How to Make Church Slides for a Sunday Service

Step by step

1. 1

   Match a preset to the moment in the service

   Use Verse Card when scripture goes on screen during the message, Sermon Series for the title of a teaching run, and Welcome Slide for the minutes before the service starts. Giving Card covers the offering, and Stained Glass is the ambient option behind lyrics or announcements.

2. 2

   Retype the fields for this week

   On Verse Card, the passage goes in Text and the reference in Title. Sermon Series splits into Label for the kicker, Title for the message and Subtitle for the week. Giving Card uses Label for the giving instruction. Set Primary, Accent and Font once, then keep them for the series.

3. 3

   Set line width and reading time

   Block width on Verse Card sets how much of the frame the passage may fill, so narrowing it creates more, shorter lines. Each line arrives in turn, so raise Duration above the default 7.5 seconds for a longer passage. Most sanctuary screens want 16:9; use 9:16 for a phone clip of the verse.

4. 4

   Export for the screen it will play on

   Choose MP4 for full-screen slides and for Stained Glass, since they carry their own background and need no alpha. If a verse has to sit over the live camera, set Background to Transparent and export WebM for OBS, or a PNG sequence if the service is edited in Premiere Pro afterwards.

5. 5

   Load it into the service or the recap

   For a livestream, add the transparent WebM to OBS as a media source above the camera and trigger it on the reading. For a recap edit in Premiere Pro, choose File > Import, select the first PNG frame, tick Image Sequence and place the clip above the sermon footage.

Where it is used

• Sermon livestreams

  The verse being read appears over the camera shot of the preacher, line by line, with the reference underneath, so people watching at home can follow along without opening a Bible.

• Pre-service countdown screens

  A Welcome Slide naming the gathering runs on the sanctuary screens as people arrive, then gives way to the first song once the band takes the stage and the service begins.

• Sermon series bumpers

  Each week's message opens the recording with the same Sermon Series plate and a changed week number, which ties a five-part teaching together when the videos are posted to the church website.

Presets

5

Default length

5 to 10 seconds

Best export

MP4 for full-screen slides

Aspect ratios

16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5

Which format should you export?

MP4 for backgrounds and full-screen slides, transparent WebM for anything that has to sit over the camera feed, like a name or a verse during the message.

Format

MP4 · WebM · PNG sequence

Alpha

WebM or PNG sequence

Resolution

720p to 8K

Aspect

16:9 · 9:16 · 1:1 · 4:5

License

Commercial use included

Three tips that make it look intentional

• Keep verse text short enough to read from the back row: split long passages across two cards.
• Run the ambient loop behind lyrics rather than under text you need people to read quickly.
• Export loops as seamless MP4 so presentation software can repeat them without a visible jump.

Three things people get wrong

• Fitting a long passage on one card. From the back row it becomes a grey block; split it and hold each half longer.
• Changing the palette week to week. The set reads as one service only when the colors stay put.
• Running a busy ambient loop under lyrics people are trying to sing. Save the motion for the moments nobody is reading.

Frequently asked