Media Tip: The Do's and Don'ts of Powerpoint

The story is told of a five-year-old boy who sat in church with his mother listening to the morning sermon. One of the pastor's points from a particular passage was: "We are but dust." The little boy leaned towards his mother and said, "Mommy, what is butt dust?" This and many other confusions could be avoided with the use of Powerpoint. Now that particular instance would have been unavoidable, seeing the child probably could not read anyway, but have you ever missed an announcement before and wished they'd say it again? Powerpoint is your solution.

A couple of weeks ago the featured media tip was sermon visuals. That article introduced one particular use of Powerpoint. This week, I want to discuss the use of Powerpoint in churches a little more in depth. Technology is truly a wonderful thing, but we need to be careful because there are right uses of it and wrong uses in our churches. When I covered Social Media, I mentioned that we must make sure we are using this medium effectively. The same is true with Powerpoint.

If you don't currently use Powerpoint in your services or don't have a projector, check out this brief guide to get you started. The guide only covers projector installation, a tutorial on using Powerpoint will be coming later this week.

The Do's
• Do Post a Welcome and Announcements. Various welcome slides can be found online at places like ShareFaith and CreationSwap. They have videos as well as stills that match your sermon visuals. It would also be a great idea to have a slide welcoming first-time guests and visitors. Announcements can all be on one slide, or have various visually enhanced slides (ex. Youth Group Water Wars featuring a water balloon slide with date and time)

• Do Share Sermon Information. Sermon titles, main points, and Scripture reference can all be displayed. I've already written an article about this.

• Do Encourage Social Media Connections. Advertising your church's Facebook and Twitter pages is an excellent way to remind people to check them out for the latest church updates. It also lets your visitors connect with you, become aware of your events, and increase their chances of returning.

• Do Advertise Your Ministries. Do you have a CD ministry? Remind folks that CDs are in the back. Do you need more choir members? Tell them everyone is welcome, just ask the choir director. Do you have a nursery? Let your guests know that childcare is provided.

• Do Challenge with Scripture Reading and Trivia. Does your church follow a Scripture Reading plan together? Remind your people what next week's passage is and ask them if they read for this week. Murray River Baptist Church even posts trivia from the reading. This engages people just sitting in the pews and encourages them to read so they can answer the questions next week. The response to this has been great.

• Do Include Various Other Slides. The before-service queue is a great time to include additional reminders about upcoming events, advertising the church website, and reminding people to silence their phones. Another great use is displaying various verse visuals. You may not be preaching on that topic, but Sermon visuals can be displayed during the queue as a reminder to "Fight the Good Fight" or "Trust in the Lord."

• Do Display Song Information. Song numbers and titles, special music singers, and offertory pieces are great display. Have you ever heard the pianist play a beautiful piece during the offertory and the name of the song is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't think of it? This can help.

• Do Allow Missionary Presentations. Whenever a missionary comes, he often has pictures or a video to show the people. If you already have a projector in place, this makes his setup that much easier.

• Do Show Various Videos. Recently, I mentioned that my pastor showed a video about church marketing before his sermon one Wednesday. This was possible because of our projector. Before Missions Conference, we watched a 20-minute video and had a short challenge about being willing to go to the mission field. For Mother's Day, we watched two brief clips honoring mothers at the end of the service before being dismissed.

• Do Skype with Missionaries. You can also use Skype to connect with missionaries thousands of miles away, or with your own church people who are on a missions trip. A month ago, my church connected with Australian missionary Steven Maldoff. My pastor also has plans to use Skype during church when he goes on his next missions trip.



The Don'ts
• Don't Place Scripture on the Screen. Unless it's a special occasion or holiday where you know a large group of your audience will be without a Bible (Christmas, Funeral, etc.), do not display Scripture on your overhead. This is one of the worst possible uses of Powerpoint. This will train your people to not bring their Bible to church. They will become reliant on the screen for the Scripture passage.

• Don't Show Embarrassing Photos of Church Members. You had an absolute blast at the latest church activity featuring the adults against the youth in a sporting event. Your wife happened to get a great photo of one of the deacons making a funny face. You think it is hilarious and want to share it with your church. However, he thinks it's awful and can't stand that you placed it on the screen.

• Don't Broadcast the Super Bowl Instead of Church. It's all right to have a get together after your church service to watch the Super Bowl in your fellowship hall, but don't cancel church and use your auditorium as a big screen TV instead. I would refrain from ever using the auditorium projector for this purpose. Have all extra functions like this in the fellowship hall if you can help it (i.e. you don't rent a small room/building for church services only).


As you can see, the Do's far outweigh the Don'ts. That is why I highly suggest that all churches invest in a projector. The digital age is upon us, stepping up in our media departments is one of the best ways to improvement the excitement in our churches. People want to see improvements being made, it makes them excited about coming to church. Especially when they can get involved. Find the techno-man in your church and ask him to help you run the equipment. Find the girl who loves graphic design to make your powerpoints. Ask the electrician or the construction worker to install and wire your projector properly. Involving your church members will get them excited about church and the benefits of this are innumerable.

Do you have any more Do's or Don'ts that I didn't include on my list? Write them in the comments section below and I will be happy to edit my list and add your suggestion. Did you find this helpful? Someone else will too, share it on Facebook or Twitter. Just click the links below.

Posted in: Media Tips, Powerpoint