Displaying Scripture during a service is one of the most common tasks in Church Presenter, and the Bible tab makes it fast — find a passage in seconds, select as many verses as you need, and send them live with a single click. This guide covers everything from adding your first Bible file through showing two translations side by side.

Step 1: Set your Bible storage directory

Church Presenter needs to know where your Bible files are stored before it can display any verses.

  1. Open Settings (⚙ in the toolbar).
  2. Go to the System tab.
  3. Click Browse… next to Bible Storage Directory and select a folder where you’ll keep your Bible files — or create a new folder called Bibles somewhere easy to find, like your Documents folder.
  4. Click Save.

Bible files stored in this folder survive app upgrades, so you won’t need to re-add them after updating Church Presenter.

Step 2: Get Bible files

Church Presenter uses Bible files in .db3 format. There are two ways to get them.

Use files you already have

If you already have .db3 Bible files from a previous installation, copy them into the Bible Storage Directory from Step 1. They’ll appear in the Bible tab dropdowns without needing to restart the app.

Convert from an XML file

Two large free collections of Bible XML files are available online:

  • Zefania XML Bible — a long-established collection with hundreds of translations.
  • Holy Bible XML Format (Beblia) — 1000+ versions in 200+ languages, including many that aren’t in Zefania.

Once you have an XML file:

  1. Open Church Presenter.
  2. Go to Help → Converter.
  3. Select your XML file and choose an output folder.
  4. Click Convert. A .db3 file is created in the output folder.
  5. Move the .db3 file into your Bible Storage Directory — it will appear in the dropdowns without needing to restart the app.

Step 3: Choose your Bible translations in Settings

After adding files to the storage folder, tell the app which translations to use by default:

  1. Open Settings → Bible.
  2. Set the Primary Bible dropdown to the main translation your church uses. This is the version displayed by default in the Bible tab.
  3. Optionally, select a Secondary Bible if you want a second translation always available alongside the first.

You can switch translations at any time from the Bible tab itself — the Settings selection just sets the default that loads when the app opens.

Step 4: Open the Bible tab and navigate to a passage

Press F6 or click the Bible tab to open it.

The tab has three resizable columns — Book, Chapter, and Verse — each with a filter field at the top and a list below. Work left to right:

  1. Book column: type in the filter field to narrow the list, then click the book you want. You can type in the app’s current language or in the language of the Bible version — so “Бут” and “Genesis” both find Genesis when using a Ukrainian Bible.
  2. Chapter column: the chapter list populates automatically. Type a number to jump to it, or scroll and click.
  3. Verse column: all verses in the selected chapter appear here. Type in the verse filter field to narrow by verse number or text, then click the verse you want.

Note: Church Presenter supports the 66 canonical books of the Bible (Genesis through Revelation). Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books are not currently supported.

Step 5: Search the full text of the Bible

When you don’t know exactly where a verse is, use the full-text search bar at the top of the Bible tab:

  1. Type a word or phrase into the Search field.
  2. Set the scope — Entire Bible or Current Book.
  3. Set the mode — Contains Phrase (any verse containing your words) or Exact Match (the exact wording).
  4. Click Search.

Results appear in the list with your search term highlighted. Click any result to jump to that verse and exit search mode. Click Clear to return to the normal three-column view.

Step 6: Select verses

Single verse: click it in the list.

A range of verses: click the first verse, then hold Shift and click the last one. All verses between them are selected and sent to screen as a single passage block.

Non-consecutive verses: hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click each verse individually. This lets you pick verses from different parts of a chapter for a single display.

The reference updates in real time as you make your selection.

Step 7: Send verses to the screen

With a verse or range selected, send it live in either of two ways:

  • Double-click a verse to send it immediately.
  • Click Go Live to send the current selection live.

The passage appears on the projection screen with its reference (e.g. Romans 8:28) positioned and styled according to your Settings.

To remove the verse from screen:

  • Press Escape. The verse text fades out while any background stays visible.

To step through a multi-verse passage, click the next verse in the list or press the arrow keys.

Recently presented verses

A collapsible History panel at the bottom of the Bible tab keeps a log of the last 50 verses you’ve sent live. Click any entry to jump straight back to that passage — the book, chapter, and verse all load instantly, ready to send again.

This is useful mid-sermon when the pastor circles back to a verse from earlier, or when the same passage comes up week after week and you want to avoid searching from scratch each time.

Step 8: Display two translations side by side

If your congregation reads in two languages, or your pastor preaches from two translations, you can show both on screen at once.

  1. In Settings → Bible, set the Secondary Bible dropdown to your second translation.
  2. When you send a verse live, both translations appear on the projection screen together.

To quickly swap which translation is primary and which is secondary, click Swap in the Bible tab toolbar.

On a full-screen output, both translations are stacked top to bottom (primary above, secondary below). On a lower-third output, they appear side by side. You can style each translation independently in Settings → Bible.

Step 9: Add Bible verses to the schedule

For a planned sermon passage, add the verses to the schedule before the service so you don’t have to look them up live:

  1. Go to the Bible tab F6.
  2. Search for your passage and select the verses.
  3. Right-click the selection and choose Add to Schedule, or click the Add to Schedule button in the toolbar.

The verse block appears in the Schedule panel as a single item with its reference shown. During the sermon, click the item in the schedule to send it live — no searching needed in the moment.

See How to Build and Run a Sunday Service Schedule for the full Schedule panel walkthrough.

Letting the pastor send verses from their phone

The Church Presenter mobile app (Android and iOS) lets the pastor control Bible verses directly from their phone or tablet, without going through the operator.

From the mobile app, the pastor can:

  • Browse and search the Bible by book, chapter, and verse — using the same translations loaded on the main computer.
  • Send a verse live — projecting it straight to the screen without involving the operator at all.
  • Add a verse to the schedule — queuing it in the running order so the operator sees it and can send it at the right moment.

This is especially useful mid-sermon when the pastor decides to add an unplanned passage, or during rehearsal when the service order is still being worked out. Changes appear on the operator’s screen instantly.

The mobile app connects to Church Presenter over your local Wi-Fi network. No internet connection is required — it works entirely offline within the church building.

Statistics and CCLI reporting

Church Presenter tracks every verse you send live automatically — no manual logging needed.

Statistics overview

Open Edit → Statistics to see a summary of your most-used content:

  • Top Verses — a ranked list of every verse presented, grouped by Bible translation, with the total number of times each was sent live.
  • Top Songs — the same breakdown for songs.

From this dialog you can also open the full CCLI report, export all statistics to an .xls file, or clear the data entirely.

CCLI report

If your church holds a CCLI license, the CCLI report gives you everything you need to file your annual usage return. Open it from the CCLI Report button inside Statistics.

The report has three tabs:

Songs — every unique song presented in the selected period, with a bar chart of the top 12 and a full table showing title, author, songbook, total times used, and the first and last dates it was presented.

Bible — every unique verse presented, with a bar chart grouped by Bible book and a full table showing the verse reference, which translation it came from, total times used, and first and last dates.

Activity — a stacked bar chart of presentations over time, showing songs and Bible verses as separate colours in each bar. Summary chips show the total songs presented, total Bible verses presented, and the busiest period in the selected range.

Use the preset buttons to filter by the last 30 days, last 90 days, this year, last year, or all time — or set a custom date range with the day/month/year pickers.

To export, click Export CSV for a CCLI-ready file or Export XLS for a spreadsheet with full detail.

Customizing how Bible text looks on screen

All visual settings for Bible text live in Settings → Bible. The tab has separate controls for the full-screen output and the lower-third output.

Text styling

Four independent cards let you style each text element separately:

  • Primary Bible Text — the verse body for the main translation
  • Primary Bible Reference — the book/chapter/verse label (e.g. John 3:16)
  • Secondary Bible Text — the verse body for the second translation
  • Secondary Bible Reference — the reference for the second translation

For each card, you can control:

  • Color — white on a dark background is the most readable at projection distances
  • Font Type — a clean, legible sans-serif is easier to read than a decorative script
  • Font Size — start at 60–80 for verse body text and 36–48 for references; click Auto Fit to have the app calculate the largest size that fits without clipping
  • Bold / Italic — bold is generally easier to read projected at distance

Display position and transitions

Also in Settings → Bible:

  • Text alignment — left, center, or right
  • Vertical position — where on screen the text block sits (top, middle, or bottom)
  • Transition animation — fade in, fade out, crossfade, and duration

Changes take effect for any verse you send live after saving.

Keyboard shortcuts for the Bible tab

KeyAction
F6Switch to Bible tab
Double-clickSend verse live
EscapeClear verse from screen
↑ / ↓Move between verses in the list
F2Add verse to Schedule
F1Open keyboard shortcuts reference

Tips for displaying Scripture well

Test your font size on the actual projector. Text that looks enormous on your laptop often becomes hard to read at the back of a large room. Push a test verse live, walk to where the congregation sits, and check legibility from the back row — the right size is almost always bigger than you’d expect from the operator’s desk.

Use Auto Fit for long passages. Psalm verses and prophetic passages vary greatly in length. Auto Fit resizes the text each time so it always fills the screen without overflowing, regardless of how long the verse is.

Add sermon passages to the schedule the day before. Looking up passages live while the pastor is speaking is stressful and easy to get wrong. If you know the texts in advance, add them to the schedule on Saturday — then on Sunday you just click down the list.

Use the secondary Bible for the congregation’s reading language. If your service is led in one language but many people read Scripture in another, showing both at once means nobody has to flip between a screen and a personal Bible.

Once you’re comfortable displaying verses, the next step is pulling everything together into a service order. See How to Build and Run a Sunday Service Schedule for the full walkthrough.

New to Church Presenter? Start with How to Set Up Worship Presentation Software for the First Time.