Watch What You Put Here!
Using a multimedia projector in worship for PowerPoint displays has been all the rage for sometime now. It can enrage some of us in worship too. Today I visited a very nice congregation and was quite pleased to see they were using a projector to aid in the worship experience. It took some time to implement the use of a projector in our congregation. Some felt that worship media would spoil the worship experience. On the contrary. Projecting the hymns, songs and certain readings led to a dramatic increase in singing and congregational participation during worship.
Our communications and worship department workers were trained and are always looking for ways to improve their use of worship media in ministry. I wish all churches would take a similar serious approach. It seems to me that in some places, churches are just rushing out to buy projectors, hooking up a screen and Action! No training, No guidance. Just anything goes.
So my momentary joy at seeing the projector in this church went right out the window in no time. And thus gave room for my peeves regarding multimedia projections in worship. I went through every one of these peeves in a single Sunday morning service. It was one of my most distracting worship experience for a long time.
1. Correct grammar and spelling is not optional – It is both amusing and annoying to see some of the common grammatical and spelling errors on PowerPoint slides in worship. It’s a dead giveaway that someone is either careless, no Spelling Bee or did not ask for help. It is a sure source of distraction for the youth in particular who poke fun at the spelling errors and miss out on worship. I admit as pastor it is difficult not to smile sometimes. Ever caught yourself in the responsive reading, saying something out loud while your brain is telegraphing to you…”don’t say that, its wrong!”
2. Failure to check the lyrics – There is nothing more confusing than errors in the words of a song on the screen, the order of the verses or the chorus/refrain in the wrong place. Mercy! Given that it is a familiar song, half of the congregation are stubbornly singing the right words while the other half goes off thinking its a creative arrangement or something. Think about a first time worshipper who believes (s)he just learnt new words to a song. Then, there’s the song leader, eyes closed, caught up in the song totally oblivious to the error…just wonderful. Getting the lyrics correct is not trivial. Incorrect lyrics can have a theological impact on the songs we sing and that is also important. See what this writer has to say about bad worship lyrics.
Imagine this!
3. Inappropriate worship backgrounds - Some people just love busy screens. This drives me nuts and distract the daylights out of a congregation. I can barely read the words while I fight with huge mountains and scenic landscapes. The size, style and colour of the font is important. I find keeping it clean and simple to be most effective, using good contrasts like a white or very pale background with black letters and white font on dark colours. I won’t get into our attempt to project on the wall outside our church this past Easter using a red background. Can you spell disaster? My poor controller was sweating bullets. He didn’t get to church on time to do a test run to see if the background was appropriate.
4. Sleeping or otherwise non-alert operators at the computer sends me up the wall. Imagine singing an unfamiliar hymn, the song leader surging ahead, organist with fingers poised in the air unsure what to play, and the words are still stuck at the first verse or at the chorus. And then there is rapid advancement of the song, sometimes even too far ahead. Just great I tell you. The same thing happens with the flow of the Order of Service. The slide is saying Prayer of Intercession, while we are at the Collection of the Tithes & Offering. Your controllers have got to be alert and flexible. They should be able to anticipate the flow of the service and know what is coming next. However, they should be flexible enough to know if the song leader wishes to repeat the verse of a song, or if the worship leader has paused at a point for emphasis.
5. Projecting of the family photos wallpaper, and desktop while searching for files during worship. So help me! This is sure to get me to start thinking dark thoughts during service. Worship rage I tell you. Yes, God is still working on the fuse issues:-) But seriously, do you think it is appropriate for us to be at a very solemn part of the worship and on the wall comes someone’s slideshow of their holiday photos?
I’ll resist the temptation to go on and on. You should have gotten the picture and the message by now.
Worship is partly a human endeavour and human errors are understandable. However, if they are too frequent there is a problem and you are not helping someone to develop a good reputation by allowing them to continue along that path. Offer some guidance and share the tips above with them and hopefully you will have a better worship experience from here on.
Instead, let me share with you some very useful free tutorials and articles I came across at Imagevine. Be sure to take advantage of their free worship backgrounds download. But do, use them responsibly.
Got multimedia in worship peeves you want to share with us? Do tell us what you think and how you overcome the challenges.
Take care,
Marvia
PS* I have no affiliation with Imagevine. They offer free resources our church has used and I’m sharing it with you.
