Living Open Source

Continuing my list of freebie software for churches, this one is a little obvious to anyone who has visited my blog before. WordPress is the software which drives this blog and is also used to run our church website. There are now a growing number of WordPress-Driven Churches all using WordPress to run their website.

By installing WordPress on your domain you can run a website or blog without worrying about technicalities.

WordPress was designed as a blogging tool. “Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” and refers to web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A bit like an online journal. It is Open Source, has a huge community of users and of course is free. It is becoming a popular solution for churches, because it lowers the geek barrier – you don’t need to do HTML, CSS or any of the techie stuff to run your site. You simply focus on content.

It is also so much more than a blogging tool. Static pages and hundreds of great plugins mean WordPress can be used in many other applications. Some of the reasons why it is ideal for church websites are:

• It is FREE!
• The blog format encourages a church’s story to be told. In fact your website comes to life when you start using WordPress.
• The interface is much simpler than other content management tools.
• The format encourages community.
• There are literally thousands of great design templates available to download, including some designed specifically for churches.

To run WordPress yourself, you need your own domain, but there is also WordPress.com where you can setup a blog without the need to install software or run your own domain name (though that really isn’t all that hard). WordPress.com is a good place to start if you want to have a play with this great tool.

You can install WordPress in 5 minutes. Honest! Heres how…