Service planning and presentation
The order of service, the charts, the rehearsal schedule, the screens, and the CCLI record.
Software for Sunday protects four things: the order of service, the charts, the rehearsal schedule, and the copyright record. Plan the readings, the Table, the prayers, and the songs first, on paper if that is what it takes. Then hand the logistics to the software. A tool that makes the order easy to fill and the readings easy to forget is shaping your service whether you meant it to or not.
The tools
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Planning Center Services
Churches with rotations, multiple teams, and planning that runs weeks ahead
The strongest scheduling and team communication in this category, and volunteers respond to it. The free tier stops at 5 team members, which a single band passes at once, so treat the free tier as a trial.
- Who should skip it
- Skip it if one person plans the service and the same four people serve every week. You would be buying scheduling you do not need.
- Price
- Free up to 5 team members, paid above that as part of Planning Center. Music Stand is $5 a month. Read on July 28, 2026 at planningcenter.com/pricing .
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ProPresenter
A room with screens and a volunteer running them every week
The presentation workhorse, and it holds up under a live service. It keeps no people records and plans no schedules, so pair it with a planning tool or a disciplined document. Train a second operator before you need one, because a crash at 10:45 on a Sunday is a pastoral problem, not a technical one.
- Who should skip it
- Skip it if you project lyrics from a laptop twice a month, because the per-seat subscription is priced for weekly use.
- Price
- $29 a month per seat, or $289 a year. A 20 seat campus license is $59 a month or $649 a year. There is a 14 day trial. Read on July 28, 2026 at renewedvision.com/propresenter .
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OpenLP
Small congregations that need lyrics on a screen and have no budget for it
Free and open source, runs on hardware you already own, and does the one job. The interface is dated and the media handling is basic. For a church projecting hymns and a Scripture reading, that is the whole requirement.
- Who should skip it
- Skip it if your service depends on tight cues, layered media, or a stage display the band relies on.
- Price
- Free, open source, no license fee.
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A printed order and a shared folder
Liturgical and smaller churches with a stable service pattern
A clear PDF order of worship, a folder of charts, and a current copyright log will outlast three software migrations. It costs the price of paper and one hour a week of somebody being responsible for the file.
- Who should skip it
- Skip it once more than two people need to edit the plan in the same week, because a shared folder starts losing edits at that point.
- Price
- Near free, if the discipline holds.
Ask for these in writing
- A service order that prints cleanly for musicians and for whoever leads the liturgy
- Named fields for readings, prayers, creeds, and the Table, not a song list with notes
- Chart and key management that keeps one folder correct for the whole team
- A rehearsal schedule volunteers will open on a phone
- CCLI reporting you could defend in an audit
- A presentation file that opens on the backup machine, with a second operator trained
- The full annual cost, including the copyright license, which is not part of any subscription here