Training for volunteers

This page is a ready-made course for your media team. It has four short sessions of about 30 to 45 minutes each, a skills checklist to tick off, a briefing for preachers, and a one-page Sunday card. Print the page (it prints cleanly) or use it on screen.

Before you begin

Install and set up PulpitCue on the practice computer first (Getting started) and add a few songs and a presentation, so volunteers practise with the same things they will use on Sunday.

Who does what

Role	Responsibilities	Needs
Media operator	Runs PulpitCue through the whole service: songs, slides, Scripture, timers.	Sessions 1 to 4
Backup operator	Can take over on the computer or from a paired phone if the main operator steps away.	Sessions 1 to 3 and the remote
Livestream / camera	Receives the lower third in OBS or vMix.	Session 4 (outputs)
Preacher or worship leader	Knows what the team can do for them and how to help it.	The briefing

The course

Session 1: Find your way around

30 minutesEveryoneRead: A tour of the window

Goal: comfortably move around PulpitCue and put a verse on screen and take it off again.

1. Walk through the top bar, the five workspace tabs, Program and Live.
2. Switch workspaces with ⌘1 to ⌘5 (Windows: Alt+1 to Alt+5).
3. In Bible, find john 3:16 and press Enter. Watch it appear in Program.
4. Press Esc to clear it. Show it again, then clear with F1.
5. Search by meaning: type jesus grew in wisdom and show Luke 2:52.

Practice task: show Psalm 23:1, then Romans 8:28, then use B to bounce between them. Show a range with Shift-click.

Session 2: Songs, slides and loops

40 minutesMedia operatorsRead: Songs and Slides, loops and backgrounds

Goal: run worship and announcements without looking away from the screen.

1. Open a song. Click slides, then use Space, ← and C to jump to the chorus.
2. Add a song by pasting lyrics. Check the title, then save.
3. Open an announcement loop. Start it, pause it, leave one slide out of the loop, then include it again.
4. Make a slide from a template. Change the words, save, and show it.
5. Put a background up from the media bin, then show a slide and notice the background stepping aside.
6. Show lyrics with a slide using Split.

Practice task: build a three-slide announcement loop and run it for one minute, with one slide left out.

Session 3: The sermon

45 minutesMedia and backup operatorsRead: Bible, Hands-free and Sermon notes

Goal: keep up with a preacher using cues, the trail and, when ready, Hands-free.

1. Set the input to Browser tab audio and play a sermon you have permission to use in another Chrome or Edge tab. (Or use the real pulpit microphone with someone reading.) Press Start.
2. Watch cues arrive. Click one to show it. Notice the tags (REFERENCE, CONTEXT…).
3. When the speaker jumps to a verse they used earlier, click it in the trail or press B.
4. Open the Sermon workspace to see the transcript. Add a note and show it.
5. Turn on Hands-free in the passage header, with Cautious style first. Watch what it does and what it leaves for you. Try Balanced.
6. Press Stop. Open Summary and see where the saved sermon is.

Practice task: run a ten-minute sermon with Hands-free off, then on. Which verses did it get? Which did you correct? Talk it over.

Session 4: Screens and Sunday

45 minutesMedia operator, livestreamRead: Screens, Service planner and Remote control

Goal: everything is connected and you can run the whole service from the plan.

1. Connect OBS with the livestream link. Confirm the lower third appears when a verse is shown.
2. Open the main screen on the projector, and the stage monitor for the preacher.
3. Build a service: headings, two songs, a reading, a slide deck. Run it using Next item.
4. Start a five-minute service countdown on the screens. Send a stage message.
5. Pair a phone with Remote control. Take a song live from the phone.
6. Walk through the Sunday card end to end.

Practice task: a full dry run of the service, with the team in their real positions.

Skills checklist

Tick these off as each volunteer shows they can do them.

• Open PulpitCue and confirm the microphone level moves.
• Put a verse on screen by reference, and clear it.
• Find a verse by describing it.
• Go back to an earlier passage with the trail and B.
• Run a song and jump between verse and chorus.
• Run an announcement loop and leave a slide out of it.
• Make or edit a simple slide.
• Put a background up, and a verse background.
• Use a countdown timer and send a message.
• Start and stop captions and explain what Hands-free does.
• Switch Hands-free off quickly.
• Clear by layer with F1 to F9.
• Run a service from the planner.
• Pair and use the remote.
• Know what to do when something goes wrong (see below).

Briefing for preachers

PulpitCue can help your preacher, but they get the best from it when they know a few things. Share this with them.

• Say the reference clearly. “Turn to John chapter three, verse sixteen” is opened straight away when Hands-free is on. A book name followed by chapter and verse is best.
• Say ranges whole. “Verses one to five” goes up as one passage, and will not run past verse 5 by itself.
• Read the verse as written. PulpitCue follows the reading word by word and can tell which of the installed Bible versions the preacher seems to be reading.
• Hands-free listens for simple requests: “next verse”, “go back”, “read it again”, “clear the screen”. Ordinary preaching is not mistaken for them.
• The stage monitor shows the verse and the next one, and the media desk can send private messages to it.
• English only, and it works from a machine transcript, so names may be misheard. The operator stays in charge.

When something goes wrong

If…	Then…
The wrong verse is on screen	Press B for the previous passage, or click the right one in the trail or cues.
Hands-free is misbehaving	Switch it off. Carry on with cues and the keyboard.
You need the screen blank right now	Esc (or F1 for every layer).
Captions stop	Scripture still works by typing: search and show as normal. Press Start again when you can.
The main operator steps away	The backup operator uses the paired phone.
OBS shows nothing	See Help: check ON AIR, the network and the link.

Sunday card

Print this section as a one-page card for the media desk.

Before the service (15 minutes early)

• Open PulpitCue. Status says Standby.
• The input is the pulpit microphone and the meter moves when someone speaks.
• Test verse (john 3:16) reaches the projector, OBS and the stage monitor. Clear it with Esc.
• Announcement loop and countdown are ready.
• Today’s service is open in Service. Songs and slides are in the right order.
• The phone remote is paired if a backup operator needs it.

During

• Press Start when the sermon begins.
• Cues are watched; Hands-free is on only if the team agreed.
• Space go · Esc clear · B back · Ctrl+1–5 cues

After

• Press Stop. Clear the screens (F1).
• If wanted, open Sermon → Summary and press Summarise.
• Duplicate the service for next week.