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.
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! 🎉