Latest Changes

5.5.43February 1, 2026

The last ten days of January were busy. Really busy. We shipped 27 updates to Digital Church — and while some of those were behind-the-scenes housekeeping, the majority are things you’ll see, use, and (we hope) love. From syncing your Google Calendar events straight to your website, to letting visitors connect with your church through the tools you already use, this batch of updates touches almost every corner of your site.

Here’s what’s new since our last update.

Your Calendar, Your Website — Finally in Sync

What changed: You can now import events directly from Google Calendar, Outlook, or any calendar that offers an ICS feed. Recurring events are fully supported, including weekly services, monthly meetings, and everything in between.

Why it matters: If your church is like most, your events live in Google Calendar (or Outlook, or Planning Center’s calendar). Now your website can stay perfectly in sync — automatically.

With the new ICS Feed Import, you point Digital Church at your calendar’s ICS feed URL, and we handle the rest. Events are automatically pulled in every 15 minutes. New events appear on your site. Canceled events disappear. Changed details get updated. Your website always reflects what’s actually happening at your church — no extra work required.

And here’s the part that really matters for churches with regular programming: recurring events just work. Your weekly Sunday service, your Wednesday night Bible study, your monthly potluck — they all get expanded into individual events on your calendar automatically. We handle the complex recurrence rules (weekly, daily, monthly, yearly) so you don’t have to think about them. If you reschedule one specific instance of a recurring event, we catch that too.

Set it up once under Settings → Events, and your event page stays current on autopilot.

Pro tip: You can add multiple feeds — one for your main church calendar, one for your youth ministry, one for your women’s group. Each feed gets its own category, so visitors can filter by ministry.

Events That Look as Good as They Work

What changed: Event pages now display featured images, beautifully formatted dates and times, correct timezone information, and SEO settings for better search visibility.

Why it matters: Having events on your website is one thing. Having them look professional is another.

Now when someone lands on an event page, they see:

• A featured image right at the top — perfect for promoting that retreat, concert, or VBS with eye-catching visuals
• Clearly formatted dates and times — “Sunday, February 8th, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM” instead of raw timestamps
• Accurate timezone display — times show in your church’s timezone, not some confusing UTC offset

These seem like small details, but they add up to a page that feels polished and trustworthy. When a first-time visitor checks your event page to see if they want to show up Sunday, you want that page to make a great impression.

We also added search engine integration for events, so you can now control how your events appear in Google search results. Find the toggle under Settings → Events → Search Engine Settings.

Connect with Anyone, Anywhere

What changed: Connect Cards and form modules now support Elexio and Planning Center forms alongside Digital Church’s built-in forms. Choose your provider, drop it on a page, and you’re done.

Why it matters: Your church probably didn’t start using Digital Church in a vacuum. You might have years of data in Planning Center. Your giving might flow through Elexio. Your volunteer signups might live in Church Center.

We get it — and we don’t think you should have to abandon those tools to have a great website.

Now, anywhere you use a form on your site — Connect Cards, Page Builder form modules, contact pages — you can choose which system powers it:

• Digital Church (our built-in forms) for forms you want to manage right from your dashboard
• Planning Center for forms that feed directly into Church Center, opening in a clean modal popup
• Elexio for forms that embed inline from your MinistryForms account

This works in two places:

1. Connect Cards — when you set a card’s call-to-action to “Form,” you’ll now see a provider dropdown. Pick your system, enter your form ID or URL, and the right embed appears automatically.
2. Page Builder Form Module — the same provider choice is available when building custom pages. One dropdown, three options, zero hassle.

Existing forms keep working exactly as they did. This is purely additive — more options, no disruption.

Pro tip: Using Planning Center for visitor follow-up? Set your main Connect Card to use a Planning Center form, and new visitor info flows straight into your People database without any manual entry.

Team Members, Meet the World

What changed: There’s a brand-new Team Members module for the Page Builder, plus improvements to team photos and the Families tab on your People page.

Why it matters: Your team page is one of the most visited pages on your church website. Visitors want to see who they’ll meet on Sunday. They want to put faces to names. And now, building that page is easier than ever.

The new Team Members module for the Page Builder lets you showcase your staff and volunteers with a polished, visual layout. Drag it onto any page, and it pulls directly from your People directory — no need to duplicate information or manage photos in two places.

Team member photos now display beautifully, and your styles always load fresh so your latest changes show up right away.

One more thing: if you’re using the People page with family groupings, the Families tab is back and working properly. It’s now fully built out and ready to go.

Go Live with Confidence

What changed: The new Live Badge shortcode lets you show a “LIVE” indicator anywhere on your site, and it now works reliably with multiple badges on the same page.

Why it matters: When your church goes live for a Sunday service or special event, you want visitors to know immediately. The new

shortcode gives you a visual indicator that you can place in your header, on your homepage, on your livestream page — anywhere you want.

Here’s how it works: the badge is hidden by default. When your livestream goes live, it automatically appears with a pulsing “LIVE” indicator. When the stream ends, it disappears. No manual toggling needed.

We shipped a few quick refinements right after launch to make sure the badge plays nicely with every theme — proper styling that won’t get overridden by your theme’s CSS, and correct behavior when you place multiple badges on the same page (like one in the header and one in your content area). They all show up when you’re live, and they all hide when you’re not.

Pro tip: Put a live badge in your site header so it’s visible on every page. Visitors browsing your sermon archive might not know you’re streaming right now — but they will if there’s a little red “LIVE” badge catching their eye.

YouTube and Sermons, Polished Up

What changed: YouTube thumbnails load reliably now, autopublished sermons pull in full video descriptions, and the sermon archive got some visual cleanup.

Why it matters: If you’re using YouTube autopublish (and you should be — it’s a huge time-saver), these fixes make the experience smoother for both you and your visitors.

Smarter thumbnails: Video thumbnails now use the best available resolution automatically, with a smart fallback system that always finds a great-looking image. Every sermon on your page gets a sharp, professional thumbnail.

Full descriptions: When we autopublish a sermon from YouTube, we now pull the complete video description. If you write detailed sermon notes, scripture references, or discussion questions in your YouTube descriptions, all of that now makes it to your website.

Cleaner sermon archive: We tidied up some visual inconsistencies on the sermon archive page — better button styling and proper rounded corners on lazy-loaded video containers. Small details, but they make the page feel more polished.

People Pages That Make a Great First Impression

What changed: Person contact forms are now polished and rock-solid, and avatar images are perfectly spaced on every page layout.

Why it matters: Your staff and volunteer pages are often the first place a visitor goes to learn about your church’s leadership. When someone clicks on a pastor’s profile and wants to reach out, the experience should be seamless.

The person contact form now features:

• Reliable delivery. Messages go through every time, rock-solid.
• Clean layout. The form is properly aligned with the rest of the page — looks great on every screen size.
• Built-in security. The recipient’s email is looked up on the server, not exposed in the page source. A honeypot field catches spam bots. And after sending, the page redirects cleanly so refreshing won’t accidentally send the message twice.

Avatar images also look great on every page now — proper spacing whether the person has a cover photo or not. Every profile page feels intentional and polished.

Search That Actually Finds Things

What changed: When someone searches your site, they’ll now find your Events page, Sermons page, Groups page, and other section landing pages — not just individual posts.

Why it matters: When a visitor types “events” into your site’s search bar, they should find your events page. Now they do.

When someone searches for “events,” your Events page appears right at the top. Same for “sermons,” “groups,” or any other content section on your site. The matching is smart — searching “event” will find “Events” and vice versa. It works automatically for every content type on your site, current and future.

No configuration needed. It just works the way your visitors always expected it to.

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That’s everything from the last week and a half of January. Twenty-seven updates, seven themes, and a whole lot of improvements to how your church shows up online. Whether you’re syncing calendars, connecting visitors to your ChMS, or just making sure search works like it should — your site got better this week.

As always, if you run into anything unexpected or have questions about these new features, we’re just a support message away. We love hearing how you’re using these tools in your ministry.

Here’s to a fantastic February! 🎉

5.5.16January 20, 2026

We’ve kicked off 2026 with a batch of updates that make Digital Church easier to use, more flexible, and just a bit more delightful. Some of these changes you’ll notice immediately. Others work quietly behind the scenes, making sure everything runs smoothly so you can focus on ministry.

Here’s what’s new since our last update.

Take Control with the Features Page

What changed: We added a brand-new Settings → Features page that gives you direct control over which content modules are active on your site.

Why it matters: Not every church needs every feature. Maybe you don’t use Stories, or you’re not ready for Groups yet. Now you’re in charge.

With the new Features page, you can toggle Sermons, Groups, Teams, Resources, Stories, Announcements, Events, Locations, and Connect Cards on or off with a single click. When you disable a feature, it’s truly disabled—no menu items, no archive pages, no confusion. Your content stays safely in the database (we’d never delete your work), but it’s tucked away until you need it.

Pro tip: When you first visit the Features page, we’ve automatically detected which features you’re actually using based on whether you have posts in those sections. No setup required.

Share the Love with Social Buttons

What changed: We built a new

shortcode that adds beautiful social sharing buttons to any page or post.

Why it matters: When someone reads a powerful sermon recap or inspiring blog post, you want them to share it. The easier you make that, the more likely it happens.

Our new social share buttons support Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Email. Each button uses the platform’s official brand colors by default, creating a polished, recognizable look. Drop the shortcode anywhere, and you’re done.

How to use it:

• Basic:
  Share this content
  — shows all networks
• Selective:
  Share this content
  — pick your favorites
• Custom colors:
  Share this content
  — match your brand

A Fresh Look for Connect Cards

What changed: The Connect Cards archive got a complete visual overhaul with a modern card-based design.

Why it matters: Your “Connect” page is often where visitors take their first real step toward engagement. It should feel inviting — and now it does.

The new design features:

• Glassmorphism effect — cards have a subtle blurred backdrop that looks great on any background
• Background images — each card showcases its cover photo beautifully
• Responsive grid — looks great on phones, tablets, and desktops
• Smart redirects — if a card is set to redirect somewhere, it goes directly there (no extra clicks)

If you’re using Connect Cards, you’ll see this automatically. No action needed on your part.

Vimeo Joins the Autopublish Party

What changed: You can now automatically import sermons from Vimeo, just like you could with YouTube.

Why it matters: Some churches prefer Vimeo for its cleaner viewing experience and better privacy controls. Now, Vimeo-powered sermon posts can be created automatically — saving your team time every single week.

Connect your Vimeo account, point us at a folder or showcase, and we’ll handle the rest:

• Videos are imported automatically every 4 hours
• Thumbnails are downloaded and attached as featured images
• Smart filtering skips private videos, Vimeo Live events, and anything under 60 seconds
• Duplicate detection means we’ll never import the same video twice

Find it under Settings → Sermons → Vimeo tab.

Login That Actually Makes Sense

What changed: Magic link redirects now take you back where you started.

Why it matters: Here’s the experience now: You’re reading a sermon page, click “Log In” to leave a comment, receive your magic link, click it, and land right back on the sermon you were reading. Seamless.

If you happened to be on the login page itself, we’ll take you to the homepage instead. It’s a small detail, but it makes the whole login flow feel polished and intentional.

A Cleaner Admin Menu

What changed: We merged the Pages menu into the Page Builder menu and moved it to the top of your admin sidebar.

Why it matters: “Pages” now sits right at the top of your menu, right after the Dashboard. Everything you need to create and edit pages is in one logical place.

The old “Builder” menu is now called “Pages” and includes quick links to All Pages, Add New Page, and your saved templates.

Under the Hood: Security and Stability

We also shipped some important security improvements to our authentication system. Without getting too technical, we tightened up how login requests are validated, added better logging for troubleshooting, and fixed an edge case that could cause issues with magic link emails.

You won’t see these changes directly, but they’re working hard to keep your site (and your members’ data) safe.

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That’s the roundup for January 2026. As always, if you run into any issues or have questions about these new features, just reach out through the support chat. We’re here to help.

Here’s to a great year of ministry ahead!

3.2.0October 24, 2023

Our previous implementation of announcements allowed for a single announcement to be set for your website. We’ve started to implement a new post type for announcements so you can have multiple announcements scheduled with expiration dates.

5.2.0August 26, 2025

As churches grow and evolve, managing your team information shouldn’t feel like a chore. Whether you’re migrating from another platform, onboarding a large volunteer team, or simply need to update dozens of staff profiles, we’ve all been there—staring at a spreadsheet wondering if there’s a better way.

Today, we’re excited to announce a feature that many of you have been asking for: People CSV Import. This isn’t just another data import tool; it’s a complete solution designed to make managing your church team as seamless as possible.

Why This Matters for Your Ministry

Think about the last time you needed to add 50 volunteers to your website, complete with photos, contact information, and team assignments. Or when you switched from another church management system and faced the daunting task of recreating all your staff profiles. These moments shouldn’t derail your ministry focus—they should enhance it.

Our new People Import system transforms what used to be hours of manual data entry into a simple three-step process that actually makes sense. Upload your CSV file, map your columns to the right fields (we’ll even suggest the best matches), and watch as your entire team directory comes to life with proper organization and tracking.

Built for Real Ministry Needs

We didn’t just build another CSV importer. We built a system that understands how churches actually work:

• Smart Field Mapping: The system recognizes common column names like “first_name,” “email,” or “teams” and automatically suggests where they should go
• Team Integration: Assign people to multiple teams during import, and we’ll create the team categories automatically if they don’t exist yet
• Import Tracking: Every import is tracked with a unique batch ID, so you can easily see which people were added when
• Immediate Results: After import, you’re taken directly to a filtered view showing only your newly imported people—no hunting through long lists

The Details That Make the Difference

What sets this apart is the attention to real-world scenarios. The interface shows you a live preview of your data as you map fields, so you can see exactly what you’re importing before you commit. Error handling is comprehensive but friendly—if something goes wrong, you’ll know exactly which row needs attention and why.

The responsive design works just as well on your phone as it does on your office computer, because we know ministry doesn’t always happen at a desk. And for those late-night volunteer database updates, this pairs perfectly with the Dark Mode we introduced earlier this year.

Building in Public, Growing Together

This feature represents months of feedback from pastors, administrators, and volunteers who’ve shared their real-world challenges with us. From the small church needing to import their core volunteer team to the multi-site congregation managing hundreds of staff members across locations, we’ve designed this system to scale with your ministry.

As always, we’re building in public and learning from your experiences. The People Import system is launching first in our alpha testing environment, where our most engaged churches help us refine new features before they roll out platform-wide.

Ready to Experience the Difference?

If you’re managing a church website and spending too much time on data entry instead of ministry, it’s time to see what Digital Church can do for your community. Our 45-day free trial at digitalchurch.com gives you full access to not just the new People Import system, but our entire suite of ministry-focused tools.

Your feedback continues to shape everything we build. As you try the new import system, we’d love to hear how it impacts your workflow and what we can improve next.

Join us on this journey of making church technology actually work for ministry, not against it.

5.1.0June 23, 2025

As churches continue to navigate the digital landscape, providing an intuitive and appealing user experience becomes increasingly important. At Digital Church, we are committed to elevating your digital journey. Recently, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to ensure our platform is not only modern but also user-friendly. Today, we are unveiling our latest feature—Dark Mode—on the Digital Church dashboard.

Building in public has been an exciting adventure for us. Sharing our progress and updates as they happen not only keeps you informed but also allows us to receive invaluable feedback that shapes our development. This new Dark Mode feature is part of our ongoing effort to modernize the platform’s interface. We understand the importance of a visually appealing and comfortable environment for users, especially during those late-night work sessions.

Dark Mode complements the contemporary sidebar design introduced a few months ago, which replaced the traditional WordPress admin menu with a React-driven, streamlined experience. This upgrade was aimed at providing you with an intuitive, seamless interface that enhances productivity while maintaining a modern look. The introduction of Dark Mode further enhances this experience by offering a sleek, eye-friendly alternative to our standard view.

So, why is Dark Mode such a game-changer? Apart from reducing eye strain and saving battery life on devices with OLED screens, it also aligns with the aesthetic preferences of many users. By switching to Dark Mode, you bring a touch of modernity and sophistication to your church’s digital presence. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about creating an environment that feels right for you and your team as you manage your church’s online community.

We invite you to experience these improvements for yourself. If you’re not already part of the Digital Church family, now is the perfect time to join us. Sign up for a free 45-day trial at digitalchurch.com and discover firsthand how our platform can transform your church’s digital engagement.

Your feedback is crucial to our growth and development. As we continue to innovate, we encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences with us. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to our updates for the latest features and enhancements.

Join us on this exciting journey and see how Digital Church can elevate your church’s digital presence to new heights!

5.0.10June 16, 2025

We’ve been hard at work making your website smoother, smarter, and a little more fun to use. Here’s a quick tour of what’s changed lately:

👥 People & Team Pages

Show off your team in style!

There’s a brand new way to add people to your pages. Our updated page builder now includes a custom “person” module, so you can easily create beautiful staff or team sections. Click on a team member’s name and—voilà—a modern, React-powered popup with their bio appears. Plus, we’ve added simple classes to align text left or right, and made it easier than ever to have those perfectly circular profile pictures. Your About page just leveled up. These changes are still in development, so you’ll see the final product coming soon.

📢 Announcements

Announcements only when you need them.

We’ve streamlined how announcements work behind the scenes. Now, the announcements feature only loads if you’re actually using it—meaning a faster, lighter site for everyone else. And if you have multiple announcement bars running, they’ll now all be the same height, so your site looks neat and tidy (no more lopsided banners!).

🎨 Design & Identity

A fresh look and easier customization.

We’ve introduced a new identity settings area, so you can control your site’s appearance and branding all in one place. The admin area got a little facelift too, with improved spacing, fonts, and more. And while we temporarily removed dark mode (it’s getting a makeover), you can expect it back soon—looking better than ever.

🏗️ Performance & Compatibility

Faster, smarter, more compatible.

We’ve made a bunch of improvements under the hood:

• The site loads less code when features aren’t being used.
• We’ve added support for older themes like Avada, so your classic sites keep running smoothly.
• Our plugin and theme updates are now even more robust, with better handling for staging sites and subdomains.

🤖 AI & Code Maintainability

Building for the future.

We’re reorganizing our code and documentation to play nicely with AI tools. This means faster improvements, easier troubleshooting, and more helpful features coming your way.

🛠️ And Lots of Little Fixes

From improved podcast publishing to smarter event imports, and a whole host of plugin and theme updates, we’re always working to keep your website running at its best.

As always, if you notice anything odd or have ideas for new features, let us know! We love making things better for you.

4.15.8March 28, 2025

Gather around, digital disciple-makers, because we’ve just unveiled a divine new feature on our Digital Church platform that’s sure to make waves – or should we say sound waves? Say hello to our latest innovation: the Automatic Podcast Import!

Picture this: it’s a Sunday morning. You’re sipping your coffee, browsing through the latest sermons, and—voila!—there they are, the freshest episodes of your favorite faith-filled podcast, automatically imported and ready for your listening pleasure. That’s right, folks, you can now seamlessly bring your audio ministry to life without lifting a finger thanks to our new feature.

By navigating to Dashboard > Settings > Integrations in your admin area, you can enable this heavenly helper to check your RSS feed daily. If it finds any new entries, it will grace your website with the latest episodes, ensuring your congregation is always up to date with the audible gospel. Whether you host your podcast on Podbean or another service, this feature brings them directly to your digital doorstep.

You might be wondering why we’d offer such a celestial convenience. Well, in the age of digital discipleship, your online presence is more important than ever. It’s not just about uploading content; it’s about engaging your audience in meaningful ways. Podcasts offer a unique and intimate way to reach your followers, and this automatic import allows you to focus on creating divine content without worrying about the technical back-end details.

This integration is more than just a feature; it’s a digital miracle. Imagine the joy of knowing that your congregation has instant access to spiritual guidance with the click of a button or the tap of a screen. It’s like having a choir of angels singing sweet hallelujahs directly into their earbuds.

And let’s not forget the time and effort you’ll save, allowing you to spend more moments in fellowship, creativity, and community engagement. It’s a gift that keeps on giving—a noble endeavor to be sure!

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital evangelism, staying connected with your audience has never been easier. Our goal is simple: to empower your ministry in the most effective and efficient way possible. With this new integration, Digital Church is taking a glorious step forward in supporting your spiritual mission.

So, dear digital evangelists, let this be your call to action. Dive into your dashboard and activate this feature. Let your voice be heard, your message be shared, and let the digital congregation grow. Happy podcasting, and may your audios be ever blessed!

4.13.7February 14, 2025

Today we’re shipping a new dark mode for the dashboard. Currently, it will automatically activate if your system is in darkmode, so if your system is set to automatically adjust at sundown, you’ll have some nice, relaxing dashboard screens at night. 🙂

This doesn’t affect the post editor yet, but all the other pages should be looking nice and dark. We’ll add the post editor darkmode soon, but we want to take some time to fix any little bugs or issues with the darkmode we shipped today first.

4.13.0February 12, 2025

At Digital Church, we’re working hard to deliver the most up-to-date, easy-to-use platform for churches to power their church websites and management systems in one place. We’ve just rolled out an updated dashboard that utilizes the latest technologies to make it easier to navigate and use. This new admin menu lays the groundwork for upcoming updates to our admin user interface that we will be rolling out over the coming months.

3.2.0October 24, 2023

Our previous implementation of announcements allowed for a single announcement to be set for your website. We’ve started to implement a new post type for announcements so you can have multiple announcements scheduled with expiration dates.