The Events and Submit an Event pages are generated by the Events Manager plugin, a fully featured event registration management including recurring events, locations management, calendar, Google map integration, booking management. However, you don’t have to use all these fancy features if all you want is a listing of events on your website.

Configuring the Events Manager

You configure the Events Manager plugin to control where the event listing or calendar appears and what events look like. When you have installed the Events Manager plugin, then Events appears on the Dashboard. Choose Events > Settings to display the Event Manager Options page, with several tabs of options. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page if you make any changes.

The News > Events Page

The Event page (on the menu at News > Events) can show a listing of events (that is, a listing of your event pages). On the Events Manager Options page, choose the Pages tab and click the Event List/Archives heading to expand it.

Set the Events Page to the page where you want the event listing or calendar to appear. You choose from a list of the page on your website.

If you want the listing to appear as a calendar, add the WP FullCalendar plugin, which formats the events as a calendar. Once activated, you’ll see a new panel in the Settings section for editing the options for calendar display.

Creating Event Pages

To make a new event page, choose Events > Add Event or choose +New > Event from the top menu. You see the Add New Event edit page.

• Title: Be consistent about how these are formatted.
• Text describing the event.
• Starting and ending time and date of the event in the “When” box in the right-hand column
• Event categories
• The Featured Image (scroll way down to the bottom of the right-hand column) appears on the event page and in listings.
• The location of the event goes in the Where box (scroll down to the bottom of the main column. Enter a complete address so WordPress can display a map. Once you’ve entered your congregation’s name and address once, you can enter the name in the Location Name and you won’t have to enter the whole address again.

Where Event Listings Appear

You can display a listing of upcoming events in the right-hand sidebar of your pages by adding the Event widget to the Primary Sidebar. Choose Appearance > Widgets from the Dashboard, drag the Events widget into the Primary sidebar area, and enter a title and other configuration information.

The demo site also displays an event listing at the bottom of the home page. Choose Appearance > Widgets and drag the Event widget into the Home 6, Home 7, or Home 8 area.

If Your Congregation Uses Google Calendars

If your congregation already uses one or more Google Calendars for tracking events, you can display these events on your WordPress site. The Simple Calendar - Google Calendar Plugin imports events from Google. (Read more about plugins on WPBeginner.com)

Install the plugin as usual: from the Dashboard, choose Plugins > Add New. Search for "Simple Calendar - Google Calendar Plugin", click "Install Now" when you find it, and click "Activate". Now a new item “Calendars” appears on your Dashboard. Follow the plugin's instructions to get a Google Key to get access to the calendar and to configure the plugin.

Note: If you already got a Google API key for displaying a map to your congregation's location, you can use the same API key here.