I will open this with a bold, but obvious statement: CofCPages.org is not for all congregations. The site, even with the new software, is fairly simple. Designing a more advanced site, like Kleinwood’s will probably never be possible here. But, congregations like Kleinwood have the resources and technical members to build a site like that. There are, however, some good applications out there to help you build a very powerful site. I want to provide you with a list of some of your options, if you decide you want something more than what CofCPages.org has to offer.
Joomla
In my recent polling of congregations to see what software they used, the most popular response was Joomla. Joomla is a full blown content management suite, designed to manage very complex web sites, including those with hundreds or thousands of pages. It has good plugins to allow posting of files, MP3’s, pictures, etc. Installing Joomla is somewhat involved - you need to have your own web server, complete with the programming language PHP and a MySQL database server. Both of these technologies are quite common. Here are some examples of congregations that are using Joomla:
- Eastside Church of Christ, Columbia, MO
- Cape Road Church, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
- Cy-Fair church of Christ, Cypress, TX
WordPress
The second most popular software that is used is WordPress. Around the Internet, WordPress is probably most commonly used as blogging software, though it is more than capable of serving up regular sites. It is not as complex as Joomla, and in my experience is a lot easier to install and get working. It has limited support for private pages (such as adding a member’s only area), but it does have a good number of plugins available to add features. This blog that you are viewing right now runs inside of WordPress. Here are some congregations that use WordPress to power their sites (there are more of these than Joomla since one Christian set up the sites for all 4 congregations):
- Westside church of Christ, Wichita, KS
- Northside church of Christ, Mansfield, TX
- Elgin Hills, Rogersillve, AL
- 15th Street, Hereford, TX
Drupal
Another CMS that I am aware of that is used by congregations is Drupal. This one is a little less used, but it has a level of customization between WordPress and Joomla. I have only used it for a few minutes once, so I don’t have too much to say about it, but there are congregations that use it.
Others
Here is an assorted list of congregations and the technologies they use.
- Fry Road, Houston, TX. DotNetNuke, requires a Windows based server.