Sermon Clip Maker
EchoWave's AI clip generator scans the whole sermon, scores every moment 0 to 100, and returns captioned vertical clips ranked by shareability, or cut the exact line yourself from the transcript.
Sermon Clip Maker Features
EchoWave's sermon clip maker is used by church media teams, pastors and ministry volunteers around the world.
Sunday to Monday
The sermon clip maker that starts from the transcript
EchoWave is a sermon clip maker with two speeds. Let the AI clip generator analyse Sunday's recording and return 1 to 30 ranked clips, each with a Viral Score from 0 to 100, sub-scores for Hook, Clarity, Emotion, Value and Trend, and plain reasons like strong hook or big reactions. Type a prompt such as find moments about forgiveness to search the transcript, or cut the line you remember by hand. Every clip opens in the full editor with word-timed captions from 60+ clip styles. It is the clip-focused side of our church video editor, and it pairs naturally with a YouTube to Shorts workflow for livestream archives.
-
176
caption presets
-
86
subtitle translation languages
-
81
text animations for titles
-
4K
cloud renders on Pro plans
What's inside
Tools that turn one sermon into a week of posts
Everything below ships in the browser editor, with no plugins and nothing to install.
-
Find the moment in the transcript
EchoWave transcribes the whole sermon with word-level timestamps, so the fastest way to find a moment is to search for the phrase you remember. Highlight the sentences you want to keep, delete the rest, and the video cuts itself to match. No scrubbing through 40 minutes of footage at double speed.
-
A sermon clip maker built for muted feeds
Most people scroll Reels and Shorts with the sound off, so captions decide if anyone hears the message. Pick from 176 caption presets, including word-by-word karaoke styles with active-word fill, then adjust color and emphasis per word. The same engine drives our standalone caption generator.
-
Vertical framing, automatic or by hand
Switch the canvas to 9:16 and let EchoWave's AI clip generator auto-reframe the wide stage shot, keeping your pastor centered and cutting between speakers if a second voice joins. Prefer full control? Crop and scale it yourself, then add keyframed zoom pops where the delivery lands. For pure format changes, see the vertical video converter.
-
Title text that stops the scroll
The first three seconds decide the view, so open with a title card: the series name, the question the clip answers, or the verse reference. EchoWave ships 81 text animations (30 entrance, 25 exit, 26 loop) and lets you use your church's own uploaded fonts.
-
One template, every week
Build the layout once: title position, caption preset, logo corner, end card. Save it as a template with placeholders, and next Sunday whoever is on duty replaces the media while the styling carries over. Templates can even be filled and rendered in bulk from a CSV.
-
Tighten the cut
Preachers breathe, pause and circle back, which works live and drags in a 45 second clip. One click removes filler words and long silences from your selection, and 56 transitions cover any joins. Speed control from 0.25x to 4x handles the rest.
-
Captions in every language your church speaks
Translate subtitles into 86 languages, or run bilingual captions that show two languages at once. For multilingual congregations, one clip can serve every service without re-editing.
-
Turn the same moment into a podcast teaser
If the sermon also goes out as a podcast, reuse the clip as an audiogram with one of 93 music visualizer styles. Our podcast clip maker covers that workflow end to end.
-
Let AI find the amen moment first
Run the AI clip generator over the full recording and get up to 30 clips ranked by Viral Score, 0 to 100, with Hook, Clarity, Emotion, Value and Trend sub-scores and plain reasons for each pick, reframed vertical with captions applied.
-
Smart Camera With Seven Layouts
On-screen speaker detection (lip movement matched to the voice) cuts between speakers on their turns, with layouts like Follow speaker, Split, Grid and Presenter plus slides. Every camera move is an ordinary keyframe you can edit shot by shot.
How it works
How to make sermon clips
From full service recording to posted clip in four steps.
-
Upload the sermon recording
Drag in the full service file as MP4, MOV, WebM or AVI. EchoWave runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, and rendering happens on a cloud farm, so the old church office laptop works fine.
-
Cut the moment from the transcript
Open the transcript panel and search for the line you want. Select it, delete everything around it, then trim the ends on the timeline so the clip starts mid-energy rather than mid-setup.
-
Caption, frame and title it
Apply a karaoke caption preset, switch the canvas to 9:16, and crop the shot so the speaker fills the frame. Add an opening title card and your church logo in a corner.
-
Export and post
Render in the cloud and download an HD MP4 free, with a small removable EchoWave watermark badge and a short branded end card. Paid plans remove the badge and raise quality to 1080p and up to 4K. Post it to Reels, TikTok and Shorts from your phone, since EchoWave does not publish to social accounts directly.
Sized to post
The right shape for every platform
-
9:16 Vertical
- Reels
- TikTok
- Shorts
-
1:1 Square
- Instagram feed
-
16:9 Landscape
- YouTube
- Church website
Ministry workflows
Six ways churches use the clip maker
-
Weekly message recaps
Every Monday, pull the strongest 45 seconds from Sunday and post it with the series hashtag. Transcript search makes this a short weekly task instead of an afternoon of scrubbing.
-
Series promos
Cut three or four moments from week one of a new series into a single teaser with transitions and a title card. Post it midweek to set up the next Sunday.
-
Scripture moments
Clip the reading of a key verse and put the reference on screen with an animated text layer. These work well as quiet, single-idea posts between bigger clips.
-
Testimonies and baptisms
Celebration moments travel further than any announcement graphic. Clip them from the livestream recording, caption the audio, and use the blur region tool on anyone who has not consented to appear.
-
Podcast audiograms
Feed the sermon audio into a waveform visualizer and export square or vertical audiograms. Each one points listeners to the full episode.
-
Livestream archive highlights
Old sermons are a content library sitting in your channel. Work through the archive one message at a time and post a steady drip of clips, each linking back to the full video.
Compare
How EchoWave compares
| Feature | EchoWave | Sermon Shots | OpusClip | Submagic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | trial | limited free plan | trial |
| Free video downloads | yes (720p, watermark badge) | No | yes (watermarked) | No |
| AI picks clip moments for you | yes (Viral Score 0-100, or search the transcript) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Word-by-word karaoke captions | yes (176 presets) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cut video by editing the transcript | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Full multi-track timeline editor | Yes | No | No | No |
| AI auto-reframe to vertical | yes (7 layouts, or manual crop and zoom) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subtitle translation | yes (86 languages) | yes (30+ languages) | Yes | Yes |
| Built specifically for churches | no (general editor) | Yes | No | No |
| Direct social publishing | No | not listed | Yes | not listed |
| Screen and webcam recorder built in | Yes | No | No | No |
| AI voice over | yes (63 voices) | No | No | No |
Based on each tool's public pages as of July 2026. Plans and features change often, so check current pricing before committing your ministry budget.
Turn this Sunday's message into Monday's post
Upload the recording, find the line you remember, trim it tight, and export an HD clip free with a small removable EchoWave watermark badge. Paid plans remove the badge and add 1080p up to 4K, rendered in the cloud so any laptop keeps up.
How creators use EchoWave in real projects
About the EchoWave team
EchoWave is a browser-based video and audio editor built by Lemon Vault LLC since 2018. The people who build the editor write these guides and test every step in the production app before publishing.
Sermon Clip Maker FAQ
Is there a free sermon clip maker?
Yes. EchoWave's free plan covers upload, editing and export: you download an HD MP4 up to 720p with a small removable EchoWave watermark badge and a short branded end card. Paid plans remove the badge and end card, raise output to 1080p and up to 4K, and add 8K on Business. There is nothing to install, so trying it costs you nothing but the length of one sermon.
How long should a sermon clip be?
Most sermon clips that hold attention run 30 to 60 seconds, and TikTok tends to reward 15 to 30. The first three seconds matter most, so start mid-thought at the strongest line rather than with a slow lead-in. If a moment needs 90 seconds of context, it is usually two clips.
How do I find the best moments in a long sermon?
Look for what church media teams call amen moments: a scripture landing, a one-line illustration, a direct challenge to the listener. In EchoWave you search the transcript for the phrase you remember, click it, and the playhead jumps straight there. Asking the preacher for their two favorite lines each week also works surprisingly well.
Does EchoWave pick sermon clips automatically with AI?
Yes. The AI clip generator reads the word-timed transcript plus audio energy, reactions and speaker turns, then returns 1 to 30 clips ranked by Viral Score, 0 to 100, with Hook, Clarity, Emotion, Value and Trend sub-scores and plain reasons for each pick. A sermon preset tunes what it looks for, and a prompt like find moments about grace surfaces themes. Each clip arrives at 9:16 with captions applied and opens as a normal project. The free plan analyses 30 source minutes a month, and free exports carry a small watermark at 720p. Prefer to choose? Search the transcript and cut by hand.
Does our sermon footage leave the church computer during AI analysis?
You choose. By default the AI clip generator runs on-device in your browser, so the video never leaves the computer for analysis; only the transcript is produced server-side. If the office laptop is slow or you want to close the tab, switch to cloud analysis and the job keeps running, visible to everyone in your workspace. Rendering the finished clip always happens on the cloud farm, same as any other EchoWave export. There is still no scheduler, so posting to Reels, Shorts or TikTok happens from your phone.
What size and format do Reels, Shorts and TikTok need?
All three want vertical 9:16 video, typically 1080 by 1920 pixels, exported as MP4. In EchoWave you set the canvas to the 9:16 preset and export an MP4, free at up to 720p with a small watermark badge, or at full 1080p and beyond on paid plans. A 1:1 square version of the same clip works for Facebook and Instagram feed posts.
How do I add captions to a sermon clip?
Click auto captions and EchoWave transcribes the speech with word-level timestamps. Pick one of 176 caption presets, including karaoke styles that fill each word as it is spoken, then fix names and Bible references by editing the text directly. You can also export the captions as an SRT, VTT, TXT or JSON file.
Can I use worship music in sermon clips?
Be careful. A CCLI or streaming license usually covers the service itself, but posting recorded copyrighted music to social media generally needs separate permission, and rights holders do issue takedowns. EchoWave has no stock music library, so bring music you own or have licensed, or let the preaching carry the clip on its own.
Can our volunteers reuse the same setup each week?
Yes, that is what templates are for. Save the caption preset, title position, logo overlay and end card once, and whoever is on duty swaps in the new sermon file and exports. The brand kit keeps fonts and colors consistent no matter who edits. There is no real-time co-editing, so plan on one editor per project at a time.
Can I pull the sermon straight from a YouTube link?
No, EchoWave does not import from YouTube or TikTok URLs. Download the original recording from your own channel or streaming platform, then upload the file. MP4, MOV, WebM and AVI all work, and long full-service files are fine.
Ready to clip Sunday's message?
Edit and export HD free in your browser with a small removable watermark badge. Paid plans remove the badge and add 1080p up to 4K downloads.
Get Started →