Many churches are going to using a screen and powerpoint. We recently went that way for our contemporary service.
How many of your churches are using powerpoint?
What do you like about it?
What don't you like?
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If society prospers at the expense of the intangibles, how can it be called progress?
We've recently had an evening at church devoted to recognizing the kids who graduated from high school in the late spring. Each young person was brought up to the front with their parents and the parents spoke for a moment on things like how proud they were of their son/daughter's accomplishment, what they hoped for their future, things like that. Each young person also had a Powerpoint presentation only lasting a few minutes, showing pictures of them during childhood and at special times in their lives and ending with a shot of them in their graduation gowns. There was music in the background, and it seemed like a nice way to acknowledge such a special time in the kids lives. Our youth pastor spoke about how each kid meant to him and the youth dept., and he wished them well in their future.
For a special event like this, the presentation seemed nice. But if it was a part of each worship service, it seems like the congregation might get distracted by the images and listen less... but then again maybe not.
Oh, I know what it should be used for - to project the words to the hymns!! Then I wouldn't have to rummage around for my reading glasses...
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That sounds like it would be a cool idea Of course I'm not sure how well suited Powerpoint would be, but I'm sure there would be something around to scroll the lyrics nicely. And in a nice large font so everyone could read them easilly. Would also be easier for a lot of people too than scanning through a Hymn book at a moment's notice.
It is used especially for our contemporary service where the lyrics are displayed on a large screen. Also, scripture, prayer reqquests, points to the sermon, anything that it can be. The idea is to get people's heads out of their bulletin and hymnal and raised up. So far it seems a good thing, but it is weird to not have the music in hand. the only thing I don't like about it is they had to put the screen where it covers a beautiful stained glass window of Christ
Our screen (when it is up) covers a speaker set in the wall, so it does interfere with the sound a little bit. Fortunately the other speakers seem to make up for it okay.
But having a beautiful stained glass window covered, that's too bad.
I've been in both kinds of services, and while powerpoint does help people to focus on the main points of the sermon or guide in the songs, I think it also can take away from people just listening and absorbing the truths that are being taught. They are worried about getting that one blank filled out, or will critique if the pastor skipped a point.
But they did make it so much easier to sing. I didn't have to have my head burried in a hymnal or song sheet when we had the powerpoint. I could look up and get the gist of the song. So in some ways I really miss it... Though our church insisted on getting some of the stupidest clipart to go into the powerpoints... I'd be giggling over some of the images when a point was being made... and I was the one running the powerpoint!
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I really like the fact our church uses powerpoint, it helps me to understand the notes and the principles they are trying to get across. I think it is good for understanding the points my pastor is making and it holds my attention to the message. Since we do not use traditional song books we also project the songs on a big screen at the front of the church so everyone can see.
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Our church started using it for just the contemporary services, but it was wel recieved by the congregation and was integrated into all the services. I makes it easier on the congregation to have everything they need right up front and not in 1 or 2 different books.
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A few years ago my old church started to use powerpoint. My daughter was the one to run it. Originally it was used for sermon points and song lyrics. The older members of the congregation loved it.....they could see and follow the songs easier. As things advanced a VCR was added to the mix and videos could be added to enhance the sermon. With my daughters Cerebral Palsy this became too much for her to handle comfortably (she felt she was too slow, though no one noticed). My daughter took over teaching my Kindergarten Sunday School class and I took over Powerpoint. We soon switched from Powerpoint to a computer program called "Prologue". It was designed for churches to use. All that days sides were side by side on the computer screen and I could just click on the on I needed. Songs could be imported and dropped on to a background slide to match the others in just seconds. I would wear a headset connected to the Assistant Pastor and when a song change was made I could do it almost instantly. Sometimes the Pastor would ask me to change a song to make it more personal. All the we's I could change to me's or I's. A little bit of scrambling for me but we never missed a song. The church was growing and we purchased property to build a larger building. Just before construction started we had a tent service on the property. The tent could hold 1000 people. At one end we built a temporary platform for the altar. We also arranged for two large screens and enough generator power to run the computers, lights and sound. We ran three live cameras and we were able to put the pastor on the screens during his sermon and the lyrics up during the songs. After returning to the old building weekly updates on the new church were shown by video on the screen. A digital camera is sent with the Youth on their Missions trips and pictures are sent back via email and the pictures can be shown during the service allowing family and friends to share in their experiences. As for the images being a distraction, we created all our own backdrops using Photoshop. That way they aren't to busy and they apply directly to what was happening at that moment. The response was always more positive then negative. One of the ideas behind this at my church was that today people are more media driven. After implementing this technology we saw the church grow. Many younger families were excited to be a part of this and the older people felt they could see and understand what was happening better. It was a win/win situation all around.
I go to a very Catholic school where everyone goes to mass on Sundays if not more. So we all have mass in the Gym because our church is to small. For that we use projectors and powerpoint stuff for the lyrics of the songs. I don't mind powerpoint as long as it does not pull away from the mass. II tend to be more traditional when it comes to stuff like that, but for lyrics or special acknowledgement (sp?) I have no problem. Just keep it away from the mass/service. I mean like the consecration is the most important part of mass for Catholics and I would not be happy if there was some powerpoint slide going on at the same time as the consecration for example. Although I do agree that as long as the message gets across try it. I'm just an old fart and I like it traditional...okay I'm rambling on again.
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