Church Communications Blog

2019’s Standout Theme and Tailored Church Websites

Written by Ekklesia 360 Team | Jan 31, 2020 3:51:00 PM

At Ekklesia 360, we consider ourselves blessed to serve hundreds of churches and ministries by providing high-quality church website themes. We love helping these ministry partners launch sites that are loaded with built-in church website strategy. Your website is the digital front door to your church, and using a theme built just for churches, then tailoring it with ministry-focused layouts and functions, plays a critical role in achieving your ministry’s goals.

This list was curated by the pros, our Ekklesia 360 design and customer experience team. Check out what they had to say about these standout themes and tailored church websites that launched in 2019.    

 

Coast Hills Church

Theme: More

What stands out? 

Coast Hills Church’s design is easy to navigate and mission-aligned. What once was a More theme menu navigation item is now a hamburger navigation icon. This clean approach keeps the menu simple — they use “Faith,” “Hope,” and “Love,” for their main menu while the new hamburger icon expands to offer navigation to pages such as “New Here,” “Events,” and “Give.” Their homepage also features a Custom Events Monklet with carousel functionality.

—Nathaniel Higgins, Web Specialist

 

Westside Community Center

Theme: Trotter

What stands out?

They launched within a week on Trotter (one of the first to launch with this theme) they also did a great job with the new Annual Report Layout.

—Martha Haines, Web Specialist

 

New Hope Church 

Theme: More

What stands out?

A church will often want to incorporate Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds on their website. Displaying these feeds allows users to remain on the site instead leaving it via a link out to their social media accounts. We were able to bring in their Facebook feed onto their homepage as a section of its own.

—Janis Jack, Designer

 

Leesburg UMC

Theme: More

What stands out?

This is an overall good looking and strategized website. They did a really great job using Ministry Focused Layouts for their Children’s Ministry (uses Ministry Layout 1), Volunteer (uses Volunteer Layout 2), New Here (uses New Here 3 Layout), and Small Groups (uses Groupfinder Layout) pages.  

—Amanda Grimm, Web Specialist

 

Foothills Christian Church 

Theme: Parks

What stands out?

Foothills Christian Church requested custom navigation for the Parks theme and I think it makes the whole site look custom. They did a great job utilizing integrations and making the site work exactly how they wanted. The colors they chose and the images they added are super well done, too. 

—Krysti Wilkinson, Web Project Manager

 

Church of the Incarnation 

Theme: Carmichael

What stands out?

They are the using Carmichael theme with a tailored navigation. They have nice examples of the Classfinder and Events #4 Ministry Focused Layouts. I love the simple elegance that this site portrays. I really enjoy the color palette as well as the black and white, and duotone photos. I think they really work well for the design and aesthetic that they were going for.

—Jenna Chambless, Designer

 

Stephens Valley Church

Theme: Truth

What stands out?

Their site uses a unique color palette and has some good examples of the ministry and missions layouts. This client is also using E360 ChMS, which is integrated with their events and the "Login" component in the navigation bar.

—Rivkah Magnus, Web Project Manager

 

St. Dominic Catholic Parish and School Sites

Theme: Truth

What stands out?

I think this is a really strong example of church and school sites that feel related, but can stand on their own. The church utilizes the Ministry Layout for various ministries like Adults but also reworks it for special events like their upcoming Gala. The school makes use of the articles template to tell stories and the volunteer template to make serving really easy.

—Jenn Craycraft, Senior Designer

 

Covenant Church 

Theme: Spurgeon

What stands out?

Covenant Church came to us struggling to use their color palette. Their logo is very colorful, but they wanted their website to look more modern than 1990s. I was able to work with their provided colors to tastefully apply them to their new theme.

—Janis Jack, Designer

Corryell Community Church

Theme: King

What stands out?

This site feels so exciting. The creative use of video on the homepage automatically creates a an element of intrigue. This site also proves that dark colors don’t have to be daunting. They can be exciting and engaging and create an electric feel with a pop of bold color.

—Jenna Chambless, Designer

 

St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church 

Theme: More

What stands out?

This was a fun branding project. We created a brand centered around Dunstan the Craftsman and built up a brand guide with a new logo. They launched their new More theme this year and have made great use of the volunteer and new here layouts.

—Jenn Craycraft, Senior Designer

 

New Horizons Community Church

Theme: Carmichael

What stands out? 

New Horizons Community Church uses a Password Protected Staff Portal page, with internal forms for graphics requests and room reservation. The link to that page is in the footer of their site.

—Nathaniel Higgins, Web Specialist

 

East Hill Church

Theme: More

What stands out? 

They created their own Staff Page by using the Ministry layout & multiple Ministry Layout Staff Monklets.

—Nathaniel Higgins, Web Specialist

 

Catalyst Church

Theme: Parks

What stands out? 

They added the Ministry Layout Anchor Navigation Bar to Ministry-Focused Layout New Here #3.

Nathaniel Higgins, Web Specialist

 

Epikos Church 

Theme: Carmichael

What stands out?

The custom header links, logo, and top links are sticky when you scroll.

—Martha Haines, Web Specialist

 

Calvary Lutheran Church and School


Theme: King

What stands out?

They added prompts for first-time viewers that guide them through the site menu. They also have a customized Next Steps grid area that looks really nice. 

—Martha Haines, Web Specialist

 

Catalyst Intl.

Theme: King

What stands out?

I really love this Christian organization’s homepage. They did a really good job with the design and call to actions.

—Amanda Grimm, Web Specialist

 

Berean Baptist Church

Theme: Carmichael

What stands out?

Berean did a really awesome job with Carmichael. They understood our system and utilized it well. Their site is only slightly tailored, but they've set it up so well I think it looks like a more expensive, custom site.

—Krysti Wilkinson, Web Project Manager

 

Grace Covenant Church

Theme: Parks

What stands out?

Grace Covenant’s pastor had a vision. They used our system to make that vision, a site with four subsites, a reality. They were super fun to work with and achieved exactly what they wanted.

—Krysti Wilkinson, Web Project Manager

 

Seabreeze Church



Theme: Carmichael

What stands out?

I think this is a solid example of the Carmichael theme. They have great colors, use the styles/features included with the theme and utilize a number of premium layouts. It’s an all around solid site!

—Rivkah Magnus, Web Project Manager

 

Carmel Baptist 

Theme: Truth

What stands out?

We tailored their theme with a few new sections on their homepage. We also updated photos to display as a circle for their Events section as well as a new Next Steps section. This image orientation aligns with their circular logo and makes for a more interesting homepage.

—Janis Jack, Designer

 

Freeform Church

Theme: More

What stands out?

I think this is an engaging, simple-to-use site. This is a great example of a theme in use. It’s a very user-friendly site that is not overly complicated or over-designed. They did a great job of utilizing the themes content styles to showcase the content on their pages. I also really love the addition of their Locations/Countdown Timer Bar at the top of the site that disappears when you start scrolling down the page.

—Jenna Chambless, Designer