A church service is not a sales meeting. Microsoft's PowerPoint is great for sales meetings, for visually conveying facts and data. But churches need a presentation package suited to their unique requirements, to deliver the visual aspect of a sermon or a song. The differences are powerful enough to impact lives forever.

How can the choice of software have a bearing on church members' lives? Perhaps Josh Lyon from Shepherd Ministries puts it best, "We wouldn't think of using a business plan to teach the principles of Christianity, so why would we use a business program to show them?" Church-oriented software allows the medium to disappear while highlighting the message.

A road-weary salesperson does not want to see a slide presentation that uses the same format as the training module she demonstrated five times during the week. As a contrast, Song Show Plus from Fowler Productions conveys song lyrics, sermon points, map details, and video clips, all with a unique focus on worship. Easy Worship, another popular presentation program, adds moving backgrounds that interplay with the lyrics to form a cohesive message quite unlike PowerPoint.

Go With the Flow
Unlike well-structured business meetings, church services often flow in unplanned ways. While PowerPoint's design allows only a preplanned, linear presentation, worship software allows complete freedom to follow the changes common in contemporary worship situations. Thus, any last minute song addition or deletion will not interrupt the service, nor will the projection screen flash "computer-eze" data for everyone to see.

Prologue's Sunday Plus, for instance, uses a separate monitor for controlling the main display. Roger Cutler, part of the team responsible for Sunday Plus, says, "We had to develop a package that hid the inner workings of the system from the end viewer. By accessing the dual monitor mode of the computer, we made it possible to derive a preview/program scheme that mimics standard TV production methods."

Fowler Production's Song Show Plus is one of the most popular presentation packages currently available. Doug Reece, the project's key programmer, explains the need for church-oriented software, "It gives churches the ability to communicate at a higher level. The pastor's illustrations are driven home when the congregation can see the grisly reality of a cat-o'-nine-tails and the treacherous ascent of Golgotha. PowerPoint is simply not designed to deliver a sermon."

Song Show Plus is bundled as the exclusive software choice in video projection systems from Fowler Productions. Multimedia consultant Terry Smith echoes Reece's sentiments, "It's not enough for us to install a flawless video hardware system; we must insure the content is carried by a programming package that follows the nuances of every worship style and approach. Song Show Plus is made to order for a group of fifty meeting in a store front as well as a throng of thousands gathered in a mega-church."

Text Over Video
Live camera footage of platform events, termed image-magnification, or I-mag, is a given in larger churches where the congregation may be hundreds of feet from the stage. However, laying text over the video image presents a challenge to the operators.

Easy Worship's new version 2.3 addresses this issue with a unique solution. Jeff Taylor, one of the program's designers, explains: "Instead of softening the text edges, we use an Alpha channel mask to keep the text sharp without bleeding onto the video image. The result is a clean separation between the I-mag image and the foreground text."

"In fact, with a $49 AVerDVD EZMaker video capture card, it is now possible to process the video image through Easy Worship and eliminate, or at least delay, the need for a separate hardware video mixer. In the near future, video-to-video fades will be perfected, making seamless image transfers a reality for churches that lack video mixing equipment."

Random access is the watchword of worship presentation packages and one of the fastest programs available is Media Shout. In addition to rock-solid stability, even while switching sections, Media Shout includes eighteen complete Bible translations and eighty graphic backgrounds; making it one of the most complete packages available.

Media Shout's latest offering, version 2.5, adds full motion backgrounds and the timesaving feature known as SongSelect. The SongSelect lyric service provides instant record keeping of the songs used and is a convenient source of new songs, including all of Integrity Music's Worship Software library.

Instant Secretary
As a frustrated worship leader, Dan Homp created Integrity Music's Worship Software program to assist music ministers. From song set assembly to rehearsal scheduling, Worship Software is as efficient as a secretary, but less expensive. In Homp's words, "I know how worship leaders think, and they need someone to watch over the details of music ministry. This package is designed to free the minister for more important things—like worship."

Service Designer, from Tempo Productions, integrates with the company's other offerings, such as Hymn Show. While most worship presentation packages are aimed at the contemporary praise market, Hymn Show brings technology to the classics. Tempo Productions has carved a niche for itself with Hymn Show's ability to convert hymn stanzas into modern projection formats.

Another creative use of presentation technology is visual cueing, or teleprompting, available from Church View. By giving vocalists the next line, Church View lends a professional atmosphere to any setting while reducing stage fright. Finally, Creative Lifestyles' Presentation Manager program combines features such as drag-and-drop song selection along with discrete projection content and a library of thousands of songs into a simple, yet effective interface that can be mastered in minutes, not hours.

Church-specific presentation packages offer what PowerPoint fails to deliver: internal song and Bible libraries; seamless content switching; and moving backgrounds. With creative energy Christian programmers are impacting the church and the world for Christ.

Kent Morris (kentmorris@aol.com) is a sound system designer in Atlanta, Georgia.