Why we built Chapel Screen
After many years of building PowerPoint presentations for church by hand — last-minute additions handed in on USB sticks, and edits during the service that meant taking the presentation down — we figured there had to be a better way.
Yes, there are plenty of alternatives, but most need software installed on a particular type of computer, and licences to go with it. The modern web browser can do everything those proprietary tools can, and more, because you can run the whole system from any device. Everyone involved in a service can work on it in their own time, or even make changes while the service is under way. Got a visiting speaker next week? Send them a link and they can prepare their content without installing anything.
Other pain points included always having to work to a fixed slide format, which doesn't work well on phones or other devices. And why should anyone have to turn words into slides by hand? It should be automated. Traditional tools can't handle a “church in the park” service or a baptism at the beach either. When a presentation isn't tied to one large 16:9 screen and can go to everyone's phone, you can hold church anywhere.
During the COVID years we added live-stream overlays. Because a presentation can go out on several channels at once, each formatted differently, one person can run them all live — no going back afterwards to add the song words or Bible passages to the video.
More recently we added digital bulletins, because a bulletin is mostly the same content you already put on the main screen: announcements, the Bible reading and so on. You can add information for visitors too, such as who you are and what you believe. And because the bulletin is just another channel, the same live presentation can be shown there as well. At a service in the park, anyone from the church can share the bulletin with passers-by through its QR code, so they can join in.
We have enjoyed building Chapel Screen, and it has made a real difference to how we run our own services. We hope you find it as useful as we have.