Using social media to encourage and strengthen Christians and potential believers is a great use of what can be a negative place on the internet. A great way to get started, or expand beyond your current church social media posts, is to add in a daily Bible verse of the day post.
While some churches may have a dedicated social media manager on staff, it’s likely that most churches do not. Coming up with ideas about what to post can be just another item on a very long to-do list.
Having a plan, like preparing an image for a Bible Verse of the Day post, can help.
In this article, we’ll talk about different ways you can accomplish this, including free and paid tools, and options for increasing engagement on your posts.
Don’t miss the free sampler of Canva Bible verse templates at the end of this post, as well as a free checklist for church social media planning!
Why post a Bible Verse of the Day for your church?
Sharing God’s Word is a wonderful way to remind people, amidst the negativity and fearfulness that can permeate social media, that they should look to the Lord for what concerns them. Scripture is always useful. Isaiah 55:11 reminds us of this.
“So is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.”
Scripture will do what God intends it to do. Giving people a reminder of His Word each day through social media can be the post that God uses to stop them scrolling and start them praying.
Posting a Bible verse image is beneficial, as image posts tend to get more engagement than text posts or link posts. It can also be part of an overall plan to create a variety of types of posts, from videos to images to sharing other posts to livestreams to link posts.
It’s also a great place to start if your church hasn’t posted much on your Facebook page or Instagram feed. There are a lot of resources available, and options to increase engagement.
It can help you maintain a regular posting schedule, or be able to schedule posts ahead of time that aren’t dependent on church events.
Let’s take a look at some of the options for posting a Bible verse of the day image for your church social media posts.
Free Resources for Verse of the Day Posts
Want to start posting a Scripture of the day for your church social media posts, but don’t have a dedicated budget for it? These resources cover downloading images meant for church use, as well as designing a custom image for your posts if that is something you want to do.
We’ll also look at how you might schedule these posts ahead of time for free.
Some of this will be familiar territory for some people, but we are covering all of the information from the beginning in case this is someone’s introduction to creating church social media posts.
Some might be tempted to do an internet search and right click to save their favorite verses, then repost them. This isn’t a great idea. You don’t own the right to use the image, so you shouldn’t use it.
It’s better to take the extra time to find images on reputable websites that you are permitted to use, especially as you post on behalf of your church.
Here are a few options for downloading or designing Bible verse images for church social media posts.
At our church, I work at gathering one month’s worth of Bible verses at a time, so I don’t repeat any verses during the course of the month. I then save the folder under that month’s name so I can repost it the next year.
Life.Church Open Resources – Churches can sign up at no cost to access a variety of free resources from Life.Church. “Scripture Art” is under “Creative”, and among other things, contains the YouVersion Verse of the Day collection from 2020 to the present year.
Choosing 2020 – 2023 might be helpful if you are organizing months at a time, as the other years currently posted do not have images for every day of the year.
It appears that most, if not all, of these .jpg files are in the New Living Translation version. In a church that doesn’t use this translation extensively, this means that I might post, as the caption, the whole text of the verse in our preferred version.
I also might do this if they have only included part of the verse on the image, and I think it might be better understood with the whole context of the Bible verse.
The overall design of these verse images seems to skew younger. Occasionally, this means that an older audience might find the design too difficult to read or that they don’t find the design attractive or encouraging. It doesn’t mean that you should write off this option entirely.
Use other options listed here to supplement your month’s worth of Bible verses. I usually find 20 verses I want to use out of any given month, and add the rest from other permitted sources.
Church Media Drop has a small selection of free scripture graphics under their logos and graphics archive.
Sharing other ministry or church Bible verses. By this, I mean hitting the share button on Facebook, not downloading someone else’s image without their permission.
Some people get started this way. I hesitate to recommend it for a few reasons. One is the lack of control over the original post. The original poster can delete it. They can edit the caption. The comments on it might not be uplifting.
I have heard that this isn’t necessarily a great way to improve engagement with your social media posts, though it can be a small part of a larger social media plan.
If you go this route, maybe choose a few trusted sources to share from.
Canva. Want to have more control over your verse of the day images? Maybe you want to make sure you have a certain Bible translation, or you are trying to match the Bible verse to a sermon and can’t find the right Bible verses. Canva could be a good option for you.
Canva accounts are free, though there are Canva Pro accounts that offer more features. Your church may qualify for a free non-profit account; check out their non-profit eligibility page for more details. For the church I work for, this was a fairly easy process with our 501(c)(3) papers.
Customizing Canva templates is something that may take some practice. As someone who was familiar with Photoshop in the past, I figured some things out on my own but still had to figure out how Canva did certain things. There are a lot of Canva tutorials on YouTube to help.
You can choose some of Canva’s Bible verse templates. I also like to search “quote” in their templates – this can often yield a good template to insert a Bible verse.
Or, you can try out my free template. I have a 3 Bible verse post sampler Canva template, from my larger collection in my Canva template with 31 Bible verse posts.
Want more options? There aren’t a lot of free Canva templates specifically for Bible verses around the internet; explore the free templates on Canva and check the low-cost options in the paid section.
However, Messenger Graphics has a small collection of Canva templates for churches, which include a couple of Bible verse templates.
Scheduling Tools. The best option for free scheduling for Facebook and Instagram is the Meta Business Suite. This tool can be used to schedule out up to 29 days in advance, which is fine for many people.
It even offers to help you find the optimal time, although it generally only helps you find an active user time during the next week, not for each day.
If you like working in batches for the whole month or months ahead, you may need to upgrade to a paid scheduling tool, which will be covered in the next section.
Paid Options for Verse of the Day Posts
While the free section may have provided everything you needed, you might find that you want to supplement with some paid subscriptions or tools. Here are a few of the paid tools I have tried or seen over the years.
Outreach Social. When I tried this a few years ago, I only used it for the social media graphics. It also now includes the option to upload sermon video to make sermon clips (this is something I do through my Opus Clip subscription.)
It will even auto-post for you, which is not an option that I used. It does have a free trial, so you can see if it is a good fit for you.
Creation Swap. I used Creation Swap for a number of years, first downloading some free items, then paying for some premium items, then having a subscription. However, I shifted mostly to Canva in recent years.
It has some Scripture social media, but is not an exhaustive source. It can be a useful subscription for some churches. A couple of years ago, I decided to cancel and had to be persistent to have my subscription ended; this was an issue for me that they assured me was unusual.
Sunday Social. I think that I used Sunday Social when it was called something else. The ready-to-use graphics subscription seems to be currently the most affordable subscription of these listed and has over 10,000 graphics, some of them Scripture graphics.
Premium Canva Templates. If you don’t qualify for a Canva for nonprofit account, you may choose to get a Pro account to access more templates.
There are also other options for premium Canva templates, including mine available in my Gumroad or Etsy store.
Igniter Media. I haven’t used this one, but it appears to have both graphics and Canva templates for the subscription price.
Etsy. There are many designers for Canva templates on Etsy. Be sure to check their terms of use before buying them for your church.
Some that caught my eye include:
50 Inspiring Bible Verses by SleekDesignCo
Bible Quotes Instagram Post Templates Canva by LiveLightDesignShop
50 Bible Verse Instagram Templates by HighlyFavoredStudios
Social Media Scheduling Tools. These aren’t strictly necessary, but they can be helpful. One of my favorites is Social Champ; they let you schedule further out than the Meta Business Suite, and they allow first comment scheduling for Facebook, which is helpful when you want to include a link (sometimes Facebook seems to limit link posts.)
Social Champ does offer a 50% off discount on annual plans for qualifying non-profits; contact them to learn more.
Strategies for Engagement
Goals in this area will vary. First of all, pray about this digital mission field. It can be a fruitful area of ministry, but it can also be a time-wasting distraction. Approaching it with prayer, discernment, and a thick skin is a wise outlook to have.
If you do not have time to engage on social media, or don’t have the mental space to handle a comment on your “off” hours, then it is OK to just post images for now.
Consider recruiting other volunteers who are willing to help you manage the social media account, but be careful about that as well. Not everyone has the wisdom to make comments on behalf of the church that the whole world might see.
If you would like to increase engagement, these strategies may be helpful.
- Ask a question related to the verse. It can be as simple as, “What do you learn from this Bible verse?” or “What is God trying to teach you from this Scripture?”
- Give a prayer prompt based on the verse. If it is Psalm 23:1 (KJV), “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” then you could add the caption: “Let’s pray today that we will let the Lord be the shepherd in all areas of our lives.”
- Add hashtags. While hashtags may not be as crucial as they were in the past, adding a few can’t hurt. Use hashtags like #verseoftheday or #BibleVerse.
Looking for other strategies? Consider these.
How to Plan a Content Calendar at ChurchSocial.Media
20 Best Social Media Posts for Your Small Church at SmallChurchMinistry
Social Media in Small Churches, also by SmallChurchMinistry, is a great introduction article to small churches new to social media.
Free Church Social Media Posts resources: Social Media Checklist and Canva Templates
Want a free checklist for church social media planning? This checklist is designed to help church volunteers and employees manage their social media tasks efficiently.
Download the Social Media Checklist.
And of course, don’t miss out on this free Canva template.
Whether you’re balancing multiple responsibilities or just starting with social media, this article can act as a guide to church social media and will hopefully streamline your efforts while keeping your content engaging and Christ-centered.
Creating church social media posts that feature Bible verses can be a powerful way to connect with your audience and spread the message of faith. Whether you choose to use pre-made graphics, create your own using Canva or a similar tool, or schedule your posts using a free or paid tool, there are many options available to suit your needs and budget.
By incorporating Bible verses into your social media strategy, you can encourage your social media followers to follow the Lord and His leading!
Thank you for reading Church Social Media Post Ideas. You may also enjoy reading Prayer Points for Prayer Meetings and VBS Printable Certificates.