Practical guides / By Kris Singh

How to build a sermon library on Squarespace

A common way to organise a church’s sermons is a blog. There’s a blog called Sermons, each Sunday gets a post with an audio block in it, and the newest one sits at the top. Squarespace turns that blog into a podcast feed too, which is why so many churches end up there.

It works well for this week’s sermon and badly for almost anything else. Someone who wants the series you did on Romans last year, or everything you’ve preached on Psalm 23, or the talk their friend gave in March, has a search box and a very long scroll. Here’s how I’d set things up so the archive is easier to use, first with what Squarespace gives you for free and then with a plugin for the parts it can’t do.

Start with how you post

Whatever you do on the page, the archive is only as good as the posts behind it, and three habits make the biggest difference.

The first is a category for each series. Name it the way you’d say it from the front, like “Romans: The Gospel in Full”. Squarespace gives every category its own filtered view of the blog, so each series gets a page without you making one.

The second is putting the passage in the title. “No Condemnation (Romans 8:1–17)” is better for everyone than “Sunday 22 March”. A passage gives someone a useful way to recognise the sermon before opening it.

The third is putting the speaker where a computer can find it. The blog post’s author is usually whoever uploads the sermon, which is why so many church sites credit the office administrator with every message. Put the speaker’s name in the Author field of the audio block, or add a tag like “Speaker: Hannah Ellery”.

Add the series graphic as each sermon’s thumbnail while you’re at it. It costs nothing, and it makes every list and summary on the site look much more cared for.

The free way: Summary blocks and a filtered search

Once the posts carry that information, you can build a reasonable library with standard blocks.

1. Make a normal page for sermons, point your navigation at it, and leave the blog where it is to hold the individual posts and the podcast.
2. Add a Summary block for the latest sermons, set to your sermons blog, and show five or six items in a list.
3. Add a Summary block for each current series. Summary blocks can filter by category, so you can show each running series on its own, newest first.
4. Add a Search block filtered to the blog. Squarespace’s Search block can be limited to one collection, which keeps sermon searches from turning up your café menu.
5. Link to past series. A simple list of links to each category page covers everything older.

That’s a decent setup, and plenty of churches never need more.

Where it runs out

The trouble starts as the archive grows. Every new series means editing the Sermons page. You can’t browse by book of the Bible, because Squarespace has no idea that “Rom 8” and “Romans 8:28–39” are the same chapter, or that Romans comes after Acts. The search block matches words rather than passages. If speakers are not tagged consistently, browsing by speaker is difficult. A dedicated player can also make it easier for listeners to return to a sermon.

A larger archive needs more deliberate browsing tools. Decide which routes people actually use before adding more filters.

The plugin I built for the rest

I didn’t want to move anyone’s sermons, so I built Sermon Shelf, a plugin that reads the blog you already have and turns it into a library. It’s one paste into a Code block. It shows your series as a grid of artwork and lays out all 66 books of the Bible as a shelf with the preached ones lit up, each opening in chapter order. Speakers get counts and dates, and search understands passages, so “Romans 8” finds Romans 8 and not Romans 12:1–8. The player remembers each listener’s position on their device.

It uses the same habits described above, so the work you put into categories, passages and speakers pays off either way. There’s a live demo on a made-up church if you’d like to try it before deciding anything.

If you’d rather set up the free version and have a question about it, email me. I’m happy to help either way.

Before installing a plugin

Check that your Squarespace plan allows JavaScript in Code blocks. Squarespace documents this for Core, Plus and Advanced plans and some legacy plans. Read the plugin’s install guide before you buy, then test the published page on a phone. A page kept out of navigation is still public; only publish information intended for visitors.

Squarespace: adding custom code · Squarespace: categories and tags