How to design a sermon slide

A sermon slide is readable from the back of the room, or it is wallpaper. Design it as one message — the series, the sermon title, or a single line of scripture — and leave the outline in the preacher’s notes. Fast Ministry Graphics will follow that brief at 16:9.

Updated October 14, 2026

A slide has three jobs, not one

The holding slide before the message tells a guest what morning this is. The series slide tells the regulars where they are in the weeks. The scripture slide is the line you want them to see while it is read. Make those as separate files. One slide that tries to be all three becomes a bulletin.

Type, from the back row

If you cannot read the title from across your office, it will fail in the sanctuary.
One type color against a simple ground beats a title over a busy photograph.
A verse longer than two lines belongs on the next slide, or it should be shortened to the clause you are preaching.

What the brief should say

Name the deliverable (“sermon slide”), the exact title, the scripture if there is one, and where the type sits. Then name what you do not want: no date, no church address, no collage of icons. The tool is literal. Unused details tend to show up as tiny type.

A brief you can start from

Sermon slide, series title Already Enough, one line from Matthew 11:28, title on the left, lots of dark margin, no date.

Open this brief

Questions

Should every week look the same?

The series should. Same style, same title lockup, and only the week’s line changes. That is a new brief, not a new identity.

What if a word is misspelled?

Edit that word. Each edit costs one credit, the same as a new graphic. Check names and scripture references before you put the file on a screen.