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How to Create Custom Discussion Guides in Sermon Shots

Discussion guides are a simple, powerful way to keep the conversation going after the sermon. With Discussion Guides v2 in Sermon Shots, you can create guides tailored to the different groups in your church — kids, teens, young adults, parents, new believers, and more — with custom fonts, images, and reusable templates.

What's New in Discussion Guides v2

Discussion Guides v2 is a significant upgrade from the original single-template format. Here's what's new:

  • Audience-specific guides — Create separate guides for different groups (e.g., kids, early teens, high schoolers, college-aged, young professionals, parents, new believers).
  • Custom fonts and images — Match each guide to your church's style.
  • Saved custom templates — Build a template once and reuse it every week.
  • Auto-generation — When you upload a new video, discussion guides using your saved templates are automatically generated.
⚠️ Discussion Guides v2 only works with new video uploads. Sermons uploaded before this feature was introduced will not have access to v2 discussion guide creation.


The Original Version (Auto-Generated Guide)

Every time you upload a new video, Sermon Shots automatically generates an Original discussion guide — no setup required. You'll see it listed in the Discussion Guides tab alongside any guides you create manually.

The Original guide is a general-audience version generated from your sermon content. You can:

  • Open and edit it — Customize fonts, images, or content to fit your church's style before distributing.
  • Download it as-is — If it looks good, simply download and share it without making any changes.
  • Copy and paste the content — Prefer to work in your own document or email template? Open the guide and copy the text directly into whatever format works best for your team.

Think of the Original as your starting point. It's ready to use immediately, or you can treat it as a base to build from when creating audience-specific versions.


How to Create Audience-specific Discussion Guides


Step 1: Upload Your Video

If you haven't already, upload your sermon video. See How to Upload a Sermon in Sermon Shots for full instructions.


Step 2: Navigate to Discussion Guides
  1. Open your uploaded sermon.
  2. Click the Discussion Guides tab.
  3. Click Create New.


Step 3: Choose Your Audience

Select who this guide is for. Options include:

  • Early Teens
  • High Schoolers
  • College-Aged
  • Young Professionals
  • Parents
  • Men's Group
  • Women's Group
  • New Believers
  • Kids

Sermon Shots will use this audience selection to tailor the language, questions, and tone of the generated guide.

Step 4: Wait for Generation

Give the AI a moment to generate your discussion guide based on the sermon content and selected audience. You'll see a loading indicator while it processes.

Step 5: Review and Customize

Once your guide is ready, open it to make it your own.


  • Change the Primary Font

The primary font applies to the headers of each topic section. Click the primary font selector and choose from the available options to match your church's style.

  • Change the Secondary Font

The secondary font applies to the body content within each section. Select a secondary font that pairs well with your primary choice and is easy to read.

  • Upload a Custom Font

Prefer to use your church's own font? You can upload a custom font instead of choosing from the built-in options. Click the font upload option and select your file. Accepted formats are TTF and OTF.

  • Upload and Place Images
  1. Click Upload Media to add images (e.g., sermon series artwork, your church logo).
  2. Once uploaded, click on an image and drag it to the position you want within the guide.
  3. Images can be placed before or after any section.

  • Edit Section Headers and Body Text

Click on any header or body text to select it. You can rename any section header or update the body content directly. Click outside the section when done to deselect. An editing toolbar will appear at the top with the following options:

  • Font color — Change the text color
  • Font size — Increase or decrease using the – and + controls
  • Line spacing — Adjust the spacing between lines (default is 1.5)
  • Bold — Apply bold formatting
  • Text alignment — Align text left, center, or right
  • Lists — Add ordered or unordered lists (available for body text)
  • Undo / Redo — Step backward or forward through your changes

  • Rearrange Sections

To change the order of sections, grab the 6 dots on the upper left corner of a section then drag and drop them into your preferred sequence.

  • Remove and Restore Sections

To remove a section, click the X Remove button in the top-right corner of that section. The section will be collapsed and marked as "This content has been removed."

If you removed a section by mistake, click Restore to bring it back.

  • Save Your Changes

When you're happy with your edits, click Save before downloading. Unsaved changes will be lost if you navigate away.


Step 6: Download Your Guide

When you're satisfied with the design, click the Download button to save your guide as a PDF — this is the default format and requires no extra steps.

To download in a different format, click the arrow (🔻) beside the Download button to open the format dropdown and choose from:

  • as TXT — Plain text file, ideal for pasting into other tools or documents.
  • as HTML — Web-ready format with full styling preserved.
  • as HTML TXT — A hybrid format combining HTML structure with plain text content.
  • as PDF — Print-ready format, great for emailing or distributing to your group.

How to Create and Save a Custom Template

Custom templates let you define a specific layout and section selection for a target group — and Sermon Shots will auto-generate a guide using that template every time you upload a new video.


Step 1: Start a New Custom Template
  1. In the Discussion Guides tab, click Create New.
  2. Select Create a Custom Template.

Step 2: Name Your Template

Enter a title for your template. This should reflect the group it's designed for — for example, "Married Couples" or "Veterans."

Step 3: Choose a Target Group

Select the audience this template is for. You can:

  • Use an existing target group (e.g., Early Teens, Parents, New Believers), or
  • Select Original to use the default general-audience format as your base.

Step 4: Select Your Sections

Choose which sections to include in this template. Deselect any sections you don't want — for example, you may want to remove the Icebreaker or Summary for certain groups.

Step 5: Create and Save the Template
  1. Click Create Template. Sermon Shots will generate the template with placeholder content — these placeholders will be filled with real sermon content the next time you upload a video.
  2. You can already make your edits here for fonts, images, and preferred section arrangement.
  3. Review the template, then click Save.


Once saved, your custom template is available under the Templates section in the Sermon Shots tab. You'll see it listed alongside any other templates you've created. You can click on a template and make further edits here if you prefer.

Once you have a saved custom template, Sermon Shots will automatically generate a discussion guide using that template every time you upload a new video. When you open the Discussion Guides tab for a new sermon, you'll see:

  • The Original auto-generated version
  • A guide for each of your saved custom templates

Open any of them to review, edit, and download.


Creating Multiple Guides for One Sermon

You can create as many discussion guides as you need for a single sermon — one for each audience group your church serves.

  1. Go to the Discussion Guides tab for a sermon.
  2. Click Create New again.
  3. Select a different audience group.
  4. Repeat for each group.


Frequently Asked Questions


Q: Can I use Discussion Guides v2 with sermons I uploaded before this feature launched?

A: No. The feature only works with new video uploads made after Discussion Guides v2 was introduced. To use it, upload a new video.

Q: Can I edit a discussion guide after I've downloaded it?

A: The downloaded file is a finished document. For edits, return to the guide in Sermon Shots, make your changes, and re-download.

Q: How many audience types can I create guides for?

A: You can create a guide for each available audience group per sermon. There's no limit to the number of guides per upload.

Q: Can I create my own audience group that isn't on the list?

A: Custom audience groups can be created by creating custom templates.

Q: What file format are discussion guides downloaded in?

A: The default download format is PDF. To download in a different format, click the arrow (v) beside the Download button to access TXT, HTML, and HTML TXT options.


Need Help?

📧 Contact Support: contact@sermonshots.com

Updated on: 05/06/2026

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