Eight Years Behind the Screen

If you’ve ever been the person sitting behind the presentation system during a church service, you probably know the feeling.

The service is happening. The worship leader is moving to the next song. The pastor is about to quote a Bible verse. Someone is asking you to put something on the screen.

And you’re sitting there thinking, Why does this have to be so complicated?

I know that feeling because I’ve been there myself.

More Than Eight Years Behind the Screen

Before I developed PraiseMates, I had already spent a lot of time using different church presentation apps. I’ve learned their workflows, figured out their shortcuts, adapted to their interfaces, and used them in actual church services.

And I want to be clear: those programs helped me a lot. They solved problems that churches genuinely had. But after using them for years, I also started noticing the same frustrations again and again.

Sometimes, a simple action required too many clicks, an important control was buried somewhere I didn’t expect it to be. Sometimes, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but the software made me think about how to use the software instead of letting me focus on the service.

Eventually, it wasn’t just about individual features anymore. It was user fatigue.

After years of working around these little frustrations, I started thinking about what I would build if I could start from scratch.

The Birth of PraiseMates

I didn’t set out to build another presentation software because there were already several good ones available.

I developed PraiseMates because I had spent years using those tools and knew exactly where I felt they could be better.

I wanted the important controls to be one tap away. I wanted common tasks to require fewer steps. I wanted the interface to feel straightforward instead of making me learn the software before I could use it confidently.

Most importantly, I wanted to build something around the person operating the presentation.

That person is often a volunteer and not a professional production operator. They may only use the software once a week. They shouldn’t have to fight the software just to get through a Sunday service.

The Core Idea: Church Presentation Shouldn’t Distract From Worship

Over time, I’ve come to believe that good church presentation software should almost disappear. Not literally, of course. It should be there when you need it, but it shouldn’t constantly demand your attention.

When I’m operating a service, I don’t want to be thinking about which menu contains a particular function. I want to be listening to what’s happening on stage and anticipating what needs to happen next. That’s the experience I wanted PraiseMates to provide.

The software should support the service, not become another thing to manage.

Started Solving the Problems I Actually Experienced

A lot of the decisions in PraiseMates came directly from things that frustrated me while using other presentation apps.

Why should an important control take several clicks? Why shouldn’t there be a simple way to swap screens if they’re connected in reverse? Why should lyrics, Bible verses, and other types of presentation content feel like they’re all competing for space in the same interface? Why should a new volunteer need extensive training just to understand the basics?

These aren’t problems I came up with by reading feature lists. They’re problems I experienced myself. So I built PraiseMates around them.

For the Volunteers

One of the biggest things I kept in mind while developing PraiseMates was the volunteer sitting behind the computer. Churches don’t always have dedicated media professionals. Often, someone simply steps up and says, “I’ll run the presentation.” I want that person to be able to open PraiseMates and understand what to do.

I don’t want them to be afraid of accidentally breaking something. I don’t want them spending more time learning presentation software than preparing for the service. And I don’t want the software to become the most difficult part of their Sunday.

I’m Not Trying to Add Complexity

There are already powerful church presentation tools available, and I don’t think the answer is simply to build something with even more features.

For me, the goal is different. I’m trying to take everything I’ve learned from more than eight years of using presentation software and turn it into something that feels simpler and more natural to operate.

Sometimes that means adding a feature. Sometimes it means removing a step. And sometimes it means looking at something that everyone has accepted as “just how presentation software works” and asking whether it really has to work that way.

PraiseMates Is Still Growing

PraiseMates is not a finished story.

I’m still developing it. I’m still finding things that can be improved, and I’m still learning from the people who use it.

But the reason I started hasn’t changed.

I built PraiseMates because I was tired of fighting with presentation software after years of using it.

I built it because I knew there were small frustrations that could be removed.

And I built it because I believe the people serving behind the screen deserve software that works with them, rather than making their job harder.

If you’ve spent a Sunday morning trying to make presentation software behave while the service is already happening, you probably understand exactly why I built this.

PraiseMates is my attempt to make church presentation simpler—not by giving you more things to manage, but by making the things you already need easier to use.

And this is only the beginning.