Community is all about bringing people together. It’s something that religious groups–both large and small–have been doing throughout history.
And, while such groups tend to meet face-to-face, having an online presence has become increasingly vital. More so since the Covid19 pandemic struck. A church or religious website serves as an informational source, a line of communication and an opportunity for growth.
Providing any organization with a solid footing online has never been easier–thanks to an outstanding selection of premium and free religious WordPress themes.
In this article, I'lll show you some top options for your church, temple, mosque, or synagogue or retreat.
Top Church and Religious WordPress Themes on ThemeForest
If you looking for the best theme for your religious organization, check out the vast selection available on ThemeForest. Part of the Envato marketplaces, ThemeForest offers thousands of premium WordPress themes– including over 84 church and religious themes.
Download These Outstanding Religious WordPress Themes
The WordPress themes below have been built with church and religious communities in mind. This mix of premium and free religious WordPress theme selections will help you build a top-notch WordPress website in less time.
1. Samadhi—Oriental Buddhist Temple WordPress Theme
Samadhi has been created to serve the purposes of an Ashram and a Buddhist website. But it's so much more.
The theme is also well-suited to a splendid online presentation for any retreat centre with yoga, church, meditation and/or spiritual practices. Also makes a great website for cultural events, teaching sessions and inspiration classes and workshops
2. Native Church—Multi Purpose WordPress Theme
Native Church offers some great features for engaging with your community. Included are an event calendar/registration system, a donation plugin and a sermons manager.
Built using the Twitter Bootstrap framework, the theme is both beautiful and fully responsive.
3. Church—WordPress
Easy enough for beginners, but powerful enough for seasoned designers, Church is a highly-flexible WordPress theme. There are tons of layout options, including more than ten headers and in excess of 20 footers.
Plus, it’s easy to add special effects such as parallax scrolling and CSS animation using built-in tools.
4. My Religion—Dedicated Church WordPress Theme With Events, Sermons and Donations
Turn a website into an online hub with My Religion. Integration with the included free Donations plugin enables goal-based fundraising, while WooCommerce support offers another way to spread the word through online sales.
Also included are an easy way to post sermons online and a custom theme options panel.
5. The Church Lite (Free WordPress Theme)
With a modern and stylish look, The Church Lite is an excellent free WordPress theme to get your organization online. Theme settings can be tweaked via the native WordPress customizer and it’s compatible with popular page builder plugins.
Extras include a full-screen slider and a selection of custom widgets.
6. Grace—Church, Religion and Charity WordPress Theme
Grace will help you get up and running quickly with one-click installation of theme demos and plenty of room for customization.
Use the integrated ThemeREX Donations plugin to raise funds, while you can post upcoming events via a calendar plugin. The theme is also compatible with the Gutenberg block editor.
7. Bethlehem—Church WordPress Theme
Bethlehem has everything you need to build a highly-custom church website. Choose from three available demo designs and use the theme options panel to tweak the look and layout of this accessible theme.
You’ll also find integrated mega menus, compatibility with WooCommerce and the Give donations plugin.
8. Deeds—Best Responsive Nonprofit Church WordPress Theme
Complete with more than nine demo sites, Deeds is a great fit for any religious organization’s website requirements.
Also included are more than eight header styles and a wide selection of built-in pages. The theme supports recurring donations via a plugin, an events calendar and clergy profiles.
9. Spiritual—Church WordPress Theme (Responsive)
Spiritual has a number of features that allow you to personalize a church website. Use the included customizer to change most theme-related elements and the shortcode generator to build custom pages.
In addition, there are tons of typography and icon options–making this theme a great choice for those who want fine grain control.
10. Ichthys—Church WordPress Theme
Beautiful and powerful, Ichthys features a bold design and a number of helpful extras. The Total Donations plugin enables you to raise funds online, while the sermons post type can house a multimedia archive of content.
Plus, you can choose from five pixel-perfect home page designs to suit your tastes.
11. Our Church—WordPress Theme
Built with the Twitter Bootstrap CSS framework, Our Church will look great on every device. It offers lots of options to customize a website’s look and layout. It also boasts compatibility with popular plugins such as WooCommerce and BuddyPress.
Content management is a breeze with special post types for prayers, causes and team members.
12. NGO Charity Fundraising Lite (Free WordPress Child Theme)
This free offering is a child theme of Bizberg and fully supports the Gutenberg block editor. Under the hood you’ll find easy demo content import, the ability to add your own custom CSS and a theme options panel.
While limited in scope, the theme is perfect for a budget-conscious organization.
13. Great Lotus—Oriental Buddhist Temple WordPress Theme
With a focus on Buddhist organizations, Great Lotus offers a terrific foundation to build on.
It features the ability to accept online donations, host an events calendar and lots of premade page designs. And, demo content is only a click away.
14. Shaha—Islamic Centre and Mosque WordPress Theme
Shaha offers features that reflect the needs of Islamic organizations, including support for RTL languages.
Also included is a helpful Prayer Times widget, which enables the display of a prayer schedule for your location. The theme has been built for easy customization and includes a plugin for accepting donations.
15. Wise Church—Multi-Purpose Online Ministry WordPress Theme
Wise Church includes some features not often found in other themes within this niche: Support for live chat and streaming video.
This improves communication with your congregation and makes your website a real destination. It also eschews page builder plugins in favor of the native Gutenberg block editor.
16. New Life—Church and Religion WordPress Theme
Featuring a selection of unique designs, New Life is a WordPress theme that is sure to make your church, temple, synagogue or mosque stand out. It includes support for an events calendar, donations and eCommerce via the WooCommerce plugin.
Extras include a video slider, sticky menus and the option to create a single-page website.
17. Hanani—Jewish Community and Synagogue WordPress Theme
Designed with the Jewish faith in mind, Hanani can be customized to meet your needs.
There's a number of premade pages, as well as support for donations and events. Extras include mega menus, Ajax search and parallax scrolling effects.
Tips for Building a Great Church Website
1. Consider Members' Needs
Current and prospective members visit a website looking for information. They’ll want to find out your service schedule, directions to your location and a whole lot more.
Think about all of the different items aspects of use to visitors and include them on your site. Not sure what to publish? Ask members what they want to see.
2. Use Multimedia for Better Engagement
Multimedia content is a great way to engage visitors. Many of the themes above have specific features for photo galleries, video and audio.
Use them to help members revisit community events, catch up on services and see the results of charitable work.
3. Integrate Social Media
Leverage social media to both spread the word about your organization and drive traffic to your website.
For instance, sharing buttons enable visitors to easily repost your content on their own feeds. And, posting links to your content on social media will help to raise awareness of a beautiful new website.
4. Open the Lines of Communication
One of the real strengths of a great organizational website is the ability to create dialogue. This can be achieved a number of ways, depending on your needs.
A simple contact form may be enough, or you may even expand into forums or live chat. The point is to encourage communication.
5. Accept Online Donations
Your website can serve as a great vehicle for raising funds. As you may have noticed, several themes in this roundup include or recommend donation plugins. Once set up, they provide you with the ability to accept donations, 24/7.
Some even include support for recurring donations, allowing members to give on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.
Give Any Religious Organization a Great Online Home
Having a beautiful, informative website plays a key role in helping any organization spread the good word. You can use it to promote community engagement, raise funds and keep an online history of past teachings.
Each of the WordPress themes above can help you achieve these goals. Choose the one that best fits your needs and build something great!
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Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Johnny Winter. Johnny is a staff writer with Envato Tuts+.
