Download the Church bulletin templates: Free downloads & how to use them
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Do church bulletins feel like a thing of the past? While their form has changed over the years—especially in the digital age—they remain one of the most effective and reliable means of communicating with visitors to your church.
Your church bulletin is like a roadmap, giving your visitors and members a clear view of each stage of your worship service and upcoming church events.
Why are church bulletins important?
No matter their size, churches typically have a lot going on in any given season, and there’s always much to communicate about all their various ministries. Even engaged church members—let alone first-time visitors—can find it difficult to keep track of all that a church has coming up in its calendar.
That’s why, when leveraged alongside your church’s digital toolkit, effective church bulletins can go a long way toward helping new and returning congregants stay up to speed on all of your church’s activities and ministry opportunities.
Your congregants and staff alike will benefit from clear and effective communication, and church bulletins are a powerful tool to incorporate into your overall strategy.
10 must-haves for every church bulletin
Creating an effective church bulletin is essential for welcoming visitors and engaging your congregation. Here are ten elements to include in every church bulletin.
Warm welcome message: Start with a friendly message from the pastor or a church leader. This sets a tone for the bulletin and makes everyone feel welcomed.
Order of service: Include the order of the service, including the sequence of worship songs or hymns, prayers, scripture readings, and any other liturgical elements. This helps attendees know what to expect during the service and follow along.
Important announcements: Provide a section for church announcements, events, and important dates. Be sure these announcements include upcoming activities, meetings, and any special events or guest speakers.
Relevant scripture passages: Include the Bible verses or passages that will be read during the service. Congregants can follow along and refer to them later for personal reflection.
Lyrics: Include the lyrics to the hymns or songs that will be sung during the service. This allows everyone to participate in worship even if they have difficulty reading lyrics projected on a screen. As a bonus, church members will be able to supplement their Bible study and devotions by referring to the song lyrics throughout the week.
Sermon notes: Help your service attendees engage with the message and retain important points by providing space for note-taking during the sermon. You can also take in-service engagement to the next level with note-taking in your church’s branded mobile app. On the Subsplash Platform, your congregants can follow along with fill-in notes or take freeform notes that are permanently attached to recorded media items for future reference!
Prayer requests: Include a section for congregants to write down prayer requests. These can be collected during the service and used for group or individual prayer. In addition,, your church can use Subsplash Messaging to collect prayer requests digitally and pray for one another every day of the week!
Contact information: Display contact details for the church, including the physical address, phone number, email, website, and a link (or QR code) to download your church’s mobile app. This makes it easy for visitors to get in touch and learn more about the church.
Giving information: Explain how the church handles offerings, including where to give, how to give online, and the purpose of the offerings. Many who are new to church get a bit nervous when churches talk about money, and this can be a great place for your church to share the heart and purpose behind giving.
Next steps: Your people, especially visitors, need to know what next steps your church can offer to guide their faith journey, such as joining a small group, volunteering, or taking a church membership class. Be sure to regularly share information on how they can do this in your bulletins as well as on your website and from the pulpit.
Weekly versus monthly church bulletins
Historically, churches put together church bulletins on a weekly basis for the purpose of being handed out to congregants as they enter the worship space each week. This allows the church to communicate information about the weekly worship service and any upcoming events.
However, more recently some churches have opted to only provide a church bulletin on a monthly basis. This saves on costs if churches are printing paper bulletins, and it may actually lead people to pay more attention to bulletins when they are distributed.
Both methods of church bulletin distribution have their strengths and weaknesses, and your church’s final decision will come down to preference, budget, and ministry context. What matters is that you, as a church leader, have clear, consistent means of communication with your church family.
Call your people to action
Church bulletins are also effective tools for when you want to call your congregation to action. What do some basic calls to action look like? Here are a few examples:
“Make a difference in our community by joining our community service team.”
“Bring a bag of non-perishable food items any time in the month of October to support our local food pantry.”
“Join a midweek small group to find others who want to walk the narrow road of faith with friends who become family.”
Church bulletins don’t need to just be means of information transfer—they can be effective tools to call people to action.
Free church bulletin templates
Are you unsure of where to start when it comes to crafting an effective church bulletin? Free church templates are great for churches working on tight budgets (like church plants, for example). Free church templates also eliminate the need for your church to have a graphic designer who has the time to give to a fresh, new church bulletin every week. Here are a handful of places that may help with your church bulletin creation:
Open Network provides some church bulletins that other churches have used that you can download for free.
Canva is a great web design tool that helps anyone create graphic design pieces. Some features require a paid subscription, but they have some templates that can be used for free.
Concordia Supply provides a handful of basic church bulletin options for free that your church could adapt however best suits your ministry. These options are great for churches on a budget as they have light colors and mostly white backgrounds.
Adobe Express has a limited selection, but the options provided are tasteful and would be great free church bulletin templates for most churches.
Template Lab has a long list of free church templates that are tailored for different kinds of denominations and contexts.
Take your church bulletins digital
While printed bulletins are useful on Sundays, many of them get left on church seats or get lost under car seats after the service. That’s why many churches have started sharing their bulletins through email and on their church website.
When printing your bulletin, simply save a copy as a PDF that can be attached to your emails as a downloadable asset. You can also upload a copy to your church’s website where anyone can view it online.
Have the events from your bulletin point to your church’s online calendar on your website and church app.
To help people find your online bulletin more quickly, add a QR code that will take them to your website, online calendar, or even your online giving page. If you’re not sure how to create a QR code, try using a free QR code generator.
A central place for all of your events & announcements
Church bulletins are helpful for communicating important information to your people. However, after service, many bulletins get left behind, thrown away, or lost under car seats on the way home.
What if you could create a single place where everyone can see upcoming events, share prayer requests, watch sermon videos, and even have meaningful conversations?
Jeff lives in Austin, TX and is a husband, father, and bonsai enthusiast. He’s served churches for over 20 years as a pastor, teacher, and missionary. He also holds a MBA from George Fox University and is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.
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