Bulletin Rescue Free file check

Publisher is going away. A plan for the Lutheran church office.

For ELCA and LCMS offices with years of worship folders, newsletters and festival services saved as .pub files. Most of this you can do yourself, for free.

The dates

Oct 1
2026

If you pay for Microsoft 365, you lose access to Publisher on October 1, 2026.

Oct 13
2026

If you bought Publisher 2021 (or Office 2021) outright, it keeps running, but support ends October 13, 2026.

What a Lutheran office usually has in Publisher

Most Lutheran offices don't build the whole worship folder in Publisher. The liturgy and readings often come from somewhere else:

  • ELCA congregations often take the prayer of the day, the readings and the liturgy from Sundays and Seasons, the Augsburg Fortress planning service that follows the Revised Common Lectionary.
  • LCMS congregations often build the inside pages with Lutheran Service Builder from Concordia Publishing House. It lays out services from Lutheran Service Book, with either the three-year or the one-year lectionary.

Publisher usually holds everything around that: the cover with the church's name and the day in the church year, the announcements, the prayer list, the monthly newsletter, and the programs for confirmation, installations, weddings and funerals.

Those are the files at risk. You can pull the worship texts again next week. The covers, announcement pages and newsletters were made by hand in your office, and nobody else has a copy.

Save these first

Don't start with 2004. Start with the files you'll need again soonest.

  1. This week's worship folder. It's the template for next week.
  2. The folders you use once a year. Advent, Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Easter, Reformation Sunday, confirmation. These are the ones that catch an office out: nobody notices the Christmas Eve file won't open until the week before Christmas.
  3. The newsletter template, and the last issue.
  4. Programs you reuse: funerals, weddings, installations, the annual meeting.
  5. Everything else, the back archive, in one go.

How to save them

First, find out which Publisher you have. Open it and go to File, then Account. "Microsoft 365" means it stops on October 1. "Office 2021," "2019" or "2016" means it keeps opening files for now.

While Publisher still opens, save each file as a PDF: File, then Export (or Save As), then PDF. Keep the .pub file too. The PDF is for keeping and printing. The .pub file is what someone can rebuild the template from later.

If Publisher is already gone, LibreOffice Draw (free) opens most .pub files and can save them as PDF. Newsletters where one article runs across several linked boxes sometimes come out jumbled, so check those by eye. Our free guide walks through each option.

Microsoft also offers a free script that converts a whole folder at once, but it needs a working, licensed copy of Publisher on that computer.

Keep making the bulletin

For the parts you still edit every week, most church offices are moving to Canva. It runs in a web browser, it has booklet and newsletter layouts, and many churches can get the paid version free. Keep using Sundays and Seasons or Lutheran Service Builder for the worship texts. The Canva file only needs to hold the parts your office designs: the cover, the announcements, the newsletter.

If your worship folder is a folded booklet, our step-by-step guide shows how to set up the fold in Canva and print it double-sided.

Getting Canva free: the paperwork

Canva for Nonprofits gives eligible organizations Canva's paid features at no cost. In the US, Canva asks for proof of 501(c)(3) status. Churches are decided case by case, and approval can take a few days, so apply before you need it.

Most congregations don't have an IRS letter of their own. They're covered by their church body's group exemption, and that's the proof to send:

  • ELCA: congregations in the ELCA's group ruling can ask the churchwide office for a certification letter. Synods point congregations to 501c3@elca.org. Send that letter along with the IRS letters issued to the ELCA.
  • LCMS: the Synod has held a group exemption since 1965 that covers its member congregations. Ask your district office for a copy of the letter.

Canva makes the final decision, and we can't promise how it will go. If you're not approved, Canva's free plan still handles a weekly bulletin.

Questions

Doesn't Lutheran Service Builder or Sundays and Seasons replace Publisher?

Partly. Lutheran Service Builder lays out bulletin interiors, and Sundays and Seasons supplies the texts for worship materials. Covers, announcement pages and newsletters were usually built somewhere else, often in Publisher. Check what your office used before you assume you're covered.

Our office computer has Publisher 2021. Do we need to do anything?

It keeps running after October 13, 2026, but Microsoft stops supporting it, and it may be the only thing in the building that opens your files. Save them as PDF while it works.

Can our synod or district arrange this for several congregations?

Yes. We quote a fixed price for several churches at once. Ask through the free file check.

If you have hundreds of files and no time

Years of worship folders add up fast: 52 Sundays, plus festivals, plus the newsletter, often saved more than once.

That's what we do. Send us the folder. We turn every file into a searchable PDF, remove the duplicates, sort everything by year and type, and rebuild the templates you still use in Canva. Archive is $249 for up to 2,000 files. Complete is $495 and adds 3 templates rebuilt in Canva, a 45-minute training call, and help applying for Canva for Nonprofits. You pay after delivery.

Not sure how many you have? Count your Publisher files free. It runs in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

Get a free file check

Or call or leave a message: (207) 776-7530

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