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preaching with powerpoint
- Thread starter tinytim
- Start date
Gib said:
:thumbs: :applause:
This Sunday, we have our monthly youth-led worship service. Many churches in our county participate. We look forward to over 600 teens, many worshipping God together, others there because of curiosity, boredom, etc...(they don't know God has planned it!). And yes, we will have instruments: Guitars, drums, violin, accordion, keyboard, piano, bass, and a whole slew of vocalists.
Two of my kids will share their testimonies. One's a girl! They'll both probably use the NIV. There's more...but since this might send me on the fast track to Hades, I better stop talkin'.
To use Powerpoint is good for deaf audience because it is easy for them to read. They like it very much because they are able to understand. The key for them is to watch at a deaf preacher with PowerPoint rathar than missing what he preached during they read their Bible.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
Be careful because you can overdo it. It is very easy when you are doing it yourself. Our pastor has gotten to where he does it a little too much. He even put up "I want to ask you a question." Then he said "I want to ask you a question."
I thought this was a bit much.
I will give you a hint. For visibility in lower light use bright yellow for the words. I can't get our pastor to do it because he says he doesn't like yellow, but my earlier pastor used it and it made the words stand out very, very well. Try not to use much background, if possible, stick mostly to foreground and text in either Arial or New Times Roman. Arial makes great headlines while New Times Roman is better for longer paragraphs or verses.
This comes from my earlier tech writing days. Hope it helps some.
We use two projectors, one on the front and one on the back wall--that way the pastor can see it from the front while looking back and so can the choir. We also use a wireless mouse, which allows the pastor to change slides when he wants to without having to have an outline or cues or some sort.
I thought this was a bit much.
I will give you a hint. For visibility in lower light use bright yellow for the words. I can't get our pastor to do it because he says he doesn't like yellow, but my earlier pastor used it and it made the words stand out very, very well. Try not to use much background, if possible, stick mostly to foreground and text in either Arial or New Times Roman. Arial makes great headlines while New Times Roman is better for longer paragraphs or verses.
This comes from my earlier tech writing days. Hope it helps some.
We use two projectors, one on the front and one on the back wall--that way the pastor can see it from the front while looking back and so can the choir. We also use a wireless mouse, which allows the pastor to change slides when he wants to without having to have an outline or cues or some sort.
I'm not a pastor (sorry) but I'm married to one - AND I'm in charge of doing the PowerPoint and Prologue/SundayPlus (for the worship) so I hope I can put in my 2 cents.
I agree to keep the text very simple, use the shadow to help it to stand out and I usually prefer to use a darker background and lighter lettering than the white background and black lettering. It just seems to 'see' better. Our pastor uses PP is a pretty simple way - to reiterate the important points he wants to communicate. He'll have me get a few pictures sometimes (my favorite was trying to find a decent picture of Satan's throne - wanna google that one?? Yikes!! Ended up using a great pic of a volcano), and put down what someone would write if they were taking decent notes. It's usually no more than 6-8 slides for a sermon of 45 minutes - and I put no more than 2 points on a slide so that it stays up near the top half of the screen - gotta get over the drum shield! LOL!!
Now, I personally prefer to NOT have notes - and I'm a visual learner. I find the notes too distracting (I'm concentrating too much on the notes - even though I put them there - maybe that's the problem, I'm critiquing them) and I tend to have my mind wander more with the notes. When the screen is up, I listen much more closely for some reason. It's weird.
Then again, I get paid to do it so ...... Pastor, keep it up! LOL!! I need the moolah!
Ann
I agree to keep the text very simple, use the shadow to help it to stand out and I usually prefer to use a darker background and lighter lettering than the white background and black lettering. It just seems to 'see' better. Our pastor uses PP is a pretty simple way - to reiterate the important points he wants to communicate. He'll have me get a few pictures sometimes (my favorite was trying to find a decent picture of Satan's throne - wanna google that one?? Yikes!! Ended up using a great pic of a volcano), and put down what someone would write if they were taking decent notes. It's usually no more than 6-8 slides for a sermon of 45 minutes - and I put no more than 2 points on a slide so that it stays up near the top half of the screen - gotta get over the drum shield! LOL!!
Now, I personally prefer to NOT have notes - and I'm a visual learner. I find the notes too distracting (I'm concentrating too much on the notes - even though I put them there - maybe that's the problem, I'm critiquing them) and I tend to have my mind wander more with the notes. When the screen is up, I listen much more closely for some reason. It's weird.
Then again, I get paid to do it so ...... Pastor, keep it up! LOL!! I need the moolah!
Ann
tinytim said:
Well, if I run it, I get paid - usually it's someone else, though.
No, I get paid for the atleast 10 hours a week I put in to put together the whole service for the screen. It's a very creative job - having to get the right backgrounds with the songs - formatting the songs to the backgrounds, etc. It's VERY hard work - not one that most people would want to do. I'm all alone with no one to talk to. **SNIFF**
did that help??
Gotcha - I like to change the font color depending on the background that I use - and I don't like to use the same background each week. A little variety is good! LOL! What I like is that PP suggests the text colors for each background. I think that's cool!
Tim
I would suggest that you use fonts that are sans serif rather than those fancy ones.
Serifs are the little marks at the end of pen strokes that are there for artistic purposes and not for legibility. If someone has reading difficulties - the serifs can be difficult. Sans serif means without the extra marks.
Those that prefer serifs will usually justify their choice because the sans serif letter look boring. Bookman old style is not to bad.
God bless
Arial , Courier New versus Times New Roman or Book Antigua
I would suggest that you use fonts that are sans serif rather than those fancy ones.
Serifs are the little marks at the end of pen strokes that are there for artistic purposes and not for legibility. If someone has reading difficulties - the serifs can be difficult. Sans serif means without the extra marks.
Those that prefer serifs will usually justify their choice because the sans serif letter look boring. Bookman old style is not to bad.
God bless
Arial , Courier New versus Times New Roman or Book Antigua
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I'm jumping in late, but I thought I'd share a few things I've leared with powerpoint and sermons.
First, I know some people feel as though Powerpoint distracts from the sermon, but the fact is that people will watch something and it usually is not the handsome face of the pastor. They look at the carpet, the lights, the bald head in front of them, etc. Powerpoint can become one more thing to look at and unlike the bald head, connects them visually to the sermon.
Second, don't put too much into the powerpoint. When I have preached with powerpoint, I tried to keep it down to main points and the scripture. Anything more tends to get complicated for the tech people to keep up with, the congregation to follow, and forces you to present rather than preach.
Third, Try not to refer to it. Trust your tech people to keep up or shut it down, but don't stop to correct it or say, "move on to the next slide." Also, avoid having a monitor for yourself. Anytime I have used a video monitor, I find myself more tied to the Powerpoint. Plus, I've known an onery tech crew to freeze the main screen while they type "your fly is open" on the monitor. Also, with powerpoint as well as listening guides, constant reference to it can make some people who are less comfortable with it feel as though you are forcing them into using it.
That's all I can think of for now. Powerpoint can be a great enhancment for your sermon as long as it doesn't become a distraction.
First, I know some people feel as though Powerpoint distracts from the sermon, but the fact is that people will watch something and it usually is not the handsome face of the pastor. They look at the carpet, the lights, the bald head in front of them, etc. Powerpoint can become one more thing to look at and unlike the bald head, connects them visually to the sermon.
Second, don't put too much into the powerpoint. When I have preached with powerpoint, I tried to keep it down to main points and the scripture. Anything more tends to get complicated for the tech people to keep up with, the congregation to follow, and forces you to present rather than preach.
Third, Try not to refer to it. Trust your tech people to keep up or shut it down, but don't stop to correct it or say, "move on to the next slide." Also, avoid having a monitor for yourself. Anytime I have used a video monitor, I find myself more tied to the Powerpoint. Plus, I've known an onery tech crew to freeze the main screen while they type "your fly is open" on the monitor. Also, with powerpoint as well as listening guides, constant reference to it can make some people who are less comfortable with it feel as though you are forcing them into using it.
That's all I can think of for now. Powerpoint can be a great enhancment for your sermon as long as it doesn't become a distraction.
Learning styles
Having taught professionally from slides . . . I humbly ask a few more questions.
Learning styles* should affect teaching (and to some degree preaching) styles. I am not certain that they should drive the way that we teach or preach.
I find it most interesting that you consider the audience and yourself pre-disposed to visual learning . . . and preaching is mostly auditory.
Hence, you have adjusted for your audience and yourself.
What kind of testing did you do before implementation?
* http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm
Having taught professionally from slides . . . I humbly ask a few more questions.
Learning styles* should affect teaching (and to some degree preaching) styles. I am not certain that they should drive the way that we teach or preach.
I find it most interesting that you consider the audience and yourself pre-disposed to visual learning . . . and preaching is mostly auditory.
Hence, you have adjusted for your audience and yourself.
What kind of testing did you do before implementation?
* http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm