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When COVID hit, many church leaders decided to get rid of the Sunday bulletin. This departure from the bulletin was praised – less time needed to be devoted to preparing something each week, money and materials weren’t being used as frequently, and last-minute changes were easier to make because they didn’t have to worry about conflicting information in the already-printed bulletin.
While it may feel like a breath of fresh air to not have one more thing to do each week, there are still instances when the bulletin can be considered a helpful tool that should return to the church’s arsenal. An effective church bulletin can be a powerful tool.
Depending on what you choose to include, it welcomes first-time visitors, and it helps church members and attendees find out how to connect with you during the week, stay in the loop about upcoming events, know the different ways they can give to the church, learn about ways the church is having a positive impact on the community, and take sermon notes. Sometimes there’s a firehose of information that comes from the pulpit on Sunday morning (from announcements to the sermon to prayer requests to ways to get involved), and the bulletin can help people not forget all of it the second they leave your building.
If you’re considering a return to the bulletin or feel like what you’re doing could use a refresh, and if you aren’t sure where to start, read on for the best guide through how to create and design church bulletins. We’ll dive in together on how to use Canva to make the bulletin a powerful tool in your church arsenal without needing to hire a graphic designer or spend hours each week reinventing the wheel to make it look just right.
In this post, you’ll also find 2 church bulletin templates (one in color and one in black and white) as well as a video tutorial to get a better sense of how simple the bulletin is to make and update!
Canva Is A Great Option When Creating Church Bulletins
Canva is a great place to go when you have to make just about any kind of visual – from logos, to flyers, to social media posts, to basic videos, and beyond. It has helped make graphic design accessible to the average person who doesn’t have a degree in visual arts. It’s easy to use, has a huge arsenal of resources and templates, and is free for nonprofits!
Canva allows you to pick the size and setup of your church bulletin, so you can set it up to fit whatever size paper and folding you want to utilize – from bi-fold letter-size (8.5×11) pages to tri-fold legal (8.5×14) or anything in between, if you know the size of paper you want to use and how you want to fold it, Canva can do it.
While you don’t want your bulletin to become overrun with excessive clipart, clashing colors, crazy fonts, or other chaos, Canva gives you a variety of options in all these areas so that you can make something that looks visually appealing without having to purchase every unique item you use. The “elements” gallery gives you graphics, photos, backgrounds, etc. for anything you can think of.
A wide range of fonts are already loaded up and available for use (they even have font combination suggestions so you can get an idea of some fonts that look good together!). If colors are not your strong suit, you can select a color palette that’s been already cultivated with 4-8 colors that mesh well. If you already have some branding for your church (a logo, colors, or fonts that you typically use), you can upload these into Canva and make them your default so that you can make your work look seamless from bulletins to flyers to social media to whatever else you create.
If you’re short on time and/or talent, Canva will help you feel like a professional with all the time in the world.
A Few Tips Before Starting The Design Process
Not all church bulletins are created equal, and a bad church bulletin can easily become a bad first impression for first-time visitors, just another sheet in the landfill for church members, and a waste of time and resources for your church.
An effective church bulletin is helpful beyond Sunday morning. It is part of the first impressions for guests. It helps people connect beyond the church service. It informs people on ways to get involved (through giving, praying, events, ministries, etc). But the keyword here is effective. If you’re missing important components, including less-important components, or overwhelming your bulletin with too many words/images, then you may as well not have anything.
In the next section, we’ll go into some of the key things that are important to include in a bulletin, as well as some of the things you can include if you have an appropriate amount of space, but they should be given a lower priority (and I’ll explain why).
Once you decide what you want, it’s okay to play around with the section sizes and locations, the one or two fonts you’re using, your color palette, etc. until they feel like a good reflection of your church and your goals for the bulletin.
As you read through the next section of church bulletin ideas and components, remember that less is more. If you decide that everything needs to be in there and everything is important, then nothing is important. Pick 1-2 fonts. Pick 1-2 base colors. Use images/graphics only where necessary.
Depending on the size of the paper and size of font you use, the number of components you include will vary. If you have a size you know you have to go for, use that to drive how many key items you include. If you aren’t yet limited to a certain paper size, then allow what you believe to be most important to include to determine the paper size and/or how you’ll fold it.
What To Include When You Create And Design Church Bulletins In Canva
1. The Name Of Your Church (And Your Logo If You Have One!)
First things first. Get your church name on the bulletin. Make it big enough to see, but it doesn’t have to be so big that it’s taking up valuable real estate. Put it on the front of your bulletin. At the top.
While your church members probably won’t have bulletins floating around from different churches, a visitor who is looking for a church might. Make it easy for them to find your resources.
2. Welcome Message
Even though there’s no substitute for real people in your church giving a real welcome to people as they come in, it’s still a great idea to include a small welcome in your bulletin. This can be something simple, like, “Thanks for worshiping with us! We are so glad you’re here!” to a little bit more, such as sharing your church’s mission or what your current sermon series is about.
The welcome message helps first-time visitors especially get a sense of what your church is about. It helps set a positive tone for what the church is going to feel like and maybe what they can expect. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of space, but that few sentences can go a long way.
3. Contact Information
Contact information can include a variety of things, but again, remember that less is more. You should include the church address, website (if you have one), main email address, and phone number (you don’t need to include the emails of all staff members or the personal cell number of the pastor). You only need the main email and phone number because whoever manages those can direct the request/need to the appropriate person.
Within contact information, you can also include social media account handles – how can people connect with you throughout the week even if it isn’t in person? Where can people find up-to-date information about events happening? We live in a social media-driven age, so hopefully your church is already on something. If your church isn’t on any kind of social media, Facebook is a good place to start. If you have a Facebook page or other social media page but aren’t posting to it regularly, it’s time to start. Be sure to check out this blog post if social media feels like a tough bear to tackle!
4. Highlighted Announcements And Upcoming Events
In our bulletin, we actually have 2 sections dedicated to the “goings on” of the church. We highlight some of the bigger events and opportunities in our “announcements” section, then we have a separate section with a schedule of everything happening during the week. The highlighted announcements section includes things that are more whole-church focused or would be important for at least 50% of the church to know about (such as a potluck, our current outreach focus, a church business meeting, special worship service, etc.). This section also includes a little more explanation about what they need to know about the event.
The smaller weekly schedule includes events that are currently happening with or at the church that week that not everyone is part of or needs to know about (such as small groups, prayer team meetings, youth groups, etc.). This only includes the date/time of the event (and location if not at the church).
We’ve found it valuable to have both sections in our bulletin because not everyone will be planning to go to Fred’s small group on Tuesday, but you want all your families to make sure they know about the special Back-to-School Bash. However, those attending Fred’s small group will appreciate the reminder that they’re meeting still. Plus, it allows visitors to get a sense of some of the “daily life” of the church.
5. Way(s) To Give
Especially if people are able to give online, through a tithing app, or by texting a number, then make sure they know that! (If you’re thinking about starting to take online donations, check out this post to get you started. You can include a QR Code that people can scan with their phone’s camera to take them directly to your giving page.
This is especially helpful if people are considering giving but aren’t ready to do so on Sunday morning – if they can take that information with them because it’s in the bulletin, then they can set up online giving when they get home.
Having ways to give in your bulletin is also a gentle reminder that we need the financial support of others to continue to do the mission and work of Jesus.
6. Sermon Notes Space
If you want people to take what the pastor is saying, reflect on it, and apply it to their daily life, then you need to make it easy to take that sermon with them. Having a space where people can take notes while they listen provides them the opportunity to engage in a way that will last beyond the 60-90 minutes they’re in the worship service.
Our pastor likes to have fill-in-the-blanks for the main points of his sermon because even those who aren’t “note takers” are still able to engage by jotting down a couple of words to complete the blanks through the sermon. We’ve seen a big increase in the number of people following along and taking notes with the inclusion of fill-in-the-blanks.
Even if you don’t have fill-in-the-blanks or an outline for people to follow, a blank page where people can jot down their own notes can be very helpful.
7. Order Of Service
An order of service lets people know what’s going to happen during the service – which songs are going to be sung, what the sermon title/passage is, any litanies that will be read, if there’s a baptism or child dedication, etc.
This can be helpful for letting people know “what’s going to happen,” so they know what to expect. However, it can also backfire as people mentally check off the components of the service like a “to-do list” to complete instead of engaging with the service. Additionally, once the service is done, there isn’t a lot of benefit to the order of service – it isn’t likely to be something people reference later.
8. Prayer Requests
Prayer is a staple part of the Christian faith. We believe in the power of praying together and in praying for others. We believe God hears our prayers. When there are requests that people want the whole church to pray for (such as an injury, illness, challenge, etc.), a prayer request section in the bulletin can be a good place to share those.
While it’s quite common for small churches to include a prayer request section, it can easily be a minefield in a bulletin, so here are some considerations when putting prayer requests in the bulletin:
- Make sure you have permission to share the prayer request. Just because Mary wants us to pray for her daughter’s injury does not mean her daughter gave permission – don’t break HIPPA laws.
- Keep the prayer requests updated. If there are ongoing prayer requests, such as someone who’s requested prayer for a chronic illness, the bulletin may not be the best place to keep those as they’ll continue to take up precious space (yes, put them in for a few weeks initially, but then it’s okay to move them to an ongoing prayer requests section outside of the weekly bulletin).
- Remember that guests will have no idea who the people on the prayer list are (and sometimes not all of the people who regularly attend your church will know who they are). So keep requests brief so you don’t take up too much valuable real estate.
- You might have to prioritize or shorten prayer requests. If you’ve taken prayer requests long enough, chances are you’ve received requests to pray for someone’s son’s wife’s sister’s husband. You may have to decide if there’s a better way to disseminate such information.
- Remember that these prayer requests may be more “surface” level prayers. While it’s good to pray for someone’s illness and God hears those prayers, the average person is not going to request that their struggle with an addiction or the aftermath of an affair be publicly displayed in the church bulletin, so make sure there’s an avenue to provide prayer for those hurting in more private ways.
Video Tutorial
In this video tutorial, I’ll show you our church’s bulletin and how I edit it each week. At the bottom of this post, you’ll see a link to a template for this bulletin!
Effective Bulletins Go Beyond Sunday Morning
While the components of what you include in your bulletin may vary from the church down the street, you can easily make a visually appealing bulletin that accomplishes your goals by using Canva.
As you decide what you want to include in your bulletin and seek to start making your own, here are two templates that are free for you to use and adapt however you’d like. You may choose to change some of the sections, or you may need a different size, but you can use these templates as a launching point to help you design your own. If one of these doesn’t seem to fit your desires or goals, you can search Canva’s database of templates to see if something else feels like a good starting point or to gain further inspiration.
Free Templates:
Happy designing, and may your bulletin elevate your whole worship experience!
Read More:
Canva: A Practical Guide Through What It Is And How To Use It
