Once WorshipBoard is paired (see Getting started with WorshipBoard if it isn't yet), there are two things to have ready before your first live service: a theme and a plan.
Theme: how it looks
A theme is your on-screen look: background color or image, font, text size and color, and where your church logo sits on the slide. You build and edit themes inside WorshipBoard itself, on the presentation computer, not in the ECA web admin. Once created, a theme syncs to your church account, so any other paired device picks it up too.
Most churches start with one theme and only add a second (say, a lighter one for a Sunday-morning outdoor service) once the first is working well.
Plan: what you're presenting
A plan is the order-of-show for a service: the songs, scripture, and announcements you'll click through, in order. You can build a plan two ways:
- In WorshipBoard, on the presentation computer, right before or during rehearsal.
- Ahead of time, from the ECA web admin. Open WorshipBoard settings → the Songs tab to add songs to your library (title, artist, key, CCLI number, tempo and notes), and the Plans tab to create a service plan with a title and a date. Both sync to WorshipBoard automatically. The web side starts the song entry and the empty plan; it does not take lyrics, and you cannot add songs or scripture to a plan from the web. You do that in WorshipBoard. (Songs and Plans need a paid church plan; see Getting started with WorshipBoard for the free-vs-paid breakdown.)
A workable rhythm: start your song list and the empty plan from the web admin during the week, then add the lyrics and build the order in WorshipBoard before Sunday, so you're not typing lyrics live on a laptop in the sanctuary.
Putting it together
With a theme built and a plan in place, open that plan in WorshipBoard and you're ready to present: click through songs and scripture in order, with your theme's look applied automatically to every slide.