Let's look at a few options for how to structure the site. These won't be perfect and all will require some tough choices. We might also find a way to blend some of what we like best from each.
Concepts
Here's the final concept based on our strategy meeting:
To give you some context while you're reviewing, here are the four main navigation areas that we're focusing on right now (I took this from the template you're leaning towards right now through Ekklesia 360).
Global Navigation This is at the top of your site. Almost all of your pages will fall under these main sections (pages within these sections won't likely need to display in the navigation, but they'll be there structurally on the back end).
Homepage Toolbox With the design you’ve selected, you have a great space on the homepage to feature the most used tools and resources on your site.
Homepage Process Trio Just below the toolbox section, there’s space to feature three items side by side. This is a great place to outline a process or a flow of how you do ministry.
Footer If you have the ability to put a few links in your footer, this might be a great place for just two community tools or resources that you want available from all pages (Giving might be a good example of that).
One Quick Guideline
It’s generally best practice to keep your language structure the same in each section of navigation, as much as possible.
For example, you want to try and avoid mixing command language (Give, Get Connected) with topic-based language (Sundays, Our Story).
Good navigation:
About Me (topic)
The Shop (topic)
How I Make Pottery (topic)
Blog (topic)
Not as good navigation:
About Me (topic)
Shop Now (command)
How I Make Pottery (topic)
Read My Blog (command)
Of course, there will always be exceptions. For example, "Contact" is a pretty widely used command in global navigation even if the rest of the links are topic-based. Or maybe we want "Give" to always be in the Footer, no matter what else is there.