The Problem
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant denomination with deep roots in social justice — and a website that had grown to more than 5,000 pages. Built on NationBuilder, the site had served UCC well for years, reaching a wide range of audiences across their ministry and advocacy work. But technology moves fast, and the cracks were showing. The site struggled with searchability, content hierarchy, and security. Navigation had become difficult for users, and maintaining the platform was increasingly burdensome for staff.
UCC needed more than a refresh. They needed a full rebuild — one that could speak to their existing audiences, welcome new ones, and actually be manageable by the people running it day-to-day.
Our Approach
Cornershop approached this project in four clearly defined phases: discovery, design, development, and launch. We took the time upfront to understand UCC’s audiences, content priorities, and long-term goals before touching a single pixel. That discovery work shaped everything that followed — from the site architecture to the custom features we built.
We migrated the site to WordPress and developed a clean, modern design with intuitive navigation and flexible custom blocks that give UCC’s team real editorial control. The result wasn’t just a prettier site — it was a smarter one.
The Solution
The new UCC website launched with a number of purpose-built features, including a Church Finder to help visitors locate congregations near them, a Shopify integration for resource and merchandise sales, and faceted search for worship and faith formation content — making it significantly easier for users to find what they’re looking for across a massive content library.
