Proclaim 3.0 Product Review

I first learned about the presentation software, Proclaim, in 2011. Back then, its main selling point was the idea of a collaborative environment. I saw the value of it immediately, especially for churches that wanted to have multiple people involved in the presentation process. Your worship team, for instance, could build their slides at the same time that the pastor was building theirs.

It wasn’t enough to sway me from my current presentation software, though, because I was the guy who built the slides for service. I had specific visions for worship slides, sermon slides, pre-service roll, and everything in between. The software I was using at the time gave me tiny little details I could alter and I wanted that flexibility. Again, I was the guy who built everything. I devoted hours to the slides each week.

Most churches aren’t doing church that way. And that was the value of Proclaim.

Fast forward nine years, and the folks from Proclaim gave me the newest release to try out (so I could write this review). I’ll be honest, with how COVID has changed the way we do church, this is some seriously important software. Proclaim obviously works for a live service environment, but it really shines in live-streaming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ACZfJ8uV2c

Here are some of the features I love from Proclaim 3.0:

• Digital affirmations. You know how, when you’re watching a livestream on Facebook, you’ll see hearts and other interactions popup during the video? This is basically that only through an app, from your congregations, whether in-person or online. It’s a really cool blend of digital and in-person.
• Markup. When you’re showing a slide, the pastor or slide operator (or anyone, really) can make annotations on the slide. They can circle things. Where with other programs you’d need to pre-program this type of thing into the presentation, with Proclaim this can be done on-the-fly.
• Collaborative. This didn’t matter as much to me nine years ago, but now that I know what social distancing and stay-at-home orders look like, the ability to collaborate remotely is more important than ever. And if you’re in a mobile church environment, this is super valuable even for in-person services.
• Feature Organization. While it might seem overwhelming to have all the features readily displayed, it is also helpful because it’s easier to learn what the program can do. Sometimes there’s so much hidden power in presentation programs that people go three years without learning what they can do. For that reason, even though it can be cluttered, I think it’s good that all your options are visible.

I’m not sure when the team started working on the 3.0 version of Proclaim, but it really feels like it was built for the COVID age. Is it right for everyone? No. But it’s a solid contender. I could even see people using this for their streaming even if they choose their other presentation software for in-person services.