Picture This:
It’s your first time visiting. You walk in and are warmly greeted at the door while being handed a piece of paper full of information. Everything you could want to know about what you are about to experience is right there, neatly organized into a nicely folded piece of glossy paper.
You notice the well crafted banners on the wall – messages of hope and the church’s core beliefs are there. Nice.
The worship starts – the songs were thoughtfully chosen, you don’t like them all, but all are executed with perfect timing by the musicians and vocalists. Your heart has been given the set up for what is no doubt going to be a great message at this point.
The pastor gets up, and starts his opening monologue with crisp words and emphatic speech. But something catches your eye. Something awful. something you want your children to never have to experience.
The Pastor’s notes have been carelessly lobbed onto a high resolution screen. Full 1080p of the most eye bleeding experience you could imagine as you squint and race to figure out what is going on. Everyone starts to laugh at something that was just said. But you missed it. You were too distracted by the screen carnage unfolding before your very eyes.
Has this happened to you? I am, of course, being a bit dramatic. But what happens on that screen once the message starts is, in my opinion, one of the most neglected channels of communication that we have. The frustrating part is that regardless of available talent it doesn’t have to be that way.
This is the set up to what will be a 4 part series (maybe more) on how to create message slides that rock. That enhance. That support everything else your local church is trying to do.
I have thought about writing on ways to create an awesome church bulletin, fliers, banners, websites, whatever. But the fact is that while these items serve a purpose, they will not get the exposure and attention that your slides projected 10 feet wide in front of every person every week will get.
Consider these questions about what you are doing now with your message slides as we dive into this topic in the weeks to come:
- Why do we have slides at all?
- Are we doing a good job? 1-10 scale, be honest!
- What excuses am I making for not putting out the best I can?
- What resources am I not taking full advantage of in order to produce consistent quality? How can I better these resources?
- Who do I follow for inspiration or where do I go for ideas?
Projector image credit: Wikipedia.org
[…] my introduction to this series I painted a scene I have had to experience – and I would bet you have too. The […]