdated and didn't show who Northshore is today.
- There was no clear on-ramp. A newcomer had no simple path to Starting Point, their newcomers class.
- The brand was split. An older brand guide and a newer building color palette were pulling in different directions.
- It was hard to manage. Staff entered every event twice, once in Planning Center and again on the website.
- It wasn't built to be found. The site wasn't set up with strong SEO or AEO for people searching Google or AI tools.
The team's goals for the new site:
- Reflect who Northshore is now, using an updated color palette
- Give newcomers a clear path to taking their next step
- Put young families and the next generation first
- Enter events once and have them show up everywhere
- Use the project to finish their discipleship pathway
Our Approach
We kicked off in April 2026 with the Northshore team and their creative partner, Akiha Marketing. We started with strategy: a sitemap and wireframes organized around the people visiting, especially young families and newcomers. From there we designed the homepage and every sub page in Figma, locked nearly all of the content before development, and built the site on Webflow with a content management system their team can update on their own.
What We Built
A homepage that goes live when they do
The homepage leads with Northshore's conviction, "Jesus can change everything for anyone," with service times and a Plan Your Visit button right up front. When Northshore goes live on YouTube, the hero automatically switches to a muted live video with a Watch Live and Chat button, then switches back when the stream ends. Nobody on staff has to touch the website on Sunday morning.
A clear on-ramp for newcomers
A "Find your Place" section gives every visitor a next step: attend Starting Point, learn about Alpha, explore NextGen, or join a group. The Plan Your Visit page walks guests through arriving, the service, and kids and youth, so a first Sunday feels less like a guess.
Pages built for parents
Young families were Northshore's top priority, so we gave NextGen its own landing page plus dedicated pages for Northshore Kids and Northshore Youth. Each one speaks to parents, explains what their kids will experience, and answers their questions before Sunday.
A discipleship pathway families can follow
The new site gave Northshore a reason to finish its discipleship pathway, and now it has a home. "Six stages. One journey." lays out what faith looks like from birth through 12th grade, with tabs that show parents what to expect at every age and how they can partner with the church at home.
Events entered once, shown everywhere
We connected Planning Center to the website with Sunday Sync, our tool that brings Planning Center events onto a church's website as native content. Staff add an event in Planning Center, and within minutes it appears on the homepage calendar and on the Kids, Youth, and Outreach pages. Staff can still add photos, speakers, or FAQs on the website without the sync overwriting them, and visitors can subscribe to calendars in Apple, Google, or Outlook.
Built to be found
We built every page with SEO and AEO best practices, so Northshore is easier to find on Google and in AI search tools like ChatGPT. That includes:
- Schema markup that helps search engines and AI tools understand who Northshore is and what it offers
- An LLMs.txt file that gives AI assistants a clear, accurate summary of the church and its website
- Custom page titles, descriptions, and share images for every page
- A clear heading structure and more helpful content, including FAQ sections that answer the questions people are actually asking
Accessible to everyone
For Northshore, accessibility is personal. Shortly after launch, someone on their staff asked whether the new site had been through an accessibility checker. After years in the tech industry, they saw accessible design as essential, not optional.
We aim to meet accessibility standards on every site we build, so we reviewed Northshore's site against WCAG 2.2 and fixed the couple of things we'd missed, including:
- A "skip to content" link and main landmark, so keyboard and screen reader users can jump past the navigation straight to the page content
- A plain-language summary for their team of what we changed and why
Now Northshore's site meets WCAG accessibility standards, and someone using a screen reader can find a service time and plan their first Sunday as easily as anyone else. We share more of this story in our church website accessibility guide.
The Impact
Northshore's new website launched on September 11, 2026. For the first time, their website reflects the church they've become: welcoming, focused on families, and serious about helping every generation follow Jesus.
It also helps people get plugged in. Newcomers have a clear path for their next step, parents can see the whole journey for their kids, and events stay current without double entry thanks to Sunday Sync. Since launch, we've kept building with their team, adding a Ways to Give section, a Spiritual Gifts Assessment page, and a custom branded landing page for a missions initiative.
Conclusion
Everybody is welcome at Northshore, and now its website makes that easy to see. Their new site tells their story, helps families take their next step, and is ready to grow with them.
Are you a ministry or church needing a new website? Lets chat! Book an intro today.
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