Church Website CMS?

Xenonsoft

Active Member
Just been reminded to look into CMS' solutions for my Churches new website.

We're leaning towards Wordpress as it's free (and has tonnes of themes), but it's blogging software first and foremost so will require tweaking (anyone had any experience of doing this?).

I've had a quick look at Joomla and it might be a good option.

Bare in mind that quite a few old people with minimal computer knowledge will be given a bit of training to learn how to use it, so the more user friendly the better, backend wise.

I'm happy to design the site and code it if it's reasonably easy but a pre-designed template is certainly preferable.
 
Hi Fred,

I would personally recommend Wordpress, as from my own experience it's the most user-friendly for those who may not have experience with web development/CMS, with regards to the blog fuctionality would there not be any need for a Church blog or news section in which you could still utilize this?

I've seen some fantastic Church websites built onto WP, will have a look through my bookmarks and see if I can find them for you. And, as a compromise have you thought about going down the route of getting an existing WP theme free or purchased, and then customize design elements and the CSS to suit, if there is no budget as such?

HTH,
Greg
 
Hey Greg,

Cheers for the helpful input. There's certainly some room to manoeuvre regarding the budget and we're more than happy to buy a wordpress theme and tweak.

I've seen a couple of good Church based wordpress designs, need to look into it a little further but I'm sure there will be something we're happy with.

I'll look at wordpress now, as if we can customise the nav links on the left and the dashboard then it may well be a very good option.
 
Yes, wordpress is your best friend in this scenario - particularly easy to set up so authors can't mess it up. Main problem is setting up 'proper' navigation.

Other appropriate choices include modX and drupal. I love drupal but it's a long long road to tread...

Good luck with it.
 
Hi Fred,

Here's some Wordpress Church themes I found that may be of some help/inspiration;
Church WordPress Theme
Springs : Church WordPress Theme

Ambience or OpenAir from WooThemes;
WooThemes Demo
WooThemes Demo

Wordpress Church Theme from ThemeForest;
Wordpress Church Preview - Flashden

CafePress would form a good starting point perhaps?
Cafe Press

Hope that helps, they're all paid themes, but would give you a solid starting point to building the site in WP I think, and for the price of the theme would be more cost effective for your Church than getting a full WP custom build I think.

As for design inspiration, here's a great round-up of some Church web designs, a few of them I recognize from CSS galleries and some I've not seen before - http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-church-websites/

Greg
 
Cheers lads.

I've seen the top link before, it's quite a nice theme. I've bookmarked a few of those too, especially that rundown. I'm gonna look through some other options, I really like the news site style of some of the designs but I think it's a little too formal for what we're looking for, which is a shame as I would quite enjoy trying my hand at designing / tweaking one myself.

Again, cheers.
 
Cheers again lads :)

Loving that skycms stuff, surprised there's a big enough market to justify that if I'm honest, but will certainly look into that as a viable option.
 
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