The Dead Sea Scrolls Online

It's time to brush up on your Hebrew (and Aramaic), the collection of writings known as the Dead Sea Scrolls are now available online for all to peruse. Thanks to Google and the Israel Museum, these ancient texts are searchable and viewable from anywhere in the world. 

My one year of Hebrew education doesn't enable me to translate the text. It uses a different script style and lacks the vowel pointings that make reading Hebrew possible for me (and most non-native speakers). However, this treasure is available to anyone who has the time and ability to work through the text. 

This is similar to the digital copy of Codex Sinaiticus, but pre-dates that text by as much as 800 years. The digital revolution is not leaving behind the heritage of a script-based world, but rather making them more accessible.

Is Preaching Effective?

If you follow this blog, you've noticed that I have been looking a lot at brain science. I'm fascinated by the way the brain works. Recently there has emerged a new field known as neuro-marketing. Researchers use different brain scanning techniques to determine how people respond to different products. Martin Lindstrom wrote a book called Buyology about the topic.

One of the things that researchers are finding is that the results of traditional marketing can vary greatly from what our brains are actually telling us. We may say that we like something in a focus group, but our opinion is formed by group dynamic as much as by whether we like cheesy poofs dipped in chocolate.

So, how do we know if preaching is effective? We could have focus groups where people report on their opinion. We could send out surveys asking questions to determine the state of things. But what if we started using current science to see what's happening in people's brains?

The Perils of PowerPoint

I recently came across this article [PDF] detailing some research done on the effectiveness of PowerPoint in preaching. Naturally I was interested.

The listeners’ responses reveal that PowerPoint preaching
does not make a difference—the most transformative
sermons don’t include projected visuals, and PowerPoint
presentations are even viewed as a distraction by a majority
of commenting listeners.

Ooops, I guess it's time to give up . . . but wait, there's more!

The author boils the problem down to distractions:
1. Distracting Delivery
2. Distracting Content
3. Distracting Organization

Delivery that gets in the way of communication, gets in the way of transformation. If there are tech flubs that will hurt your sermon. If you use the presentation as a crutch, a handout, or a teleprompter, that puts distance between you and the audience.

Content that leans to far toward bullet points, and lots of text on the screen really gets in the way of communication. Tone it down. Let your words carry the content and let the screen convey emotions. You can't compete with the screen, so you have to make it your ally.

Organization of thoughts makes sermons easier to follow and understand. Unfortunately, PowerPoint doesn't do a good job of facilitating that. Make sure that you have communicated with your teammates and you are projecting slides that connect with what you're saying at that moment.

Give the article a full read for all the juicy details.