November 7, 2024

17+ Resources for Churches Using WordPress

Since more than 15% of the web is powered by WordPress, itís not surprising that many churches are utilizing it. Here’s a collection of great resources for churches using WordPress:

WordPress Themes for Churches

WP for Church

WP for Church began to offer responsive church themes this summer. The site started last year to provide WordPress training and church specific plugins.

responsive WordPress church themes

 

Church Themer

After launching in February of last year, Church Themer has released four themes. All of them have built in support for audio sermons and simple events management.

Church Themer

 

Theme Loom

As the oldest church theme provider, Theme Loom has 8 themes available. What makes Theme Loom unique is that all of their recent themes are fully responsive and offer full support for BuddyPress.

Theme Loom

 

Church Themes

Churchthemes.net has four different church themes available for free. They sell premium versions that include built in support for sermons & podcasting.

Church Themes

 

Theme Forest

There are quite a few church themes now available on Theme Forest. Here’s a few favorites:

responsive WordPress church themes

Risen

WordPress church themes

Light of Peace

responsive WordPress church themes

Gospel

WordPress church themes

Rebirth

WordPress church themes

Born

WordPress Plugins for Churches

Sermon Manager

Sermon Manager lets you organize audio or video sermons by speaker, series, and topic. Notes can be attached to each sermon. Images can be added to any sermon, speaker, or series. It utilizes custom post types and taxonomies to organize the messages. An add-on is available to add sermons directly by uploading an mp3 file.

Sermon Browser

Sermon Browser is the first plugin to manage sermons for churches. It is used widely, but development seems to have ceased at this time.

Church Pack (Free & Pro)

Developed to meet the common needs of churches using WordPress: nicely display staff, ministries or groups, photo galleries, events & more!

Spiritual Gifts Survey

The Spiritual Gifts Survey gives a 128 question test and ranks the gifts based on the test score.

church_admin

This plugin seems to have a focus on churches in the UK, but includes several useful features: calendar, address book, small group categories, Sunday rota and bulk sms and mailshot facilities.

PrayBox

PrayBox is a prayer request application that allows users to submit requests, or pray for existing requests, as well as allowing site administrators to manage prayer requests. A pro version is available with advanced moderation features.

Other Resources

Gallery of Churches Using WordPress

Tim Hyde has compiled a huge gallery of churches using WordPress for your inspiration here.

Hosting for Churches Using WordPress

I’ve only discovered one host offering special hosting packages and support for churches using WordPress: Baptisthost.net

What other resources have you discovered for churches using WordPress?

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Jack Lamb loves churches and developing for WordPress. He's the founder of WP for Church. If you are interested in using WordPress to manage your church website, then you should subscribe to his newsletter and follow him on Twitter.

11 Comments

  1. Tim Shangle Reply

    In designing a number of church websites and watching them fall to pieces almost immediately after handing over the keys, two things to keep in mind are stressing the importance of quality content. Both in copy and in professional photography. If you ever have an opportunity to share some of the philosophy behind solid content strategies to a church, please do so. Many do not understand what branding is or why it is so vitally important.

    1. Jack Reply

      Thanks for the feedback, Tim! It’s difficult because churches face the inevitable turnover of volunteers managing their web presence. Churches need to adopt a clear written policy for the church website so continuity can be maintained no matter who is managing it. Hey! That sounds like a great idea for an article 🙂

  2. Tom Reply

    Amazing, I was looking for some inspiration and found this post. Can’t say I was really expecting to find a post on WordPress church themes 🙂

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