Beyond Bullet Points: Creative Uses of Visual Technology for Preaching

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Beyond Bullet PointsCreative Uses of Visual
Technology for Preaching

• Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
• Symposium 2008

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Beyond Bullet Points

• Foundational Beliefs
• Ideas for Content
• Ideas for Display
• Ideas for Use
• Theologically Speaking

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Foundational Beliefs

• Central Question Does it serve the gospel?

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Foundational Beliefs

• Central Question Does it serve the gospel?
• Preaching is incarnational.

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Foundational Beliefs

• Central Question Does it serve the gospel?
• Preaching is incarnational.
• If you cant preach a good sermon without visual
  aids, you wont preach a good one with them.

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Foundational Beliefs

• Central Question Does it serve the gospel?
• Preaching is incarnational.
• If you cant preach a good sermon without visual
  aids, you wont preach a good one with them.
• PP was designed for business presentations and
  teaching. Preaching is neither. Preaching
  facilitates an encounter with the living God!

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Foundational Beliefs

• Central Question Does it serve the gospel?
• Preaching is incarnational.
• If you cant preach a good sermon without visual
  aids, you wont preach a good one with them.
• PP was designed for business presentations and
  teaching. Preaching is neither. Preaching
  facilitates an encounter with the living God!
• Know the limits of the medium.

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Speaking of Limits

• Generational limits

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Speaking of Limits

• Generational limits
• Learning style limits

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Speaking of Limits

• Generational limits
• Learning style limits
• Time/energy limits

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Speaking of Limits

• Generational limits
• Learning style limits
• Time/energy limits
• Equipment limits

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Ideas for Content

• Make the biblical text primary.

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• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God.
• 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things
  came into being through him, and without him not
  one thing came into being. What has come into
  being 4 in him was life,1 and the life was the
  light of all people. 5 The light shines in the
  darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
• Jn 16 There was a man sent from God, whose name
  was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to
  the light, so that all might believe through him.
  8 He himself was not the light, but he came to
  testify to the light. 9 The true light, which
  enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.2
• Jn 110 He was in the world, and the world came
  into being through him yet the world did not
  know him. 11 He came to what was his own,3 and
  his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all
  who received him, who believed in his name, he
  gave power to become children of God, 13 who were
  born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or
  of the will of man, but of God.
• Jn 114 And the Word became flesh and lived
  among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory
  as of a father's only son,4 full of grace and
  truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out,
  "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after
  me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'
  ") 16 From his fullness we have all received,
  grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given
  through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus
  Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God
  the only Son,5 who is close to the Father's
  heart,6 who has made him known.

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• In the beginning was the Word,
• and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  
• He was in the beginning with God.
• All things came into being through him, and
  without him not one thing came into being.
• What has come into being in him was life, and
  the life was the light of all people.
• The light shines in the darkness, and the
  darkness did not overcome it.

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• In the beginning was the Word,
• and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  
• He was in the beginning with God.
• All things came into being through him, and
  without him not one thing came into being.
• What has come into being in him was life, and
  the life was the light of all people.
• The light shines in the darkness, and the
  darkness did not overcome it.

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• In the beginning was the Word,
• and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  
• He was in the beginning with God.
• All things came into being through him, and
  without him not one thing came into being.
• What has come into being in him was life,
• and the life was the light of all people.
• The light shines in the darkness,
• and the darkness did not overcome it.

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Ideas for Content

• Make the biblical text primary.
• Post quotes with sources.

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• Arguably, apart from the gospel the church has
  little to offer the world.
• --Paul Scott Wilson, Church Decline Has
  the gospel gone missing?

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• For all the human handiwork that it displays, the
  Bible remains a peculiarly holy book. I cannot
  think of any text that has such authority over
  me, interpreting me faster than I can interpret
  it. It speaks to me not with the stuffy voice of
  some mummified sage but with the fresh, lively
  tones of someone who knows what happened to me an
  hour ago. Familiar passages accumulate meaning
  as I return to them again and again. They seem
  to grow during my absences from them I am always
  finding something new in them I never found
  before, something designed to meet me where I am
  at this particular moment in time. This is, I
  believe, why we call the Bible Gods living
  word. (Taylor 1993 52)

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• Familiar passages accumulate meaning as I return
  to them again and again. They seem to grow
  during my absences from them I am always finding
  something new in them I never found before,
  something designed to meet me where I am at this
  particular moment in time. This is, I believe,
  why we call the Bible Gods living word.
• Barbara Brown Taylor
• The Preaching Life 1993 52

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Ideas for Content

• Make the biblical text primary.
• Post quotes with sources.
• Think in images, not just words.

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• Make the biblical text primary.
• Post quotes with sources.
• Think in images, not just words.
• Display art for the season or series.

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• Make the biblical text primary.
• Post quotes with sources.
• Think in images, not just words.
• Display art for the season or series.
• Book covers, web sites, other resources.

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Ideas for Display

• Clean, not cluttered.

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Beyond Bullet Points

• Creative Uses of Visual Technology for Preaching

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Ideas for Display

• Clean, not cluttered.
• Minimize distractions.
• Match the font, size, style, gtformatgt,
  screen change, etc. on all of your slides.

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Ideas for Display

• Clean, not cluttered.
• Minimize distractions.
• Have the presentation match the content.
• Backgrounds to match the lighting. (Dont shock
  the eyes! Fade in, fade out is a great transition
  for worship spaces.)
• Have the color match the rest of the environment
  (banners, stoles, etc.). Green slides for
  Epiphany!

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Ideas for Display

• Clean, not cluttered.
• Minimize distractions.
• Have the presentation match the content.
• Mute the screen when you arent using it.

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Ideas for Display

• Clean, not cluttered.
• Minimize distractions.
• Have the presentation match the content.
• Mute the screen when you arent using it.
• Dont give it all away!

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Ideas for Use

• You need not refer to the screen.

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Ideas for Use

• You need not refer to the screen.
• You need not use PP/visual tech every week.
• (In fact, you shouldnt!)

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Ideas for Use

• You need not refer to the screen.
• You need not use PP/visual tech every week.
• (In fact, you shouldnt!)
• Practice, practice, practice.

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Ideas for Use

• You need not refer to the screen.
• You need not use PP/visual tech every week.
• (In fact, you shouldnt!)
• Practice, practice, practice.
• Be ready for anything.

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Theologically Speaking

• Does it serve the gospel?

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Theologically Speaking

• Does it serve the gospel?
• Help them meet God.

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Theologically Speaking

• Serve the gospel.
• Help them meet God.
• Send them home with grace!