Description
MissionaryConnect Gospel 404 gives churches and ministries a Gospel-focused 404 page. When a visitor reaches a missing page, they see a clean full-screen overlay. From there they can return home or open a step-by-step King James Bible Gospel journey.
Features:
- Full-screen 404 overlay that keeps a true HTTP 404 status and adds
noindex,follow. - Step-by-step KJV Gospel journey with keyboard, reduced-motion, and no-JavaScript support.
- An automatically created public “Know For Sure” page that uses the
[mcg404_gospel]shortcode, so you can link the same journey from your navigation. - An optional response form so visitors can ask for prayer, ask questions, or request contact.
- Email notifications through the WordPress mail pipeline (
wp_mail()), which respects SMTP plugins, plus a test email tool and mail diagnostics. - Saved responses with follow-up status, CSV export, and retention controls.
- Branding options: your church logo or no logo, plus a background color, image, or muted looping video.
- Optional, off-by-default MissionaryConnect credit and an optional Bible resources section with your own wording and link.
- Integration with the WordPress personal-data export and erasure tools, and suggested privacy policy text.
- A small Plugin Stats card on the settings screen that shows this plugin’s public install and download counts from WordPress.org.
Built by Paul Douglas for Digital Missions Display, LLC.
Privacy and external services
This plugin does not track visitors and loads no remote fonts, scripts, or styles. All assets are bundled with the plugin. Nothing on your public site contacts any outside service.
The plugin contacts one outside service, and only in your admin area: when an administrator opens the plugin’s settings screen (the General tab of MC Gospel 404), the plugin asks the WordPress.org Plugins API (api.wordpress.org) for this plugin’s public active install and download counts and shows them in the Plugin Stats card. The request asks only for this plugin’s public listing data and sends no data about your site, your visitors, or your users. It uses a generic user agent that names only this plugin and its version, not your site address. As with any web request, WordPress.org can see your server’s IP address. The answer is cached for a day, so WordPress.org is contacted at most about once a day (or once an hour after a failed request). Nothing is sent from your public site and no scheduled task is used. This service is provided by WordPress.org: Privacy Policy.
If response storage is turned on, responses that visitors submit are stored in a dedicated table in your WordPress database. Stored data can include name, email address, phone number, response choice, message, submission time, and page URL. IP addresses are stored only if you turn that option on (it is off by default). Responses are emailed to the recipients you configure (or the site admin email).
Links on your public site
The plugin adds no credits or external links to your public site unless you choose to. Both credits are off by default and are turned on in the Ministry credits box on the Branding tab:
- “Show your love — activate ministry credits” shows the MissionaryConnect credit and logo on your 404 page.
- “Check here to activate the Fundamental Baptist Books credit” shows a Bible resources section in the Gospel journey, using the heading, wording, button text, and link you enter on the Journey tab. It stays hidden until you enter a link. The plugin ships with no prefilled resource link.
Screenshots
Installation
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for “MissionaryConnect Gospel 404”, or upload the plugin ZIP from Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin.
- Activate the plugin.
- Open MissionaryConnect Gospel 404 in the admin menu.
- On the Navigation tab, view the automatically created Know For Sure page and add it to your menu if you like.
- Review the General, Journey, Branding, Appearance, Mail, Responses, and Advanced settings.
- Use Mail > Send Test Email to confirm that notifications reach your inbox.
- Visit any address that does not exist on your site to see the Gospel 404 page.
FAQ
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Does the 404 page still return a 404 status?
-
Yes. The page sends a real HTTP 404 status and a
noindex,followrobots tag so search engines handle missing pages correctly. -
Can I show the Gospel journey on a normal page?
-
Yes. Activation creates a published “Know For Sure” page. You can also add the
[mcg404_gospel]shortcode to any page. -
How are notification emails sent?
-
Only through the WordPress mail pipeline (
wp_mail()). The plugin never sends mail directly from the server, so it works with SMTP plugins such as WP Mail SMTP. For reliable delivery, use an SMTP plugin, then use Mail > Send Test Email and the mail diagnostics on the Mail tab to confirm that notifications arrive. If an email cannot be sent, the response is still saved (when response storage is on). -
Where are visitor responses stored?
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In a dedicated table in your WordPress database, when response storage is on. You can export them as CSV, set a retention period, and use the WordPress personal-data tools.
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How do I show a Bible resources link?
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On the Journey tab, enter the heading, wording, button text, and link (Resource URL) for the resource you want to recommend. Then tick “Check here to activate the Fundamental Baptist Books credit” in the Ministry credits box on the Branding tab. The section appears only when the box is ticked and a link is entered.
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Where do the Plugin Stats numbers come from?
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From this plugin’s public listing on WordPress.org. WordPress.org reports active installs in ranges (for example “Fewer than 10” or “100+”), not exact counts. The numbers are read when an administrator opens the plugin’s settings screen and are cached for about a day. No data about your site is sent.
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What happens when I delete the plugin?
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The scheduled cleanup task and the cached Plugin Stats numbers are always removed. Settings, the responses table, and the automatically created page are deleted only if you turn on “Uninstall cleanup” in the Advanced tab.
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I used the earlier “KJV Gospel 404” plugin. Are my settings kept?
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On first activation, the plugin copies settings from the earlier plugin if it finds them. Saved responses from the earlier plugin are not copied.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“MissionaryConnect Gospel 404” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “MissionaryConnect Gospel 404” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.5.3
- New Plugin Stats card on the General tab of the settings screen. It shows this plugin’s active installs (in the ranges WordPress.org reports) and total downloads from WordPress.org, when they were last updated, and a link to the plugin’s WordPress.org page.
- The numbers are read from the WordPress.org Plugins API only when an administrator opens the settings screen, never on your public site and never by a scheduled task. A successful answer is cached for a day, and a failed request is not retried for an hour. If WordPress.org cannot be reached, the card shows the last saved numbers or a short “Stats unavailable right now” message.
- Uninstalling the plugin always removes the cached stats.
- New filters:
mcg404_show_plugin_stats(return false to hide the card and skip the request),mcg404_plugin_stats, andmcg404_plugin_stats_request_args.
1.5.2
- Appearance tab: each of the 10 color settings now has a short description of exactly what it changes on the 404 page and the Gospel journey. The Branding tab’s Background Color has one too.
- The admin menu icon is now a single-color SVG passed to WordPress as a data URI, so it is recolored to match the admin color scheme (normal, hover, and current states) like the core menu icons.
1.5.1
- All plugin CSS and JavaScript now loads through the WordPress enqueue system (
wp_register_style(),wp_enqueue_style(),wp_register_script(),wp_enqueue_script(),wp_add_inline_style()). The inline<noscript><style>block in the Gospel journey template was removed. - New no-JavaScript fallback: the journey carries a
mcg404-no-jsclass that the plugin’s script removes on load, and the matching rules live in the bundled public stylesheet. Without JavaScript, every journey step is shown and the step buttons are hidden. - The custom 404 background image is now set through
wp_add_inline_style()instead of an inlinestyleattribute. - Public assets are registered on
wp_enqueue_scriptsand enqueued on the 404 overlay, the Know For Sure page, and any page using the[mcg404_gospel]shortcode. - Asset version strings now use the plugin version.
1.0.0
- First WordPress.org release, renamed from KJV Gospel 404 6.8.0 to MissionaryConnect Gospel 404.
- New slug, text domain, and unique
mcg404prefix for all functions, classes, options, hooks, and the database table. - The shortcode is now
[mcg404_gospel]. - Public credits and external links are now opt-in: the MissionaryConnect credit and logo and the Bible resources section are off by default, with clear checkboxes in a Ministry credits box on the Branding tab.
- Notification emails are sent only through
wp_mail(). The direct server mail option, the automatic fallback, and the related Mail tab setting were removed. - The Bible resources section is now generic: no prefilled bookstore link or text and no site-specific code. You enter your own wording and link, and the section stays hidden until a link is set.
- Fixed admin notice placement: every plugin admin screen now starts with the standard WordPress page heading and header marker, so notices from WordPress and other plugins (and this plugin’s own “Settings saved” and test email messages) appear at the top of the page instead of inside the plugin’s content.
- Copies settings from KJV Gospel 404 on first activation.
- WordPress Plugin Check fixes for translations, escaping, and database queries.
- Optimized the bundled logo (about 83 KB instead of 913 KB).