iSermons includes a built-in filter and search bar that appears above sermon lists on the front end. Visitors can use it to narrow down the sermon library by taxonomy, year, or keyword — without leaving the page.
Filter Bar Controls
The filter bar can display any combination of the following controls, depending on which taxonomies are enabled and which filter options are configured:
| Filter Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Search | A text input that searches sermon titles and content in real time. |
| Categories | Dropdown to filter sermons by category. |
| Series | Dropdown to filter sermons by series. |
| Books | Dropdown to filter sermons by Bible book. |
| Topics | Dropdown to filter sermons by topic. |
| Preachers | Dropdown to filter sermons by preacher. |
| Year | Dropdown to filter sermons by the year they were preached (uses the Date Preached field). |
Showing or Hiding the Filter Bar
The filter bar is controlled per shortcode or widget:
- Shortcode: Add
show_filter="yes"to display the filter bar, orshow_filter="no"to hide it. Example:[isermons-list show_filter="yes"] - Elementor Widget: Toggle the Show Filter option in the widget settings panel.
Sorting Sermons
You can control the default sort order of sermons using the orderby and order attributes in the shortcode or the equivalent settings in Elementor widgets:
| Attribute | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|
orderby |
date, title, menu_order, rand |
The field to sort by. date uses the Date Preached field if set. |
order |
DESC, ASC |
Descending (newest first) or ascending (oldest first). |
Example — show the 6 most recent sermons, newest first:
[isermons-list orderby="date" order="DESC" limit="6"]Hierarchical Filters
If you have enabled Hierarchical for filters for a taxonomy under Settings → General, the filter dropdown for that taxonomy will display terms in a nested (parent → child) structure rather than a flat list. This is useful for large taxonomy trees such as nested categories or Bible books grouped by Testament.
[Screenshot: The sermon list filter bar showing Search, Category, Series, Preacher, and Year dropdown controls above a sermon grid]