The days of hymn books, bulletins and acetate projectors in churches are numbered. Many houses of worship are moving to digital projectors for displaying song lyrics, event information, sermon notes and more.

A digital projection system has its advantages, but it requires a bit of a budget to put it in place. While there isn’t much you can do about the projector cost, the software options can give you an opportunity to save.

PowerPoint works well in a corporate boardroom, as do other specialized presentation software applications. Unfortunately, they are expensive and not always a good fit for a church. That’s why OpenLP software is worth a look.

This is a free, high-quality presentation program with features especially designed for churches. For example, you can save multiple service templates, which is handy if you have both contemporary and traditional services.

OpenLP uses a dual-pane system so changes can be made to slides even while the service is in progress. It includes two Bible translations for pulling verses and you can import additional versions as needed. You can create a music database for storing songs your church sings regularly. Plus, OpenLP has CCLI and SongSelect integration for importing lyrics, which is a great help for music leaders.

Already have slides saved in PowerPoint? No problem; you can easily open them in OpenLP. There are many more features included. I encourage you to check it out and see if it’s right for your church.

Cost: Free

Link: openlp.org

System: Windows XP, Vista, 7; OS X