Streaming

How to set up OBS scenes for a church service

Scenes are the heart of running a stream in OBS — each one is a "look" you can switch to instantly. The trick isn't building lots of them; it's building the right few and knowing when to cut. Here's a clean, practical OBS scene layout for a normal church service that a volunteer can actually run.

What a scene is

A scene in OBS is a saved arrangement of sources — cameras, graphics, text — that you switch to with one click. During a service you're really just choosing which scene is live at each moment. Keep the set small and clearly named, and switching stays calm even under pressure. New to OBS? Start with the OBS setup guide for church.

The scenes you actually need

You don't need twenty. Most services run beautifully on five or six.

What goes in each scene

• Pre-service — a welcoming still or looping slide with music, and ideally a countdown so online viewers know when you start.
• Worship — your main camera plus the lyrics so people can sing along; see how to put worship lyrics on screen.
• Preaching — a good, close shot of the preacher with the scripture overlay on top, so online viewers see the verse being preached.
• Wide/Stage — a safe, full-stage shot to cut to during movement or prayer.
• Announcements — whoever's speaking, plus any notices/giving graphics.
• Holding/BRB — a calm graphic for gaps or if something goes wrong, so viewers never stare at a frozen mess.

Switch smoothly

• Use a short fade transition between scenes — gentler than a hard cut for worship and preaching.
• Cut (instant) is fine for fast action; fade suits reflective moments.
• Don't switch constantly. Let a shot breathe; over-switching feels frantic.

Add scripture as an overlay, not a separate scene

Here's a neat trick: rather than making a whole "verse" scene, add your scripture feed as an overlay source that sits on top of the preaching camera. TajiCast outputs the detected verse over NDI, so you add it once as a source and it shows the right passage automatically whenever the preacher speaks one — no scene-switching, no operator hunting. Add it with add an NDI source in OBS.

Build it once, reuse it forever

1. Create the six scenesPre-service, worship, preaching, wide, announcements, holding.
2. Add sources to eachCamera, lyrics, scripture overlay, graphics as needed.
3. Save it as a scene collectionSo next week you just open it and go.
4. Rehearse the switchesRun through the service order once before you go live.

Choosing between tools first? See how to choose live-streaming software.