The King's eHighway

PowerPoint Goes to Church (Part 2)
by Denn Guptill (www.Powerpoint4Preaching.com)

(To read part 1, click here)

There is a story told about a lumberjack who had resisted technology for years but finally broke down and bought a chainsaw. After a week with his new purchase he was disappointed in how little it had improved his productivity. Returning the saw to the dealer he told them, “This wasn't worth the money I paid for it. It doesn't cut anymore trees then my old hand saw and it weighs a ton." The dealer said, "Well that shouldn't be so, let's see what the problem is”. Reaching down and pulling the starter cord the saw roared to life and the lumberjack jumped back and exclaimed, "What's that noise?"

Sure, video projectors can be used to project the words of songs on to a screen. But they can also do so much more. They can be used to teach Scripture, play music and show videos. The proper use of a video projector has the potential to enhance the worship experience and teach our people more about the scriptures.

With many professionals in our congregations using PowerPoint or watching PowerPoint presentations at work, "good enough" just isn't good enough. For better or worse, those in the pew now expect to see the same quality on Sunday that they see Monday through Friday. Just because it’s for church shouldn’t be an excuse for doing a second rate job. Instead, our commitment needs to be doing it first rate.

Our aim is to help you take your church presentations to the next level and to help put some power in PowerPoint. People often ask, "How long does it take to put together a presentation for church?" My answer is, "How long do you have?" Presentation software can be an incredible time thief, and it's not uncommon to hear people complain of the hours spent putting together a computer presentation for their Sunday morning service. It doesn't have to be that way. This website will provide you with techniques, tips and resources which will allow you to put together a quality presentation in a reasonable amount of time.

In each article we will look at individual elements of a worship presentation, providing you with step by step instructions, short cuts and examples.

There are a number of presentation packages on the market today including several church-specific products. We have aimed this website specifically at PowerPoint users for a couple of reasons. First, the Microsoft product is the market leader and many churches already have PowerPoint bundled in an office software package. Secondly, when it comes down to dollars and cents, PowerPoint gives you more bang for your buck, especially when churches take advantage of the charitable pricing option available through Microsoft.