Multi-Media Worship Becoming Norm

One Sunday you realize your overhead projector is a dinosaur—like a Hammond organ. The video projector is the norm now; video in worship is no longer a megachurch phenomenon. More than 6 in 10 churches own a video projection system, and 4 in 10 report using video projection in their worship services each week. One-fourth of all sanctuaries are equipped with permanently mounted video projectors. In addition, 43 percent own presentation software, making worship increasingly high tech.

Leadership‘s sister publication Your Church surveyed 285 churches and found that churches of all sizes are tech conscious. Churches with larger budgets are much more likely to own video equipment. Two-thirds of churches with budgets above $250,000 own a portable projector. Almost as many (61%) of churches with budgets above $500,000 have a mounted projector in the sanctuary.

The video wall is the newest accessory. Larger churches were more likely to make the investment. Video walls had the highest ratio of use of the three video systems.

With reporting by John C. LaRue, Jr.

PowerPoint Counterpoint: Use With Caution

About PowerPoint-based outlines for your sermon: That kind of stuff just comes off as unreal. Life is not fill-in-the-blank. God is not fill-in-the-blank. A more productive use of technology for sermons is to use a single projected image as a backdrop while you preach without ever making reference to it. For instance, if your text is on the birth of Jesus, use an image of a newborn with all the gunk and blood and stuff. That’s real.

Chad Hall, pastor and writer on postmodernism,www.next-wave.org

We wanted to draw attention to a special event, but with so many announcements and flyers in the bulletin, we thought the message might get lost. So we bought a rubber stamp and a stack of Post-Its. The stamp read: “Honey, have we signed up for the Couple’s Retreat yet?” It included a phone number. We stamped and stuck the notes inside the bulletins and newsletters. The retreat quickly filled to capacity.

You won’t get a thick Sunday bulletin at Saddleback Community Church anymore. The California megachurch has dropped its newsletter, overflowing with inserts, in favor of an e-mail version, the “Saddleback Slice.” Sunday worshipers receive only a sermon outline and basic info about the church. The “Slice” will be e-mailed on Thursdays and “we’ll save a ton of paper,” the staff says.

A few print copies will be available for worship attenders without e-mail access.