Free church graphics & how to use them

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Many churches struggle with making their communications exciting and engaging. They spend a lot of effort creating content for their websites, emails, and social media posts, but something is missing. What is a quick and affordable way to make your church’s website more attractive, get more people to read your emails, and drive more attention to your social media posts? 


The answer is simple: Start using free church graphics! The term “graphics'' refers to a wide variety of artistic images, including pictures, illustrations, and designs. The benefit of using powerful imagery is that it helps capture people’s attention, unlock their imaginations, and connect your message to their emotions! 

Let’s take a look at how to find and create effective church graphics, as well as where to use them.

Free church graphics

High-quality graphics can be expensive—stock photos can easily cost $10 and up for one-time, limited use. For churches and ministries with an active online presence, that adds up quickly! 

Fortunately, there are numerous websites that offer beautiful stock photos to use for your church. Some of them also offer free short videos that are great for social media posts. Here are some of the most popular free church stock photography websites: 

• Unsplash
• Pexels
• Pixabay
• Stocksnap

Subsplash has built an entire library of themed collections of free church images. These fresh graphics are curated for church use. Use them to bring some new life to your communications. Check it out!

Free online photo editing tools

For many churches that don’t have a graphic designer on staff, design tools and software—like online photo editing—can help make their graphics look professional and engaging. Here are a few of the most popular no-cost online photo editor websites for churches:

• Canva
• Piktochart
• PIXLR

One of the most popular types of church graphics are images combined with text. These are made by overlaying text on top of a solid color image, an image with patterns, or a photograph. For more ideas, this blog post has step-by-step instructions for making visually-appealing customized graphics! 

Where and how to use free church graphics

Let’s take a look at the best places to add the free graphics listed above, as well as some tips for using them to enhance your communications and engage your community.

Church websites

Studies show that most people scan websites rather than reading each word. Using photos and graphics on your website’s home page, blogs, and other webpages helps your readers by keeping their attention and directing them where to go next.

Here are some best practices to consider when using media to engage your audience:

• Use images that visually represent the topic of each webpage. For example, a youth group page might have images of high schoolers having fun, worshipping together, or playing games. 
• Select graphics that match your church’s brand, look, and feel. In other words, make sure the images feel authentic to your church and congregation.
• Avoid using too many or too few images. Too many images may overwhelm your readers, while too few images may cause readers to lose interest. 

The easiest way to build an amazing church website is with SnapPages™ by Subsplash! It provides you with custom templates designed just for churches, along with simple drag-and-drop tools to add graphics and other media. Because it’s fully customizable and simple to use, you can get a website that feels like your church and looks amazing!

Mobile apps

One of the best places to use graphics is on your church’s mobile app. While many of the same best practices for adding images to websites apply to mobile apps as well, there are a couple of tips you should keep in mind when adding photos to your mobile app: 

• Resize graphics to focus on what’s important. For example, if you add a picture of a worship leader on a large stage, it may be difficult to see the worship leader on a small phone screen. In this case, cropping the image will help the worship leader appear larger and be more easily seen.
• Keep clutter to a minimum. Try to avoid using images that are too busy, as they are difficult to see on smaller screens.

Emails

Using the right graphics will capture people’s attention and strengthen the message of your church’s emails. To get the full impact of using graphics in church emails, follow these suggestions:

• Keep the graphic file size as small as possible to avoid delays in opening or loading the email.
• Avoid sending an image only with no text as email platforms may send those to recipients’ spam folders.
• Use images that are relevant to the email content. 
• Avoid using too many graphics. It’s a good idea to use no more than one image for each main topic covered in the email. 

Social media

Studies have shown that social media posts with images get 37% more engagement than those without an image! Whether it’s announcing an upcoming event, celebrating pastor appreciation day, or sharing a prayer request, adding the right media will capture people’s attention and enhance their connection with your post. 

Here are some best practices for using free church social media graphics:

• Consider your audience. Is your post aimed at youth, women, men, parents, or some other demographic? Use graphics which will appeal to the specific audience your post is intended for.
• Think about your topic. Use graphics that correspond to the post’s subject. Using unrelated images can cause confusion or send the wrong message. 
• Use the right image sizes. Each social media platform has certain image dimensions and sizes they use. Check out this helpful social media image sizes cheat sheet from Hootsuite. 
• Post frequently. Most social media experts suggest posting at least three times each week, and no more than two times per day. 

Church services

During your weekend service, use the power of graphics to catch people’s attention and keep them engaged. All of the free images mentioned above are available in high resolution which makes them ideal for presenting on large screens. Here are some ways you can incorporate these images:

• Church service slide deck—Use sermon graphics or motion graphics to add some pizzazz to your presentation slides. You can create custom artwork for your sermon series slides, worship backgrounds, weekly announcements, youth gatherings, church events, small groups, the offertory, and much more!
• Posters & signage—Add background images to your church posters and signs to add some excitement and energy. This is especially effective for youth and children’s ministries! 
• Printed bulletins & handouts—Rather than handing someone a plain bulletin, add graphics to reinforce the message and announcements.

Looking for inspiration and resources to help prepare for your Easter celebrations? Download our free Easter Media Kit to get beautiful, customizable graphics and videos to take your Easter services to the next level!

Over 14,000 churches and ministries around the world trust Subsplash to help them reach and engage their communities. The Ultimate Engagement Platform™ provides a suite of online engagement tools like mobile apps, websites, live streaming, group messaging, and online giving that work seamlessly together. Discover how your church can reach, engage, and grow your church community like never before!