I'm often asked about preaching. Some ask about the mechanics of preparing and delivering a sermon. Others ask about the experiences of preaching regularly before a congregation. Still others ask personal questions--my opinion on preaching styles, sermon content, or my personal preferences in hearing other preachers. I've decided to offer up some answers in a series of posts.
To use projected media or not to use projected media - this is the question.
And my answer: nyet!
People who know me well know that there are a few things in this world I have absolutely no appetite for--Pepsi, electronic drum sets and sermons accompanied by power-point are knotted up at the very top of my list. I'll save the Pepsi and the electronic drums rant for another article. I'll put power-point accompanied preaching in the cross-hairs now.
In my last post in this series I spoke of a personal preference (for not using sermon notes). I suppose if I'm honest my views on this topic are of a personal preference nature too, but I think I can make a pretty good case for my taste on this. Let me approach it from a few different vantage points. First, distractions.
When I became a believer in Christ (1983), P.A. systems were a relatively new thing being added into church sanctuaries. If you were around back then, you will recall the wonderful Radio Shack technology that graced our churches. Perhaps a four-channel analog mixer, powered by about 60 watts, with a Radio Shack lapel mic for the preacher, and a matching quality hand-held for the soloist... who sang to a cassette accompaniment track. Oh boy! You also remember the feedback. Lots of it. Just about every Sunday. If there wasn't feedback, you remember your preacher sounding like he was in an echo-chamber, or like he was Darth Vader. Of course, if someone drove by talking on a CB radio, then all sorts of fun could be had: "Please turn in your copy of the scriptures to... BREAKER ONE-NINE! HOW 'BOUT IT WILD CHILD? YOU OUT THERE?" In the church I was attending there was a "sound engineer." If he was a day short of eighty I'd eat my shorts. He was a radio operator in the Civil War or something like that and knew electronics. Trouble was he spent most of the service adjusting the lone hair that still swept across his cranium, so... Distractions! You remember them.
Thankfully most churches have moved into the present in the area of sound equipment--and I haven't heard feedback in church in a couple of decades now. AMEN!
Power-point=this generation's distraction.
Take an inventory: How many times have you sat through a power-point accompanied talk (in any setting) and had technical glitches become an obstacle to the talk itself? You know what I'm talking about. Oops, one slide too far... back it up. Oops, that slide is out of order. Oops, I... what's wrong with this remote? Anybody have a battery? Let's be honest, too. There is an art to putting together an engaging visual display. A static outline of the bullet points are more annoying than they are helpful. Of course, barking dogs and popping balloons are worse. (Because I know you're wondering, yes, I did actually see a sermon one time where a barking dog "barked" out the words to the points of the pastor's sermon in a power point display. I refrained from "laying hands" on the man. I was tempted.)
Beyond distractions, let me ask you (if you're a preacher), where do you want your people to focus their attention? I'll answer that question: I want people focused on the Word! As in, their Bibles. I don't want them looking at a verse removed from context that emblazons a screen. I don't want them watching fireworks go off or ocean waves roll in. I don't want them transfixed as bullet points slither onto the screen from all corners. I want them looking at the page of their Bible where the verse I'm talking about resides, has context, and comes off the page (out of the paragraph) and into their hearts.
And taking that thought one step further, I want to help the folks in the congregation become Biblically literate. I don't want to put Jeremiah 29:11 on a screen in front of them. I want them to be able to pick up their Bibles and turn to Jeremiah 29:11--and if we do that week-in-and-week-out, pretty soon they'll know their way to books in their Bibles without a table of contents, tabs or a ten minute head start. I want them to have a feel for the pages of God's revelation to them, and to become proficient in searching and studying it. When they sit down next to the fire at home (or next to the hospital bed of a loved one), there won't be 3 points of an application illuminated on the wall.
Now to the real personal appraisal, and this is a matter of my taste completely: I can't stand a sermon accompanied by visuals. I'm so distracted I can't focus. And, mind you, this is when it all goes 'right.' Lord help me if one of those technical hiccups occur--the preacher will never get me back. There's a reason I'm interested in the sermon--It's God's word being communicated. There's even a reason I'm listening to a given preacher--something has brought me to that particular worship service. Quit the glitz and deliver the word of God, be comfortable in your own skin (God was comfortable enough with you to have you preaching His word), and talk to me from your heart.
If you want to entertain me, invite me over to your house after church to watch a game on the plasma set. Have your wife make us some hor-dourves!
Next time, composing the sermon.
I think that if you're the kind of preacher who manuscripts (which I'm not) and you have a creative team who coordinates well AND performs exceptionally well during the message (which most don't), you can make power point work.
On the whole, I find it a distraction for me as the preacher, so even though we played with it, I generally eschew it now.
Posted by: Erik D | March 01, 2010 at 05:29 PM