Top 5+ Church WordPress Themes for Any Religious Website
The number of people who attend church services is declining. We’re seeing it in the United States. The U.K. is following the trend, and Europe isn’t changing its traditionally low church attendance figures. Churches are fighting this trend in different ways, including taking their worship online. The Church of England, for example, has made a strong move into developing digital assets, including apps and a strong social media presence.
Building an app sounds too difficult? Then start with a WordPress website. Building one is easy, even for novices. They have plenty of options for customization and come packed with tons of useful tools. Also, the sheer mass of available plugins ensures you can add just about any functionality imaginable to your site. The right plugin can kick-start a community around your website. A different one can boost engagement by letting church members leave testimonials.
Best of all, however, is that when worship moved online, the WordPress development community embraced it. There are lots of specialized church WordPress themes. We’ll show you five that will surely give you some ideas about designing your own digital place of worship.
If you think church WordPress themes should come in an elegant, no-frills form so that the important stuff — your message — can stand out, then Chapel is probably the WordPress theme for your church. Designed by Elated-Themes, Chapel is a modern theme built for churches, non-profits, and other organizations that hold events and accept donations.
Let’s start with donations. Chapel lets you accept donations with some help from GiveWP plugin, a very popular donation plugin. GiveWP also supports some customization options, so you can fine-tune the donation experience. If your church wants to sell donated merchandise, the WooCommerce plugin will let you create an online store, right there on your Chapel-themed website.
As far as events are concerned, Chapel offers several layouts specifically made for showcasing events. On top of that, it’s compatible with the Events Calendar plugin. With it, your church members will always have a place to turn to for event-related information. And thanks to audio support, they’ll also be able to listen to your sermons right there, on your website.
Features that make Chapel the best WordPress church theme:
- No Coding Knowledge Required
- Custom Font Shortcode
- 3 Header Types
- Video Backgrounds
- Contact Form 7 Plugin Compatibility
Creating a website for religious events and content is a very delicate endeavor. Therefore, choosing a well-thought church WordPress theme is crucial for setting up a website that will serve all the purposes of a religious community. The Church WordPress Theme by CyberChimps is an excellent choice as it comes with all the right features and functionalities. A variety of very useful niche-specific plugins like WordPress events and podcasts plugin is included for free.
The theme comes with the Elementor, the famous drag-and-drop page builder, that enables you to adjust, arrange and rearrange the content and layouts with ease. Thanks to the plenitude of predesigned pages like Events, Gallery, Contact us, About us, and Blog page, you can have your website all set up and running really quickly. The theme update that will soon be available will make it possible to collect and raise funds for various religious activities from the website itself.
Features that make Church the best WordPress church theme:
- SEO optimized
- Fast-performing
- Multilingual ready
- Responsive and retina ready
- One-click demo import support
There are WordPress themes, and then there are mammoth WordPress themes. Bridge, by QODE, has over 400 demos, one of which is created for a church website. The shortcode and functionalities it offers are a perfect example of why you should consider using a multipurpose WordPress theme for your church’s website instead of a specialized theme.
It all comes down to what the theme can help you do. With Bridge, it starts from the very beginning — you get access to video tutorials, beautiful demo content you can easily import, and a flexible and customizable layout. You’ll have the options and the help you need to build exactly what you want. You also get the benefit of four bundled plugins, and support for many, many more.
When it comes to spreading the good word, Bridge will help you by giving you lots of different layouts to choose from for your blog posts. Once you get those blog posts up, your website visitors will be able to share them easily thanks to the social media sharing functionality. And if you ever get stuck, or all the options make you feel overwhelmed, you’ll have access to a support staff that’s among the best in the business.Finally, it easily integrates with cutting-edge page builder Elementor, so you can build any type of page with ease.
Features that make Bridge the best WordPress church theme:
- 24 Layout Concepts
- Full Listing Functionality
- Front-End Login Functionality
- Quick Links Custom Post Type
- Section Video Background
There are plenty of ways you can customize how the Bethlehem theme looks. With three different demos and eight different headers, it’s easy to see that the theme’s builders know that versatility is an important asset. Made for churches, charities, non-profits, or mosques, Bethlehem is a theme that can easily be adapted for use for a smaller congregation or even a prayer group.
But the versatility doesn’t mean that the makers of Bethlehem forgot to add all the good features that WordPress church templates rely on. That’s why Bethlehem is compatible with the Events Calendar plugin, to let people know they have a reason to gather in the physical world. You can also use your website to amplify your church members’ words with the Testimonials Plugin from WooThemes.
Churches might be non-profits, but even non-profits can sometimes sell things. Bethlehem helps you take care of those functions many church websites need. You can sell yours, on your website, using the WooCommerce plugin. Bethlehem is also fully compatible with GiveWP, letting you gather donations right there on your website.
Features that make Bethlehem the best WordPress church theme:
- 3 Home Pages to Choose from
- Fully Localized, Translation-Ready
- Accessibility Ready
- Sermons Manager
- Responsive Layout
Some websites are quick pit-stops where people can get the information they want and move on. Other websites, however, are built for longer visits. Spiritual is such a WordPress church website theme. It helps you focus on the blog section, enabling you to use your storytelling gift to convince, converse, or simply connect with open-hearted people.
The Spiritual theme lets you proselytize more easily in a couple of ways. For example, it lets you spread your sermons or teachings by making them easily downloadable from the blog section. But if you’re not sure you want to communicate only in written form, you have the option to use other forms of content such as audio files or videos.
The important thing, however, is that whatever type of content you use can be seen on any device. That’s something Spiritual can help with, too — it’s a mobile-friendly theme, which means that it will look equally well on any screen size. If you want your words to reach people while they’re on the go, Spiritual is a sound choice for a WordPress website theme.
Features that make Spiritual the best WordPress church theme:
- Wide and Boxed Layout
- Advanced Blog Options
- One-Click Demo Installation
- Unlimited Sidebars
- 470+ Icons to Choose from
The three things a church website needs to have are: a content section, donation functionalities, and event pages or a calendar. With those three, you can do everything that you need — preach, organize, and gather contributions. Holy Church is a WordPress church theme that was built with those three core functionalities in mind.
The next best thing to preaching in the online world is having a strong blog section on your website. Holy Church gives you one, and it comes packed with options for style, layout, and post animations. But if you’re still not willing to go completely digital with your faith, don’t worry. Organize offline events, and use the Event Calendar plugin to keep your church members up to date.
One of the ways people express their appreciation of the good work churches are doing is with contributions. For monetary contributions, Holy Church relies on the ThemeREX donations plugin. If, on the other hand, your church wants to sell some of the contributions it got as goods, you can use the WooCommerce plugin to do sales from your website.
Features that make Holy Church the best WordPress church theme:
- Customizable Blog Feed
- Related Posts Section
- Media Content Manager
- MailChimp for Wp
- Interactive Ajax Search
Conclusion
When flocks migrate to digital pastures, churches have no choice but to follow them. But these church WordPress themes will help you do much more. The right theme and the right plugins can help you organize your community, gather donations, make charitable sales, and communicate with your congregation. We also suggest you check spiritual WordPress themes for more inspiration. So pick your WordPress church theme, and start doing the good work online!
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
