This talk outlines the available options for churches when using WordPress, a powerful content management system. Add great features to your church website with WordPress and the Church Theme Content plugin: sermons, events, locations/mapping/directions, people/staff, tithing, and more. This talk is from WordCamp DFW 2014.

2. Building a Church
Website on WordPress
Chris Wallace @chriswallace"
Partner & Principal Creative

4. What I’m going to cover
Reasons to choose WordPress for a church website.!
The state of open-source/WordPress for churches.!
The pros and cons of WordPress.!
Available church themes and plugins.!
Selecting a web host.!
How to get help from people in your church.

5. Why use WordPress for a
church website?
• Freedom!!
• People already know it (think volunteers, staff,
contractors).!
• Tons of resources, tutorials, help.!
• Fewer & lessened recurring costs.!
• Customize anything.

6. A Brief History of
WordPress and Churches

7. Before 2011

8. What made WordPress hard
to use for Church websites?
• Few church-specific themes!
• Not easy to add church-specific content!
• Church themes with custom post types INSIDE
themes!
• No integration with Church Management System

9. What’s changed since 2011?
• In 2011, churchthemes.net introduced 4 church
themes with built-in framework for sermons, people,
and location management.!
• In 2012, WP for Church introduced Church Pack with
staff, ministries/groups, photo galleries, and events. !
• In 2013, churchthemes.com introduced Church
Theme Content plugin with sermons, people,
locations, and events.

10. Today’s church website options
DIY
Cost Skills Required Time to Launch
Hosted $1,000 up front
$50+ monthly
content entry,
training, working
around constraints
weeks / months
WordPress website hosting ability to click a
mouse as few as 20 minutes
Do-It-
Yourself your life
design, development,!
content entry, tech support,
QA, teaching pastor how to
use the Internet, etc.
???

11. Where are all the
WordPress open source
church things?

12. WordPress.org Plugin
Repository Comparison
364 28
number of
plugins tagged
‘slider’
number of
plugins tagged
‘church’

13. srsly?

14. What’s
worse…
A lot of these
plugins aren’t
actually for
churches.

15. OK, so what about
themes? Gotta be a bunch
o’ church themes.

16. There is literally one free theme on
WordPress.org & it’s called “Church.”

17. ?????

18. Still, WordPress is a
great foundation for a
church website.

19. Step 1. outline features
needed for the website.

20. What most churches need:
Pages!
Blog!
Social!
Volunteer/Staff login!
Image Galleries
Sermons and Series!
Events!
Staff!
Locations / Directions!
Small Groups!
Contact Forms!
Tithing

21. What WordPress handles:
Pages!
Blog!
Social!
Volunteer/Staff login!
Image Galleries
Sermons and Series!
Events!
Staff!
Locations / Directions!
Small Groups!
Contact Forms!
Tithing

22. Step 2. Pick your plugins.

24. Why use the Church Theme
Content plugin?
• Data portability!
• Content won’t just “disappear” when switching themes!
• Themes should control appearance, not post types!
• Consistency in features!
• One-click plugin updates

25. What does the CTC plugin
add to WordPress?
• Sermons & sermon series (with video, audio, PDF)!
• Staff bios & groups!
• Events!
• Locations

33. Other church plugins
• Church Theme Content Integration - FREE
Syncs events from Fellowship One to CTC plugin.!
• PrayBox - FREE
Can be used for small groups & community.!
• Scripture Highlighter - FREE
Turns scripture references into clickable links that
open & highlight the verse.

34. Other plugins for churches
• Woocommerce - FREE
Powers more than 10% of all e-commerce websites.
Good for music, apparel, books, and more.!
• BuddyPress - FREE
Can be used for small groups & community.!
• Ninja Forms - FREE
Create powerful forms for volunteer, contact, and
other types of forms.

35. Other plugins for churches
• Edit Flow - FREE
Easy way to manage content publishing process and
approval.!
• Akismet
Automate comment spam deletion.!
• The Events Calendar - FREE and Pro version
Includes extensions for selling tickets, Eventbrite, and
community events.

36. Step 3. Pick a WordPress
theme or create your own.

37. Commercial Church Theme Options
CTC Themes Non-CTC Themes
churchthemes.net churchthemer.com
churchthemes.com wpforchurch.com
boxystudio.com ThemeForest

38. Theme tip: Start with a
theme that uses the
CTC plugin.

39. Theme tip: Pick a theme that
can easily be customized
and includes support.

40. Step 4. Find a hosting
company that does
everything for you.

41. Good WordPress web hosts
• Pagely
$24/mo+!
• Flywheel
$15/mo+!
• SiteGround
$9.95/mo+
no page view limits
free migration
low cost

42. Step 5. Install WordPress
+ theme + plugins.
Pro tip: the hosts I recommended earlier will
install WordPress for you.

43. Step 6. Get people
involved.

44. Tips for involving other church
staff/volunteers
• Subscribe to WP101.com training videos to teach
them WordPress.!
• Send a call for help to your church. Never build a
church website by yourself.!
• Give people responsibilities and train them. Require
their participation. Set up processes.!
• Find key stakeholders early and educate them on how
the website works before you build it.

45. One more thing: we
need contributors.

46. Thank you! Questions?
Slides available at:
slideshare.net/chriswallace7
Twitter!
Web!
!
!
@churchthemesnet!
churchthemes.net!
@liftux!
liftux.com!
@upthemes!
upthemes.com!
@chriswallace
chriswallace.net