Teachings(Sermons)/Ministies: These sections are not widgets – we have already stylized it so that you can add each category post directly into your homepage by creating a new “Post” for each item.
Note: Before you begin creating new posts you will want to adjust some settings within your Genesis theme so that everything appears on the home page correctly. At the very top left corner of your screen you will see the WordPress Logo, click on this.
From here look at your left side bar about midway down the bar, you will see “Genesis.” Hover over this button and choose “Theme Settings.” Scroll down the theme settings page until you get to “Content Archives” Match all settings with the screenshot below.
Now is the time to also choose if you want to allow comments and trackbacks on your teaching posts or not. Directly above the “Content Archives” you will find the area to checkmark whether or not you would like to allow comments to be added. Uncheck this to disallow all comments. We recommend using a Facebook Comments plugin or the code itself to install comments if you choose.
Now you are ready to begin adding your Teachings (or Sermons, see how to change the name here) or Ministry .
From the left sidebar chose “Posts” and “Add New.”
Add the title of teaching post (typically your teaching/sermon or ministry title) and in the “Text” tab of the content box (NOT the visual tab) paste your embed video or audio code or add your text/picture of your ministry.
Note: You will have to use a video-sharing website for your video/audio content – we suggest Vimeo, YouTube or SoundCloud (audio only). For more advanced users we suggest using SubSplash or Church Online Platform if desired. Read our article for a more in-depth look and explanation on why you can’t just upload these files to your site.
Once you have it uploaded on these platforms you can “Share” and copy the embed video code (very similar to the Google Map coding in previous steps). We suggest adjusting the code in your embed audio/video to change the size to 800×750.
The next step is to create a feature image to go with your post. This can be a photo of anything you’d like. On the bottom right side of the post page you will see a spot to “Set Featured Image.” Simply upload your photo here.
We recommend photos be at least 680px wide and 72dpi optimized for web with ImageOptim or another like-tool. All featured images are setup to be cover images so they will fit on multiple devices. Keep this in mind when including text and graphics on your image. Certain screen sizes may not display all the art if it is too close to the edge of your graphic.
IMPORTANT: The last step to creating your blog post is to add the category on the bottom right side of your post page. You MUST add the category Teachings(Sermons) or Ministries to your post in order to pull it to your homepage & you will want to remove the Uncategorized. (You may have to add “Teachings” as a new category first)
Add your posts for each teaching/sermon or ministy (the latest 3 will always appear on your homepage) & preview your home page, your desired category should be added!