Research focused on identifying the long-term maintenance and scalability issues caused by the existing XpressEngine (XE) 1.0 infrastructure. The project evaluated the risks of continued legacy system maintenance versus migrating to a modern CMS platform. Key considerations included PHP compatibility problems, content management complexity, mobile responsiveness, media integration, and long-term sustainability for church staff and volunteers.

The existing website suffered from increasing technical debt due to aging XE 1.0 architecture. Every major PHP update introduced new compatibility problems, making maintenance time-consuming and expensive. The church initially considered upgrading to XE3, but ultimately chose WordPress for its flexibility, usability, broader ecosystem, and long-term maintainability. Another major challenge was modernizing the visual experience while preserving the welcoming and community-centered identity of the church. The redesign needed to support sermons, ministries, bilingual content, event communication, and media-rich storytelling in a more accessible and scalable format.

Visual Storytelling

A Cinematic First Impression Through Drone Footage

Drone-filmed cinematic visuals were integrated into the homepage experience to create a welcoming and dynamic digital presence for the church community.

The website was fully rebuilt on WordPress to provide a more reliable and future-proof content management system. A responsive mobile-first structure improved accessibility across devices, while a simplified administrative workflow reduced maintenance complexity for church staff. A drone-filmed cinematic background video was integrated into the homepage hero section to create a visually engaging and emotionally welcoming first impression. The redesign also improved sermon organization, ministry presentation, navigation clarity, and overall user experience for both Korean and English-speaking visitors.