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Most churches today use some kind of online bible presentation software to add visual clarity to their services. Projecting Scripture passages and key takeaways on the big screen makes your service more accessible to both visual and auditory learners, while displaying song lyrics enables the entire congregation to participate in worship.
Live video and immersive media can also play a role in enhancing engagement. And of course, if your church implements a live stream, display software is crucial to communicating your message across different mediums.
When looking for the right church presentation software, it’s important to consider many factors such as ease of use, cross-platform capability, worship and lyrics tools, media and video capability, and platform stability and support.
Ranking the Top Bible Software for Church Presentations
Below we’re going to compare some of the best Bible presentation software solutions, running the gamut from free cloud-based products to high-end professional software suites that go far beyond simple Scripture display software.
ProPresenter
ProPresenter is a deeply powerful professional-grade presentation software solution. It’s more than just Bible verse presentation software; it’s a fully featured display and video suite.
ProPresenter was built for the church first, so it has the ministry-oriented features you’d want from Bible projection software. It just isn’t limited to only those features.
ProPresenter offers a robust editing interface for designing beautiful, engaging slides and presentations. It’s cross-platform (Mac and PC), and it offers remote control apps for both Apple and Android phone users, checking all the boxes for cross-platform capability.
At a core level, you need church presentation software for Scripture and lyric display. ProPresenter offers what free general-market products can’t: ProPresenter can automatically import Scripture passages quickly and accurately from 125 translations (including the modern English translations your church relies on but free apps don’t have) and 36 languages – and even display them side-by-side for multilingual audiences. Similarly, it can pull in lyrics from popular song databases, eliminating unfortunate or embarrassing mistakes on the big screen.
Another game-changing feature is ProPresenter’s ability to output an unlimited number of feeds to different devices, so you can conveniently create and display a unique feed for each space (think main feed, live stream, presenter view, producer view, lobby feed, and so on).
Acting as a central hub for your input, stream design, and live output, ProPresenter is also a leader in live streaming.
In short, ProPresenter is the perfect combination of valuable features and an intuitive user interface, making it the best Bible presentation software we’ve seen.
Keynote & PowerPoint
Powerpoint is probably the most familiar presentation tool to us all. If you haven’t used it lately, you probably remember the rudimentary design templates and cheesy 3D text animations of the 90s and early 2000s. PowerPoint is better now than it was then, making it a solid choice for many businesses needing basic meeting display software.
Keynote, Apple’s version of a presentation tool, matches all of PowerPoint’s features, but with a modern and minimalistic appearance. Apple’s approach to minimalistic UI makes this tool a bit more straightforward and less clunky, but it’s still an office app more than anything.
The largest drawback to Keynote is its exclusivity: Apple devices can run a Keynote presentation, but other devices cannot do so without compromises.
The two apps do similar things using very different interfaces. They’re good at what they do, but both slide tools were created for broad and basic presentation purposes rather than the needs of churches. You won’t find Scripture and song integrations here in any way, making options less attractive as Bible presentation software, as well as for larger churches that need effective all-in-one church service software options.
BibleShow
BibleShow is an application specifically built for the mission of ministry with a singular focus: displaying Scripture passages. It’s free to use and offers some novel and useful features that generic platforms do not.
While similar to Microsoft Powerpoint in its ability to create slide-style decks for big screen display, BibleShow also allows users to search and import scriptures (across many different translations and 60+ languages).
BibleShow’s website features screenshot displays of the program in action – exhibiting slides that are heavily centered on Scripture and text display rather than video and design.
The BibleShow church presentation software has been built by a small community of volunteers, which can make it tough for them to stay on top of bug fixes and user support. This may also be a reason the app is Windows-only.
One glance at the website shows that the app is pretty dated in terms of aesthetics and UX, too.
For a small or rural church that is focused solely on Scripture display, BibleShow may be a helpful tool. However, it leaves a lot of boxes unchecked for most worship services, especially if you’re looking to incorporate Scripture into a more immersive presentation experience.
VerseView
VerseView is another free application designed specifically for church presentations. It was originally created for one small church to display English and Malayalam (spoken mostly in Kerala, India) verses for their bilingual audience, the software garnered interest from other organizations and was released for wider public use.
Since then it has developed considerably beyond what BibleShow can do. The application contains a Bible search function and a pre-loaded song lyrics database – although the majority of those pre-loaded lyrics are limited to Malayalam.
VerseView is available on Mac and PC and also has sister apps like VerseView Songbook and VerseView Mobile Bible that your congregation can use on the go.
With a better UI and cross-platform (Mac and PC) compatibility, VerseView comes out on top. It also offers remote control via Wi-Fi.
Churches in the 10/40 window or Southeast Asia (or those with significant populations from those regions) may find some unexpected touches here, such as a Khmer Bible database and support for Tagalog and Arabic.
Still, the experience here is limiting compared to what more fully fleshed out apps can do. You’ll have an easier time displaying Scripture, but a harder time doing the other things you may want your presentation software to do.
Google Slides
Another cloud-based presentation tool, Google Slides is a little like PowerPoint Light. While this platform is capable of creating slide-show presentations, it is limited to copy-and-paste text input, which takes extra time and leaves room for errors and typos. You won’t find any Bible importing tools here.
Since Google Slides is a web-based presentation tool, it does fall into the pros for reliability and accessibility – anyone with a Mac or PC setup can access it, and the program runs seamlessly in the Google Chrome browser. Another perk is that the tool is very easy to use and 100 percent free.
However, as a worship presentation tool Google Slides has some flaws. It doesn’t offer advanced video controls or add much value to your live-stream service, and you won’t find any song databases or Scripture importing tools here.
If you’re looking to move beyond PowerPoint as a presentation software, Google Slides is mostly moving in the wrong direction.
Canva
Canva is widely known as a place for amateur graphic design and historically has been utilized to easily design graphics for Instagram and other social channels. However, Canva has worked to broaden its versatility and has launched an online presentation tool that competes with Powerpoint and Google Slides.
This new presentation feature allows users to create and share presentations using attractive design templates, professional stock photos, and graphics elements. While many templates are available for free via the Canva Free package, some templates and design elements require a Canva Pro Subscription ranging $120/year to $150/year, depending on the size of your contributing team.
The presentation tool is completely web-based, making it accessible on nearly any device (Mac, PC, mobile, and more).
On the flip side, completely web-based tools are totally dependent on an internet connection, and there isn’t much you can do during an outage or with poor signal. Browser-based tools also consume a lot of memory bandwidth and inevitably come with increasing levels of performance demand.
If you’re looking to create basic worship presentations and social assets for your church in one central place, Canva might be worth a look. Just be aware that, like the other general-purpose tools, Canva doesn’t have any Bible-specific features.
Prezi
Prezi, a slightly newer presentation tool, is the last of web-based apps on our list. Prezi’s strong suit is that it has veered away from stagnant, linear presentations and embraced a non-linear presentation approach where the presenter can seamlessly navigate between topics and revisit ideas.
This non-linear approach can certainly work in your favor by creating more engagement and interactivity – but can also appear a bit cheesy or cheap if not designed and executed well.
Like the other web-based tools in our list, Prezi is also very limited in its output options. It won’t be the go-to tool if your church is looking for a tool with flexible outputs.
ProPresenter: The Most Robust Church Presentation Software for Mac & Windows Users
When comparing the different church display software options, there’s a lot to consider. When taking into account ease of use, cross-platform capability, worship and lyrics tools, Scripture importing, media and video capability, and platform stability and support, ProPresenter is the most robust church presentation software solution available today.
ProPresenter is the professional’s choice across all industries, but since it was designed for churches first, you’re set with all of the church-centric functions that other presentation softwares lack. You gain access to a highly reliable live streaming solution, polished and easy-to-use design tools, industry-leading presentation features, and granular video and audio control over multiple outputs.
ProPresenter is the most complete scripture presentation software for modern houses of worship using Mac and Windows operating systems.
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