Scots Church Adelaide

Dealing with the data projector

A colleague recently complained they spend as much time preparing the PowerPoint slides for Sunday service, as they do preparing the actual worship and sermon. Another spends an annoying amount of time providing a “cheat sheet” for the projector operator, who keeps getting lost during services.

This was in contrast to a third colleague, whose congregation appreciates his occasional use of the projector, but which has consciously decided not to put their whole service up on the wall.

Projectors can be brilliant.  I used ours on Sunday to throw up the reading from John 6, a few words at a time, as we discussed the way John added layers of meaning to the story of the mass feeding by Jesus. It was a great way to highlight words and phrases, and to point out hidden subtleties that get lost in the translation to English.  This is a new projector, which cost us dearly for the extra lumens, but it is much brighter than the old overhead projector ever was, in our light saturated church.

I reckon the theology of data projectors includes things like these:

• The projector should be of sufficient quality and brightness that people can actually see the images.  “People” means those folk up the back, who are over 65. Anything less lacks compassion, and excludes some of the people of God. Buy your projector based on the sunniest Sunday morning of the year, not a cloudy mid winter’s day.
• Buy a projector which can be taken over to the church hall, and used for the youth group, or fellowship.  Have a good insurance policy. (Even projectors hung from the ceiling get stolen.) This is just plain sensible stewardship.
• The projector should only be used when it adds to the quality of our worship. The bible does not say  “Thou shalt have an image up on the wall for each and every moment of the service.” In fact, if it says anything about data projectors, it is to question the spending of such large amounts of money on these items.
• Learn to use the projector.  Just as we eschew poor preaching and poor musicianship (not easy!) , so we should not allow inept use of projectors. It is just as offensive.

When we prepare worship the important questions are what words do we think are trying to bring from God, and what do we need to do to allow people to mull those words over, and perhaps hear them... or others.  Do we have pictures, or video, or words which will help this procedure?  If not, maybe we should turn the projector off. If using PowerPoint, press the letter “b.”

If we simply look for “fillers,” are we doing anything other than providing muzak, and are we not distracting people from the worship of God? I think that if we insist  that there is a picture on the wall at all times, we have begun to worship an idol.

We who preach and lead worship should ask ourselves, “Who is insisting that there is always something on the wall? Is it really the congregation, or is it me, myself?”

Andrew Prior