You may not realize it, but you're using WordPress right now.
By reading this article, which was published via WordPress, you're interacting with the most popular content management system.
The free and open source content management system is a powerful tool that can do way more than just help you manage the content on your website.
For churches, WordPress can be a cost-effective way of managing your entire church operations. There's even a WordPress plug-in that includes features such as a membership directory, email management, bulk SMS capabilities, attendance tracking, calendar, facility management, and more.
But even if you're just using WordPress to run your church website, it can be very useful. WordPress themes allow you to customize the look of your website to make it stand out from the millions out there using the default Twenty Seventeen WordPress theme.
You can download these themes as .zip files, or add them directly through the WordPress Appearance menu (you'll need Administrative rights).
Now, let's take a look at seven free WordPress themes that can upgrade your church website.
Free WordPress church themes
We'll link to each of these WordPress church themes below, in order of user rating, but if you'd like to do your own search, just click here and use the search box. Try searching for words such as church, worship, and faith.
These themes have all been verified by WordPress for security and stability. WordPress also has a directory of web design companies that produce professional WordPress themes, for a cost, of course.
1. Virtue
An example of the Virtue WordPress theme, by Kadence Themes
Used by more than 60,000 websites, Virtue is a popular theme for businesses, freelancers, and of course, churches. Virtue is clean and versatile, using the Bootstrap framework to make it fully responsive—meaning that its layout changes based on the size of the screen it's being displayed on—and mobile-ready. Virtue also includes all the tools you need to build an online store through WooCommerce.
Rating: 5/5 (215 ratings)
2. Responsive Brix
An example of the Responsive Brix WordPress theme, by wpHoot
As the name implies, Responsive Brix is designed to look good on any type of screen, whether it's desktop, mobile phone, or tablet. It was recently updated, in October of 2017, and is optimized to load quickly. Users can switch between Boxed, for a traditional appearance, or Stretched, for a more modern-looking, widescreen layout.
Rating: 5/5 (32 ratings)
3. Great
An example of the Great WordPress theme, by benalvele
Great is a straightforward theme that can be customized to match the primary color of your logo. It supports 50 different languages and is ready for mobile and tablet screens. It is optimized to work with WP-PageNavi for advanced pagination links, Jetpack for analytics and engagement, Contact Form 7 for contact forms, bbPress for discussion forums, and WooCommerce for online shopping, among other WordPress plug-ins.
Rating: 5/5 (12 ratings)
4. HappenStance
An example of the HappenStance WordPress theme, by TT Themes
Though no longer supported after its last major update in June of 2017, HappenStance is a popular theme used by more than 6,000 websites. It's responsive and customizable, and you can select between Boxed and Widescreen layouts, and One Column or Grid blog layouts. HappenStance is compatible with The Events Calendar, a plugin that helps you create and manage your church's entire events calendar.
Rating: 5/5 (10 ratings)
5. Faith
An example of the Faith WordPress theme, by ilovewpcom
Faith has a classic, two-column layout and is designed specifically with church websites in mind, with a news feed on the front page, large header image, donation button, and a designated space for a prominent welcome message. You can feature up to 10 different subpages on the home page: five in the rotating slideshow, and five smaller page previews below it.
Rating: 5/5 (1 rating)
6. Church
An example of the Church WordPress theme, by Han
Designed as a child of the Omega theme, Church—as the name makes clear—is optimized for church websites with a simple, straightforward design, custom logo upload, and custom widgets built in. Church is responsive and supports HTML 5 code. It has lots of customization options built in, but if the example above looks familiar, it's because the Church theme is used by more than 8,000 websites.
Rating: 4.5/5 (12 ratings)
7. Restful
An example of the Restful WordPress theme, by ThemeBright
The soothingly named Restful theme is both sophisticated-looking and easy-to-configure, making it perfect for churches looking to launch a modern, professional website without spending thousands of dollars or tying up the tech team for days. ThemeBright thought of church specific features—such as event listings, multiple locations, sermon management, and staff directory—built right in to this theme.
Rating: NA
What did we miss?
Are there any excellent WordPress church themes that we missed? Let us know in the comments and we'll be sure to check them out!