OpenLP: free, open-source church slides

OpenLP as free church presentation software: lyrics, media, and live control without a license — and the volunteer time that replaces vendor support.

September 7, 2026

OpenLP is free, open-source church presentation software. There is no license invoice. The cost is volunteer time and self-support: Saturday hours, a person who will maintain the install, and no vendor to call when the output is blank at 8:40 a.m.

That is a real way to run Sunday. It is not the same as costless. Treat the missing price tag as a budget line that moved from the treasurer to the media volunteer.

OpenLP is a long-running project built around the same jobs as the rest of the category: songs, Bible texts, media, and a live display. It runs on more than one desktop operating system. Churches that like it usually have someone comfortable installing software and reading project docs. Churches that regret it usually had one curious volunteer, then a season when nobody touched updates.

This page is a portrait, not a ranking. For the money-and-labor map that OpenLP sits on, use free church presentation software. For the wider field, use church presentation software.

What it is (and who it is for)

OpenLP is church-shaped slide software you install on a machine you own. It is not a general office deck with a cross on the title slide. It is not a booth-class production suite with a support desk. It is a desktop project the community maintains, aimed at the live service: lyrics that can jump, scripture on a projector, media, and an operator surface.

Who it is for:

A church that will not pay a license and will pay in hours
A volunteer who will read documentation, install on a church-owned computer, and keep it updated
A room that wants local control — files on a disk in the building, not a login that needs sanctuary wifi to advance a chorus
Teams that can accept forum posts and project docs instead of a named person on the phone

Who it is a poor fit for belongs next to that list. If you need a vendor at 8:40 a.m., or you have one volunteer who will not maintain an install, OpenLP will feel free in January and expensive in March. If your only computers are Chromebooks or locked-down images that cannot run a desktop app, this is the wrong shape. Confirm current platforms on the project site before you promise the room a Sunday.

Open source is honest about money and silent about labor. If your church does not have that labor, you will quietly return to a phone screenshot.

If you are choosing under one-volunteer constraints, the decision frame is church presentation software for small churches. That page is about process. This page is about one name.

Features that matter on Sunday

Do not copy a feature matrix off a wiki and call it verified. Plugins, Bible downloads, and remote apps change. Confirm what you need on openlp.org, then prove it on the church projector.

Lyrics

The live job is current lyric on the house, next lyric ready, a way back to the chorus when the band repeats. Build one real song. Ask how songs enter the library — type, import, or copy — and whether a second volunteer can find that song next month. A free tool still needs a church-owned library on a church-owned disk.

Scripture

OpenLP is built as church software, which means scripture is a first-class job rather than a paste into a title box. How you get a translation onto the machine — download, import, plugin — is a weekday setup step. Insert one passage the preacher will read. Jump ahead two verses. Confirm the translation the room uses.

If insert fails because a download never completed, that is an install-maintenance problem, not a “free software cannot do Bible” problem. Budget the hour.

Media

Test one video on the real projector with sanctuary audio, not laptop speakers in an empty booth. Confirm you can leave the video for a lyric without a desktop flash. Local files help: you are waiting on a path and a codec, not a tab. That is still Saturday work. It does not require guest wifi.

Live control

Operator view versus house view is not optional. Current, next, jump, and a way to go to black or a logo are the controls a second person must find. The congregation must not see the playlist.

Treat extra outputs as optional. Get words on the house first. Confirm the current live surface on the project docs the week you install.

OS / where it runs

Durable fact: OpenLP is a desktop install on more than one operating system. That is why churches that are not Windows-only hear the name. Confirm the current list on the project site. Do not assume a Chromebook path. Do not assume a locked church laptop will allow an installer.

The computer should be church-owned and should stay in the room. A free tool on a personal laptop is still a lake-house risk. The license did not follow the bag. The only working install did.

Offline

A local install with local songs, local Bible text, and local video is the usual reason people pick this shape: unplug the network and the set still runs. That is the theory. Prove it.

After you build the service, disable wifi and unplug ethernet. Advance the song, the verse, and the video. If a plugin or a Bible module still wants the network, you found the exception. Write it down. Do not invent a guarantee from a magazine page.

Offline does not help if the machine is missing. Local control is a custody problem: two people should know where the computer lives.

Strengths

No license fee. The treasurer is not writing a subscription check for slides. For a church that will not add software to the budget, that is the whole appeal. Confirm on the project site that you are looking at the current project, not a random fork or an abandoned download mirror.

Local control. Songs, scripture, and media can live on a disk in the building. The next lyric does not have to wait on sanctuary wifi. Guest networks and a closet router are then hardware problems, not presentation problems.

Communities that will read docs. OpenLP lasts in rooms where someone will search the documentation, install a Bible, and write a one-page handoff: which output is the house, where the service file lives, what to do if the display is black. If you have that person — and a backup who can follow the page — the missing vendor is survivable.

A free local tool with no reader in the building is just an unmaintained install. A reader with no church-owned machine is still one bag away from a blank wall.

Weaknesses / poor fit

Churches that need a vendor to call at 8:40 a.m. At that hour you have the people in the room and whatever you wrote down last month. Community forums do not pick up a sanctuary phone. Paid support is not magic, and it will not reseat HDMI. The difference is whether anyone outside the building shares the problem before the prelude.

If your backup plan is “we will call someone,” OpenLP is a poor fit. Keep a logo, a way to preach without slides, and a spare cable.

One volunteer who will not maintain an install. Updates, Bible modules, outputs, and “why is the second display wrong” become that person’s second job. When they are out of town, the free tool is a locked box. This is the usual failure, not a dramatic crash.

Do not pick OpenLP to save money if you cannot name the maintainer. Name them. Write the handoff. If you cannot, the license you did not pay will be replaced by three bad Sundays and a return to PowerPoint — a general slide tool churches already have, and a poor match for live worship repeats.

No desktop, no install. Chromebook-only rooms and locked images are the wrong hardware. Either change the computer or change the software shape.

Time is the fee. If weekday hours are scarcer than money, a license can be cheaper.

How to evaluate it in 30 minutes

Do this on the church computer, on the real projector.

Install from the project site onto a church-owned machine you are allowed to change. If you cannot install, stop. You do not have an OpenLP plan.
Build one song the band will sing. Jump back to the chorus.
Get one verse on screen in the translation you actually use. Jump ahead two verses. If a Bible download is required, that time counts.
Add one short video. Confirm sanctuary audio.
Confirm operator view versus house view. Hide the playlist from the wall.
Unplug the network. Finish the song, the verse, and the video.
Hand Next to a second person with no training. Watch whether they can jump and go to black.

If the software is calm and nobody will own updates, you failed the test in a different way. If the test passes and you have a maintainer, OpenLP is doing the job it is built for: church slides without a license, on a machine you control.