Some example CMS-based church websites

[srmcatee]

Here's a thought.

Can everyone post a Church Site that they know of uses a CMS. This would give everyone a chance to view sites. And when you post please identify which CMS was used to build the site.

What do you think David?

[David Gillaspey]

Good idea.

As you can see, I've split the post into its own thread.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[Brad]

Hi everyone-- on our sample sites (http://www.siteorganic.com/samples) page, we have a fairly robust gallery of sites that are using the SiteOrganic site management system. It's a CMS, but with a large number of high-end extras like dynamic Flash capabilities, XML web services, and full eCommerce capabilities.

[srmcatee]

Here's my speel:

My church: http://broadway.churchledger.com

The Ecclasia (Xoops) Product: http://www.churchledger.com. Click on the Portal Demo.

I'll post more church websites as I find them.

[mickmel]

Ours uses a CMS:

http://www.mtbethel.org/

It was mostly written in-house, but uses vBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com) for some of the user-management functions.

Mickey

[srmcatee]

I found this site: http://www.devenio.org/mambo/

They appear to be using MAMBO. Not sure who or what they are. Their use of CMS seems to be very limited.

ps. The replacement of mambo is Joomla.

Anyone find any other sites?

[GuruGreg]

We use one at South Pittsburgh Assembly of God (http://www.southpittag.org), but it's a homegrown one that I'm still developing and working out the bugs with. Eventually, I'd like to make it available to others.

[devenio]

At Devenio Christian Ministries (www.devenio.org (http://www.devenio.org)) we are using Mambo to manage our website. It's a lot easier to create the template with css and php than it is to have to manage html pages. In the near future we plan on redesigning our website to look like it's not using a CMS. For example, we'll fix that a user is forwarded to www.devenio.org/mambo (http://www.devenio.org/mambo) when the user types in www.devenio.org (http://www.devenio.org). Little changes like that will help the over all user experience.

Also we are barly using Mambo to the extent that we could be using it. Future upgrades to the site will incorporate more features and possibily an upgrade to Joomla.

Cory Glanton
Director, Devenio Christian Ministries
The Rock Bible Ministry at John Brown University
coryg@devenio.org
www.devenio.org (http://www.devenio.org)

[churchwebkit]

Canyon Springs Baptist Church (http://canyonspringsbaptist.com) is powered by Church Web Kit (http://www.churchwebkit.com).

[jbraden]

David,

I joined your merry band and immediately ran into a semantic issue. CMS to me is 'Content Management System' (web page content change). Some of the responses here seem to infer that it is "Church Management System' (finance, membership, etc). Is the latter the notion when one uses CMS on your site? We are looking for a content management system to help church members become more active in updating and communicating with current content on their pages.

John Braden

[StubbyD]

CMS to me is 'Content Management System' (web page content change). Some of the responses here seem to infer that it is "Church Management System' (finance, membership, etc). Is the latter the notion when one uses CMS on your site?

Hi John,

I can't speak for David but in my search I can tell you that CMS = Content Mgmt Systems but when it comes to churches it seems to be synonmous with church mgmt as well.

What it seems is that some enterprising companies have taken CMS and added the church mgmt aspects to make it more appealing.

Just my 2p.

[churchwebkit]

CMS = content management
I have seen "ChMS" used to refer to Church Management System
Church Web Kit (http://www.churchwebkit.com) is a content management system especially for churches. Options to manage membership, track financial contributions are currently in beta testing...

[David Gillaspey]

CMS to me is 'Content Management System' (web page content change). Some of the responses here seem to infer that it is "Church Management System' (finance, membership, etc). Hi John,

Sorry I haven't answered sooner ? I just got home from school.

Whenever I use the term "CMS," I almost always include with it the explanation "(content management system)" to clarify what I mean. But not everyone follows that practice.

Since this is a forum about church websites, one might assume that "CMS" used in a post refers to a web content management system without further explanation. As you are pointing out, that works great unless the visitor has come from a different field of work or ministry and "CMS" means something else to them, such as, Church Management System.

As Stu points out, CMS means both Content Management System and Church Management System, depending on where one is coming from. A few of the content management systems I list on my website, Great Church Websites (which hosts this forum)

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/CMS_main.php

actually include some Church Management System features. I do not specifically attempt to list Church Management System vendors, however, since church management is not the focus of my website.

So ... I think for now, the best answer to your question is, "CMS" on this forum means Content Management System unless the poster specifies otherwise.

Thanks for joining this merry band, by the way. I'm glad you raised the issue, because it resulted in an important clarification.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites
(and forum administrator)

[tmreg]

My church uses XOOPS (http://churchthatcares.org). It is probably not the easiest one to use for an absolute beginner, but it will let you do about anything you want it to do.

I do not think that anything on my church's site is used "right out of the box" but with some minor tweaking we have made it do what we wanted it to do.

If anyone is about to embark on a xoops project and is looking for help, let me know.

[StubbyD]

My church uses XOOPS (http://churchthatcares.org). It is probably not the easiest one to use for an absolute beginner, but it will let you do about anything you want it to do.

I do not think that anything on my church's site is used "right out of the box" but with some minor tweaking we have made it do what we wanted it to do.

If anyone is about to embark on a xoops project and is looking for help, let me know.

Perhaps this should go to a new thread ....??

I'm intrigued enough to ask - what are the base requirements for getting an XOOPS site up and running. What does the ISP/hoster need to offer in terms of php, mysql, etc?

Will it run on windows, linux, ??

[tmreg]

You need a server with php and mysql. I don't think it matters if it is windows or linux. I have a linux hosting package through godaddy.com and have never had a problem installing it. there is a more detailed system requirements in the faq section at xoops.org.

[mikecheck1two]

My church website was custom designed with Joomla as the CMS.

www.cornerstonelapuente.com

Some cool Joomla extentions that we implemented with our site is a video manager similar to youtube. it allows us to easily post youtube or google videos by simply entering the URL. Having our videos on Google Video and Youtube allows us to have true streaming capability for free.

We have Online Giving, Prayer Center, E-vites, Download Manager, rotating banner, Calendar, scrolling announcements...

For our sermon audio player I really didn't like anything Joomla offered so we went with the Sermon Player from www.sermonplayer.com It is the best sermon player I know of that is really affordable.

[flutem3]

For our sermon audio player I really didn't like anything Joomla offered so we went with the Sermon Player from www.sermonplayer.com (http://www.sermonplayer.com/) It is the best sermon player I know of that is really affordable.

Sermon Player is more than affordable. There is a free version. Even though it may be affordable for some churches, it may not be for others. For example, if our church had to pay for it right now, we would not have it.

However, I like using it. On the free version there are church appropriate ads at the top which can be dismissed with an x...delete. I have found all of the ones which have appeared to be material a person doesn't even see after using it a couple of time.

It is also not customizable regarding color. But they have used a color which will blend in with almost any site.

By using Sermon Player you are also hooked up for ipods and mobile devices automatically. You can also include text and scripture for each sermon if you choose to do so. Pictures can also be used.

And it is very easy to use...from my standpoint :D and from the viewers' perspective.

I really like it and so do the people who have used it.

Carol

[generalhavok]

I recently launched a site for a church in California. I think it's a bit plain - even though I designed it - but apparently everyone there thinks it hits their community, and the people they want to reach, on the head. We made use of our own version of a php image replacement script, so even their blog titles will be in a special font that matches their site.

http://www.praxisgathering.com/

The site uses a CMS called PageProLive, and my partner and I developed it from scratch. It's written in php/mysql. We do a lot of consulting, and wanted a CMS that fits a 'best practices' framework...and couldn't find one. Its most unique feature is that it's Design Agnostic Development (DAD)...meaning it has no templates. You can use any HTML page as a template in just minutes.