In this day in age, technology is constantly evolving. When you attend church, it's common to see different screens displayed with images, sermons, lyrics, videos, and other important content. This is how we spread God's word, keep our members' attention, and make the messages memorable and purposeful. If you're a church leader or volunteer, you know exactly what we are talking about. Taking a look back on previous years, we should ask ourselves: How much time are we wasting prepping our sermons and presentations? Is there an easier way? How can I cut down prep time and get back to actually ministering?
People come to church to worship God. They send their kids to the children’s ministry for an introduction to the gospels. Attending a church service is meant to be a deeply spiritual experience.
For anyone who works or volunteers during a church service, you’ll also know that there are plenty of logistics in place to facilitate that spiritual experience. The right church presentation software is one small but important piece in that logistical puzzle.
Presentation software allows for churches to seamlessly navigate technology experiences for people in attendance. That includes everything from displaying lyrics for worship music, showing scripture during the sermon, or playing fun Bible videos during a kid’s worship service. Because of this usefulness, there are plenty of quality church presentation softwares available today. But how do you discover the right software for your church? What features should you look for? This post is your guide to those questions and more.
What Does Presentation Software Do?
There are a number of functions good church presentation software helps you accomplish. Some are obvious; others only become apparent with experience. But here’s a quick list of some of the functions most software should be able to perform.
- Announcement church slides prior to service
- A video countdown before service begins
- Display lyrics during worship music
- Showing Bible verses during sermon
- Play videos and stream curriculum content
- Create and present slide decks for meetings
- Build templates to save time week to week
In general, the goal of this software is to help engage people during worship services. It should be a technology tool that helps people, rather than providing a barrier to experiencing church. That’s why there are a few important things to consider before purchasing this software.
4 Things to Consider For Presentation Software
Your goal is to find the right presentation software for your church team. But considering all of the options requires weighing several factors. Although this can seem daunting, here are four of the primary details to take into account.
1. Ease of Use
The right presentation software should be an asset to your team, not a liability. Software that’s difficult to understand or use can do more harm than good in your church. The last thing you want is for staff or volunteers fumbling through slides or lyrics during the middle of worship.
Test out software before purchasing to gauge how quickly you can master it. Involve some volunteers who will actually be using the platform in that process. Don’t just pick your most tech-savvy; intentionally select a variety of volunteers to see how easily they pick it up.
Top ranked Church Presentation software Playlister is easy for church leaders to use, as demonstrated in the video above.
2. Technology Compatibility
Church technology is an investment. That may be an investment you’ve already made—especially in terms of your church screens, computers, and audio equipment. The presentation software you select should ideally work with (at least most of) your existing technology structure.
Create a list of all of the worship and ministry tech equipment at your church. This will likely require the help of your media and/or IT teams. As your review software options, be intentional about asking whether or not it works with your specific equipment. Another valid question to ask is whether or not any additional hardware would be required.
3. Program Features
Before making a final decision on presentation software, you’ll want to know what the tool can do. What flexibility does it have? How does it work with video? Can it handle multiple screens? Not all of these features are required, but it’s useful to know what you can handle upfront.
List out all of the ideal features you’re looking for in presentation software. Organize these by priority, to the best of your ability. Which of these features are absolutely necessary to have? Some software may have a few extra bells and whistles, but will those actually be useful to you?
4. Price
The cost of the software isn’t the most important factor, but it certainly is a consideration. Think of the software price as an investment into the improvement of your church. However, you’ll still want to make a wise investment that will generate more value than it costs.
Start with a budget in mind for what your church is reasonably able to spend. Look at the price ranges and structures for a few of the software options. Place these in order of cost and then create another list based on their value. Which one is the best cost for what you’re getting in return?
Playlister
If you're looking for the easiest experience to stream footage and content on TVs, this is it. Playlister is one simple-to-use tool to present curriculum in your ministry and across multiple campuses. With scheduling capabilities, you can now plan what content goes on certain TVs and build an online Netflix-style page for your church with a video hub. Login to your account on any computer or browser anytime and anywhere.
Features & Benefits
If your church uses Orange Curriculum, Playlister is an excellent church software to link your account and instantly import your curriculum. If you subscribed to Orange Curriculum's media package, prebuilt lessons would sync into your account, where you can import and build your own playlist. Better yet, you don't have to sit through another curriculum download ever again.
No more USB sticks, no more editing and splicing videos, and no more wasting hours of your time. With Playlister, you'll be eliminating hours of prep time, allowing you more time to minister. When you build a playlist, you can drag and drop your curriculum or content into it. Once you created it, you can send this to parents at home or schedule a date for it to appear in your classroom. When your volunteers or a parent opens up a playlist, they will see your lessons appear, and they can select through them.
Pricing
Free church software, anyone? If you have a current account with Orange Curriculum, your first year is completely free. With an affordable price starting at $16.99 per month per screen, you won't break the bank. If you're wanting the best value, go straight for the pro version. They'll send you an Apple TV and install kit with a dedicated support team. When you utilize Playlister with an Apple TV, you'll finally be able to stream content without the internet, so kiss goodbye to bothersome internet crashes. With different versions available, there's something out there for every church. Use their free trial run and see if it's right for your ministry!
ProPresenter
ProPresenter checks all the boxes your ministry requires when it comes to being an efficient church presentation software. Start taking full advantage of the neverending feature it brings to you. Whether you have Mac or Windows, it's compatible with either. We'll share a brief glimpse of some of our favorite features to use with this amazing church worship software.
Features & Benefits
If you love putting personal touches on your presentations with various playback tools, ProPresenter is notorious for this. This church software is made for more advanced users, but anyone can learn the ropes of using it with their informative guides. Not only does it focus on gatherings involving ministry videos and sermons, but also conferences, meetings, and church events. Have the luxury of outputting to multiple displays with various types of content at the same time - including numerous stage displays!
Presentation slides can be custom designed with different live video layers, neat backgrounds, and other prop features where they can all be controlled independently. If you ever need to draw or write on live output, this might be the right option for you. It supports Planning Center integration, which allows for bible translations, lyric importing from SongSelect, and includes their own media library to select from. If your church is active with Twitter, ProPresenter will enable you to curate and display posts. Neat, right?
Pricing
Give it a go with their two-week trial! If you love it, their House of Worship annual plan starts at $399, with prices increasing up to $999 with exclusive upgrades included. If you stay with them and remain current, renewal prices decrease.
Proclaim
Maximize your ministry with Faithlife Proclaim and display stunning content and media for your congregation. With unlimited installs and accounts under just one subscription, any church leader can utilize it. Because your church is constantly updating and changing, so does Proclaim and its own updates.
Features & Benefits
The features that Proclaim allows churches to elevate and enhance their worship experiences. Their interface is hands-down one of the easiest to use and very intuitive. It comes with compelling pre-designed elements for your presentations where you can even incorporate their on-screen bible. Simply start typing in a verse, and it'll pull in the rest for you.
Proclaim integrates lyrics and plans with Planning Center, CCLI, Worshipplannig.com, SongSelect, other well-known platforms. Go live, record, edit, and publish without any other required equipment; Proclaim does it for you! With an ever-growing media library that offers graphics, images, motion backgrounds, and more, you'll always keep the congregation's attention while still delivering a meaningful message.
Pricing
There are three different packages to choose from: Proclaim On Air, On Air + Pro Media, and On Air + Pro Media +Partner Media. Prices run from $224.99 to $862.99 per year. Regardless, if you're a new customer, you get the first 30 days free to try them out.
MediaShout
It is a common question - MediaShout or PowerPoint? Of course, PowerPoint is easy to use and straightforward. Still, when it comes to doing more than simple slides, MediaShout wins the contest. But don't worry - if you currently have PowerPoint, you can convert your media over to MediaShout! It was created by pastors, church leaders, and volunteers; therefore, they knew the challenges, goals, and experience of making a church presentation software for any ministry.
Features & Benefits
MediaShout is easy to learn and easy to use. It integrates scriptures, song lyrics, announcements, and enables you to build a timeline and move through slides. Even while you're presenting, you can edit typos, mistakes, jump around different slides, and make any necessary changes on a whim; your audience won't even notice. With plenty of templates to choose from, church leaders can easily create creative presentations faster than ever.
You can do almost anything with MediaShout on one computer. This way, you don't have to stress over multiple technical machines or feeds. And without any hidden costs, you'll have complete access to tons of features such as Bible versions, songs, and more. Play around with its features and add plugins for animations, cues, audio, transitions, text scrolling, key objects (like logos or a clock), and more!
Pricing
Interested in a free trial? They have it available to test out for an entire month, risk-free. If you're ready to dive straight in and join thousands of other churches utilizing MediaShout, the checkout process is quick. MediaShout is $21 per month, or $149; that part is up to you.
EasyWorship
Start streaming media, scriptures, songs, sermon notes, and lyrics straight from the mobile app or your Windows computer! It's a simple yet powerful tool churches use to build their services quickly and efficiently. Suppose a presenter needs to make a last-minute change. In that case, their editing tools allow them to change it right away and before the presentation begins.
Features & Benefits
Who doesn't love drag-and-drop functions? With quick editing functions for text, video, and other graphics, you'll know why this is one of our top choices for church presentation software. Search through scriptures to add to your slide and import videos to create captivating content. If you need to share a part of a DVD or video file, it provides a video clip editor to clip the scene you need and drop it into your service schedule. Best of all, whoever is presenting the material will know how much time is left for the service, what slide is up next, and other alerts.
It's easier than ever to bring the church to people at home or on the go with live streaming abilities. With live output view, you can merge your equipment with EasyWorship and add graphics to enhance the quality of the presentation to your online viewers.
Pricing
Whatever your needs might be, there is a pricing package for every church. On EasyWorship, you have the ability to select the average weekly attendance of members, whether that be one or 1,000 plus. After deciding which defines your ministry, you'll be given two options: EasyWorship Basic or EasyWorship Premium. From there, you can pick out if you want to prepay for the year, pay monthly for a year, or even opt for their monthly plan with no commitment.
