Hello to our devoted community,
The wait is finally over! After months of development, testing, and incorporating your invaluable feedback, we’re excited to announce the release of Advanced Sermons 4.0. This latest version is packed with improvements and new features to enhance your experience and make sermon management more streamlined, customizable, and powerful than ever.
Mark your calendars—Advanced Sermons 4.0 is set to launch before Christmas once beta testing has been completed. Below, we’ll walk you through everything this update has to offer, with detailed insights into how each feature can benefit your ministry.
Table of Contents
1. Block Theme Support for Seamless Integration
Advanced Sermons 4.0 brings compatibility with WordPress block themes, ensuring your site stays current with the latest advancements in WordPress development. While the plugin does not yet provide blocks, it works effortlessly with block themes by relying on the familiar Advanced Sermons settings for design and layout.
You can also pair it with popular page builders like Elementor for even more flexibility. This update ensures that regardless of your chosen theme, Advanced Sermons will integrate seamlessly into your workflow.
2. Connected Filters: Smarter Sermon Filtering
Connected Filters is a massive improvement in sermon filtering. Previously, selecting a filter such as Series didn’t refine options for other taxonomies like Speakers or Topics. Now, the filters dynamically update to show only relevant options, creating a more intuitive browsing experience.
For instance, if a user selects the “Evergreen” series, only speakers or topics associated with that series will appear. This streamlined experience helps users quickly locate the sermons they’re looking for, improving engagement and usability.
Upon updating to Advanced Sermons 4.0 you will be greeting with a message in the WordPress dashboard to sync your sermon data to complete the migration of this new feature.
3. Modern Borderless Grid Layout
The Modern Borderless Grid Layout introduces a sleek, modern user interface with border-radius styling and a clean, borderless design. This update focuses on creating a minimalist, visually appealing layout that keeps your site looking fresh and contemporary.
Whether you’re displaying an archive or highlighting specific sermons, this new layout is optimized for usability and aesthetic appeal. It’s a subtle but impactful change that elevates your site’s overall design.
4. Enhanced Keyword Search Functionality
Finding sermons is now easier than ever with the enhanced Keyword Search feature. Advanced Sermons 4.0 allows users to search using partial keywords rather than exact matches. For example, a search for “George” will include results like “George Krenz.”
This improvement saves time and ensures your congregation can quickly locate the content they need, whether they’re searching for a specific speaker, topic, or sermon title.
5. Elementor Widgets
Elementor Widgets simplify the process of integrating Advanced Sermons with Elementor-built pages. These widgets allow you to toggle shortcode parameters directly within the Elementor interface, eliminating the need to manually write or edit shortcodes.
While the widgets do not offer styling options, they provide a user-friendly way to display sermons, series, or archives with just a few clicks. It’s a time-saving tool for those already using Elementor for their site design.
6. Latest Sermon Shortcode
7. Latest Series Shortcode
Similar to the Latest Sermon Shortcode, the Latest Series Shortcode dynamically displays your most recent sermon series. You can showcase the series title, subtitle, sermon count, and date range, giving visitors quick access to your latest content.
This shortcode is ideal for highlighting new series launches or keeping your homepage fresh and relevant. Its flexibility ensures it fits perfectly with your design and content strategy.
9. Addon Module Manager
Advanced Sermons 4.0 introduces the Addon Module Manager, which consolidates features like Campus and Service Type taxonomies into the core plugin. These modules can be toggled on or off, allowing you to expand the plugin’s functionality while keeping it lightweight and optimized for performance.
This change ensures you have access to the latest features without unnecessary bloat, making Advanced Sermons more efficient and user-friendly than ever.
9. Customizable Sermon Details Display
Take full control of how your sermons are presented with the new Customizable Sermon Details Display feature. Now, you can decide exactly which details—such as titles, speakers, dates, and more—appear on grid and list views. Whether you prefer a clean, minimalist look or a detailed and informative layout, the choice is yours.
This customization ensures your sermon archive aligns perfectly with your site’s design and your audience’s preferences, creating a more polished and tailored user experience.
10. Assign Custom Archive Page
With Advanced Sermons 4.0, flexibility takes center stage. The new archive settings allows you to assign any page on your site as your primary sermon archive. This feature empowers you to create unique, customized archive experiences tailored to your congregation’s needs.
Whether you want to integrate the archive into an existing design or create a standalone page with your preferred layout, this shortcode makes it possible.
11. New CSS Code Editor
The introduction of the CSS Code Editor marks a significant leap forward for design flexibility. This robust editor replaces the traditional textarea field in the Advanced Design Settings, providing a more intuitive and efficient way to write, validate, and implement CSS.
With syntax highlighting and built-in validation, customizing your sermons’ design is easier and more accurate than ever, helping you achieve a polished and professional look.
12. Scroll-To Navigation for Settings
We’ve reimagined how you navigate Advanced Sermons’ settings. The new Scroll-To Navigation feature introduces convenient links within the settings page, enabling you to jump directly to specific sections like sermon details, display options, or archive settings.
This enhancement saves time and ensures a smoother, more efficient workflow, making it easier than ever to find and adjust the settings you need.
13. New Series Subtitle Option
Engage your audience with quick insights into your sermon series using the new Series Subtitle Option. This feature allows you to add a concise subtitle (up to 50 characters) to your series, offering additional context about each collection of sermons.
For users who prefer a streamlined display, subtitles can be hidden globally or per shortcode using the new series_subtitle=”false” parameter. This flexibility ensures that your series archive looks just the way you want.
14. Additional Series Shortcode Parameters
15. Disable Book Testament Grouping
We understand that not all users want to group books by the Old and New Testament. With Advanced Sermons 4.0, you now have the option to Disable Book Testament Grouping in the archive settings. This feature provides more control over how your archive is organized, allowing you to tailor it to your specific needs.
This update also introduces a new filter to allow users and developers to modify the auto categorization or books. This is especially useful if the default language is not english.
Thank You for Your Support!
Advanced Sermons 4.0 is a significant step forward, packed with features and enhancements inspired by your feedback and suggestions. These updates are designed to make sermon management simpler, more flexible, and more powerful than ever before.
The release is just around the corner— sometime before Christmas —and we can’t wait for you to explore everything this update has to offer. As always, thank you for your ongoing support and for being part of the Advanced Sermons community.
Together, we’re transforming how sermons are shared, experienced, and remembered.
