SPOILERS
The two areas you mention come into play fairly late in the act, so don't worry that you can't get in right now.
When you first go through the town gate there's a notice board. Read that. Then go into the building on the left and see if you can still find (and talk to) someone in there who is some kind of keeper of ranks or records (can't remember what he's called).
You need to start doing quests in order to move up the ranks. As far as I know this is the only way to get the church doors open and continue on through the game.
If you've somehow managed to kill all the quest-giving NPCs then you're probably stuffed. However, I'm not sure that the game allows that. I think you can kill some unimportant ones just marked human.
Anyway, search inside the buildings for people you can talk to.
