Knowledge Base

Getting Started with One Church

in One Church Theme

The One Church WordPress Theme is for churches and ministries. Built with the Church Theme Framework and customized to create a quick, easy to use website.

Table of contents

Installation

Add Theme

  1. From the Dashboard of your site, go to Appearance → Themes.
  2. Click the Add New button at the top of the screen.
  3. Click the Upload Theme button at the top of the screen.
  4. Select Choose File and find the .zip file of the theme, select it, and click Add, followed by Install Now.
  5. The theme will upload then ask whether you would like to Activate, view a Live Preview, or Return to Theme page. You can activate or view the theme from this screen or do it later in the Appearance → Themes screen.

Setup Automatic Updates

Automatic updates will enable you to know when bug fixes and updates have been pushed by the development team, and provide a notification in the WordPress Dashboard when they are available.

Warning:

If you modify the theme files such as CSS, PHP, etc, and run an update, all changes will be lost. We highly recommend creating a Child Theme if you need to make changes to any theme files.

  1. From the Dashboard of your site, go to Appearance → Theme License.
  2. Paste the License Key you received in the purchase email from UpThemes into the License Key field.
  3. Click the Activate button and Save Changes. You’re good to go, and should receive notifications when theme updates are available!

1-Click Setup (Starter Kits)

You can setup your site like the demo website with the include “Starter Kits” tool. To use this feature, follow the steps below:

  1. Install and activate the theme, Appearance → Themes.
  2. Install and activate all required plugins, Appearance → Theme Plugins.
  3. Select a Starter Kit and click the Apply Starter Kit button.
  4. Done! That’s it.

It’s always possible you may see unexpected behavior during your setup process, although we’ve made every attempt to ensure it is a smooth process. If you do have any trouble just let us know and we’ll be happy to help!

Homepage

Static Front Page and Blog Page

If you applied a Starter Kit to setup your site this process was completed for you automatically. If you are configuring your home page and blog manually, the instructions below will guide you through the process.

  1. From the Dashboard of your site go to Pages → Add New.
  2. Enter a title for your page and optionally add content.
  3. Set the template by going to the right side of the screen, under the Page Attributes box set the Template option to Homepage.
  4. Click the Save button.
  5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to create a page named Blog and save the page.
    Do not set a template for the Blog page.
  6. Go to the Settings → Reading screen.
    (or Appearance → Customize and click Static Front Page)
  7. Select the option A static page under the section Front page displays.
  8. Set the option for Front page to the home page you created. If using the imported content this page may have the name “Welcome to Our Church” or “Homepage”.
  9. Set the option for Posts page to the blog page.
  10. Click the Publish button.

Slider

The featured slider in the One Church Theme is managed from your Appearance → Widgets admin area.

  1. From the Dashboard of your site go to Appearance → Widgets.
  2. Scan the list of Widget Areas available, and find the Homepage Slider block. This is where we will be adding individual slides. If you click the Toggle Arrow you will see either an empty block (if you currently don’t have a slider) or the slides that have already been loaded.
  3. In the left hand column find the CT Slide widget.
  4. Add the CT Slide widget to the Homepage Slider Area, by either dragging and dropping it into the block or choosing from the widget dropdown.
  5. The widget offers several options to customize. Adding a Title and/or Description will add the text as live text to the slide. Adding a URL to the Click URL field will allow users to click any part of the slide to reach the desired link. Checking the Open in new tab box will open the link in a new browser tab when clicked instead of loading the page in the current tab.
  6. Add An Image.
    • To add an image to the slide, click the Choose Image button.
    • A modal will appear where you can either add a new image in the Upload Files tab or select a previously uploaded image in the Media Library tab.
    • You shouldn’t be prompted to make any changes, but if you want to modify the meta fields for Title, Caption, Alt Text, and Description feel free.
    • Click the Use in Widget button when complete.
  7. or, also Add A Video.
    • Add a video URL to the Video URL field. You can use any link from YouTube or Vimeo.
    • Note: you must have an Image added for the Video slide to show up!
  8. Click the Save button.
  9. Repeat to add more slides to the Homepage Slider.

Creating Content

Sermons

What would a church theme be without a way to manage sermons? One Church provides a powerful, easy-to-use interface to manage your sermons.

Add New Sermon

  1. Go to Sermons → Add New
  2. Enter a title (Required)
  3. Enter a description (Optional)
  4. Click Save Draft or Publish

Topics

Add New Topic

  1. Go to Sermons → Topics
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. You can either have WordPress automatically generate the slug based on the topic name, or customize it here (Optional)
  4. Select a parent topic if you want to nest a specific topic under another topic (Optional)
  5. Enter a description (Optional)
  6. Click Add Topic

Books

Add New Book

  1. Go to Sermons → Books
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. You can either have WordPress automatically generate the slug based on the book name, or customize it here (Optional)
  4. Select a parent book if you want to nest a specific book under another book (Optional)
  5. Enter a description (Optional)
  6. Click Add Book

Series

Add New Series

  1. Go to Sermons → Series
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. You can either have WordPress automatically generate the slug based on the series name, or customize it here (Optional)
  4. Select a parent topic if you want to nest a specific series under another series (Optional)
  5. Enter a description (Optional)
  6. Click Add Series

Speakers

Add New Speaker

  1. Go to Sermons → Speakers
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. You can either have WordPress automatically generate the slug based on the speaker name, or customize it here (Optional)
  4. Select a parent speaker if you want to nest a specific topic under another speaker (Optional)
  5. Enter a description (Optional)
  6. Click Add Speaker

Tags

Add New Tag

  1. Go to Sermons → Tags
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. You can either have WordPress automatically generate the slug based on the tag name, or customize it here (Optional)
  4. Enter a description (Optional)
  5. Click Add Tag

Events

One Church makes it easy to inform your congregation of events. With this simple event management feature, no one will ever forget what’s going at your church.

Add New Event

  1. Go to Events → Add New
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. Enter a description (Optional)
  4. Click Add Event

Locations

Not every church has one building and One Church has got you covered. Have three church campuses? No problem, set up the locations and inform your congregation where they can worship.

  1. Go to Locations → Add New
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. Enter a description (Optional)
  4. Add an address
  5. Select the checkbox if you would like the direction link to be displayed
  6. Add a phone number
  7. Add service times
  8. To add a map of the location, enter the location’s latitude and longitude coordinates.
  9. Select the map type you want displayed
  10. Set the map zoom level.
  11. Then publish your location.

People (Church Team Management)

Many churches have multiple pastors and leaders in their ministries. One Church offers an easy way to manage the people leading your church.

  1. Go to People → Add New
  2. Enter Name (Required)
  3. Enter a description (Optional)
  4. Add to a group clicking on the checkbox next to the group name (Optional)
  5. Add featured image if you would like to display an image of the person (Optional)
  6. Enter person’s details (Optional)
  7. Then publish your person