Can I Do That on My Website?

Building a customized content management system for Truth For Life

If people want to find out about you, the first place they look is your website. Whether it is connected to a complicated database or a simple blog, websites tell the world who you are and how to get in touch with you.

For Alistair Begg and the Bible-teaching ministry of Truth For Life, their website needed to be more than just a source of information. This was an opportunity to further their mission of teaching the Gospel and enhancing their outreach through the web. For Communications Manager Jenn Nenadov and her staff, this meant finding a way to take all of their teaching-rich media content and distributing it to their global web audience.

Knowing the ever-changing nature of the web and the needs of this growing ministry, the Five Q team was happy to partner with Truth For Life to develop their website with a customized content management system.

Firm Yet Flexible

A Content Management System (CMS) is a set of software tools for organizing website content. While you can get an "off the shelf" CMS with a fixed number of tools, what Truth For Life was needed was a flexible system; therefore, the Five Q team started with a framework called Django. This would allow us to create the primary features desired for the website, but still give us options for adding new ones in the future.

In addition to managing content--the text and images--on the website, Truth For Life was looking for:

Permissions-level access to specific website pages/features for different departments and staff
Media management of their broadcast sermons, series, downloads, and podcasts through a searchable online resource center
eCommerce through an online store to sell their products with secure online credit card payment processing
Donations management for single and recurring gifts to the ministry with reporting capabilities
Online event registration for speaking engagements
Moderation and management of comments made on the website
Radio broadcast information for listeners and radio stations airing their content
Account creation for website users to see and manage their online transactions, comments, and communications preferences
Sign-up and distribution capabilities for their daily devotional and monthly newsletter via email and the web

With such a broad range of needs, a CMS was the perfect platform for their redesigned website since it would create three different layers: design, content, and structure. Each layer would be integrated together but work independently of the others in the background. If there were changes made to the content, the visual design of the website would still maintain the same fonts and backgrounds. Conversely, any visual changes to the design would not impact the overall functionality of the website code or the content.

For the staff maintaining the redesigned website, the CMS allows them to make their updates from anywhere--as long as they have an Internet connection--from a secured website login page. Once logged in, they could make text edits, upload media, change images, download store transaction reports, and publish their work directly to the web. Best of all, the CMS is designed for those without HTML or technical experience in mind, so it is easy for anyone to learn how to make immediate changes or to schedule them for future updates.

The Power of the Web

With the CMS now in place, TFL's staff has been more empowered to continue providing quality teachings on the website. Website traffic to the latest broadcast, resources, and daily devotional pages has increased an average of 13%, with the largest percentage page-view increase for the "About" page. This further demonstrates that as more people interact with website, they want to learn more about the ministry of Truth For Life. Having a flexible tool like the CMS allows the staff to continue to provide quality content for visitors and help move them forward to be more active supporters of the ministry.