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Theme Picker

The Theme Picker lets you choose the visual design of your church's public website. Themes control your site's overall look — layout structure, typography, color presentation, navigation style, and the positioning of key elements like the hero section and featured event. Changing your theme is one of the most impactful changes you can make to your website's appearance.

Browsing Themes​

  1. Navigate to WebCMS > Theme in the Staff Portal.
  2. Available themes are displayed as cards, each with a preview image showing the theme's design.
  3. Click a theme card to see a larger preview or more details.

Browse through the available options to find a design that fits your church's style and communication goals.

Activating a Theme​

  1. Navigate to WebCMS > Theme.
  2. Select the theme you want to activate.
  3. Click Activate.
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Activating a theme changes your website's appearance immediately for all visitors. If possible, preview the theme before activating it on a live site to confirm it looks as expected with your actual content.

To switch back to a previous theme, simply activate the previous theme again.

How Themes Interact with Brand Colors​

If Brand Colors are enabled for your account, your configured primary and secondary colors are applied within the active theme's color framework. Each theme implements brand colors differently — some use them for major elements like buttons and section backgrounds, while others apply them more subtly.

If you change your theme and notice that your brand colors look off, try a different variant of the same theme, or review your color settings in Brand Settings.

Custom Themes​

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Custom theme support is currently in development and will be available when ready.

If none of the available themes fit your church's needs, there are a few options.

Build a Custom Theme with ThemeKit​

GatherCMS provides the ThemeKit SDK — a development toolkit that allows you to build a fully custom theme tailored to your church. ThemeKit requires a developer with experience in TypeScript and React.

Request a New Theme​

If your church does not have a developer available, you can contact GatherCMS Support to submit a theme enhancement request. There are two options:

  • Standard enhancement request — GatherCMS will evaluate the request and determine if and when the new theme will be made available to all GatherCMS customers.
  • Paid enhancement request — GatherCMS will prioritize the theme development. The completed theme will be made available to all GatherCMS customers.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Can I preview a theme before activating it?

The Theme Picker shows a preview image for each theme. This gives you a general sense of the design, but the preview may not reflect your actual content, logo, or brand colors. For the most accurate preview, activate the theme and immediately review your website — you can always switch back.

Will changing my theme affect my page content?

No. Your pages, content blocks, and all other content remain unchanged when you switch themes. The theme only affects how that content is presented visually.

What if I do not like the theme after activating it?

Simply activate a different theme. There is no limit to how many times you can switch themes.

Do all themes support all content block types?

All themes support the core content block types. However, some visual options — such as Variant choices within a block — may look different across themes, as each theme defines how its variants are styled. If a specific variant does not look right after switching themes, try a different variant option on that block.