As I commented to someone following the last post, I sometimes get requests for my “PowerPoint” after I present somewhere. (Especially true when I did a seminar at a preacher training school last year) I always cheerfully comply, but I warn them that unless they took good notes on my presentation, the slides won’t do them any good. Even I look back at old presentations without being sure what each slide was about.
That’s because I don’t want my whole sermon up on the screen. Presentations are visual aids and are meant to be such. When the inventors of PowerPoint first presented the idea of PowerPoint, they accompanied the presentation with a 53-page handout. 53 pages! They obviously didn’t put all the information on the slides. That’s not the best way to communicate.
Put Bible references up, not the full text. Put main words up, not slide after slide of bullet points. Use pictures that evoke an emotional response. Maps and pictures of Bible lands can aid understanding. Just remember… it’s an illustration, not a sermon. Just as you can’t build a good sermon around nothing but jokes and stories, you can’t build a sermon around a presentation. But you can reinforce the sermon, especially for people that are visual learners. Presentations make great illustrations and lousy sermons.
[Oh, and don’t use slides that look like that one up at the top of the post!]
I will remember this, the next time I am invited to speak at Pepperdine :)
Laymond,
When they put me in charge of the Pepperdine Lectureship (or Freed-Hardeman’s), you’ll be the first I put on the program. You’d better have a knock-their-socks-off video ready!
I disagree about not putting the text on the screen. Yes, we would all love for people to look it up in their own Bibles … but many people do not. And many do not even bring a Bible with them. We hope they are using their Bibles at home and reading daily…studying…but for the sake of those who do not…and guests who wouldn’t be able to…I think it’s great to have the text on the screen. I also like this for congregational readings of things like the Lord’s Prayer or Psalm 23.
Interestingly enough, though, studies have shown that providing text and reading it aloud at the same time DECREASES understanding. (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/03/1175366240499.html)
Congregational readings, of course, are a different story.
I prefer the whole text of the Scripture on the screen, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the lighting in the auditorium is just not good enough to be peering in one’s Bible. I did ask for the lighting to be brighter during the sermon and it was for a few weeks but people forget. Secondly, we all have different Bible translations and trying to follow in your ESV while the NLT is the translation being referred to or read from is not easy. Thirdly I just prefer to look up and forward and engage instead of looking down in my lap.
My practice oscillates between the two. If it a shorter scripture, then I will stick the whole thing up with key words in a slightly larger font. If the scripture is longer (i.e. it doesn’t comfortably fit on the slide in 32+ pts.), then I truncate the verse to specific key phrases.
The point is attention minus concentration. If the worshipers have to concentrate too hard on reading a clutter of text on the slide, they will miss points you are making about the verse. Instead of viewing my slides as aids, I approach them as visual reinforcement of my points. If the slides could stand on their own without my presence, they have gone from being reinforcement to supplanting me entirely.
I could go on for hours, but I’ll stop here. I’ll email you with links to some slides I’ve made for presentations as well as a site where I write about presenting in general. You’ve stumbled onto one of my favorite pet topics.
Robert,
I definitely thought of you as I started this series. As an educator, you have some insights on this that the rest of us need to hear.
Grace and peace,
Tim
http://blog.slideshare.net/2009/02/03/4-multimedia-learning-principles-that-will-improve-your-slides/
A good article that goes well with this series. Note that #3 speaks directly to our discussion about putting Bible texts on slides.
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