Advent Conspiracy

If you don't know the Advent Conspiracy is a program designed to help people to be a bit more generous at Christmas. The idea is that you give one less gift and take that money and give it to charity. They recommend that you give it to a charity that will help provide clean water in the third world, but they put no limits on it.

I think this is a great program. The video below is also a great use of media to make a point.

What do you think? How can the church be more true to the idea of Christmas?

I want to be where the people are . . .

My wife's favorite movie is the "Little Mermaid" so I know some of the songs in there. One of them is "I want to be where the people are." I thought of that when I was considering this post.

I really want this blog to be effective and powerful in changing the way that preachers preach. There is so much that I would like to do to help, but I can't help unless there are people. I'm thinking about ways to drive traffic to this site.

I was looking around at the top Google results for preaching and I found Preaching.com, Preaching Today.com, and Biblical Preaching.net. I'm thinking about submitting some stuff to them. Do you think it would be useful?

How else could I spread the word and make this site a better tool for more people?

Master your Toast

A while ago I mentioned a group called Toastmasters as a way to improve public speaking skills.

Wait, I'm talking to preachers, they already know how to speak in public. Right? Preachers know how to preach, but public speaking on a topic other than the bible with a time limit of 3 to 5 minutes is a different game. Being required to speak extemporaneously for 30 seconds to a minute with no warning is different.

As preachers we are called by God to speak the eternal truth of Scripture into the lives of people. But we are also professional speakers. Sometimes we need to strip away the bible stuff and just work on our craft of speaking.

I strongly recommend that you go to Toastmasters - it's a great way to hone your craft (and you can emphasize a new skill like telling stories or jokes), it's a great way to meet people, and it's a great way to get out into the community.

K.I.S.S.

An oldie but a goodie via Garr Reynolds:

"Worried you're not using the right words? Use simpler words. Worried that your sentence isn't clear? Make a simpler sentence. Worried that people won't see your point? Make your point simpler. Nearly every writing problem you have can be solved by making things simpler.

This should be obvious, but people don't like hearing it because there's the assumption that simple = stupid. But it's not true; indeed, I find from personal experience that the stupidest writers are the ones whose writing is positively baroque in form. All that compensating, you know. Besides, I'm not telling you to boil everything down to "see spot run" simplicity. I am telling you to make it so people can get what you're trying to say."

— John Scalzi

This could probably be rule #1 for using visuals in your presentation. Keep it simple. Don't over think. Don't over produce. Just make your point as clearly and simply as you can.

Don't insult your audience by condescending to them. But don't try to impress them either.

Tweet out the News

Ideo Labs points out that Twitter is a huge part of many presentations, but usually the presenter is left out of the loop.

Increasingly presentations to large audiences are happening in the context of a ‘backchannel’, where attendees are responding in real time to what is being said at the podium. That’s a pretty interesting development, but one that’s a bit off-balance: while the audience can converse with one another and respond to what they’re hearing in the room, the content of the presentation doesn’t make it into the stream unless someone (re)tweets it.

One solution is to build tweeting into your presentation software: KeynoteTweet. This only works for Keynote on the Mac right now, but it's a cool idea. You can use that notes section below your slide and drop in a tweet that will be sent out when the slide comes up in the presentation. That way you can be a part of the conversation even while you are presenting.

What do you think about using this in church? How do you stay connected with the Tweet-crowd?

Tell a Compelling Story

Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen posted about how to tell a compelling story with statistics. I recommend that you watch the TED video to which he refers - it's great.

I know that most sermons don't have a ton of statistics for you to get through, but if you're presenting for a mission trip or missionary, this could be huge. If you're showing budget numbers or the average income in your neighborhood, this could make a big difference. See, most people avoid statistics because it tends to be dry, but it doesn't have to be. Using statistics well can create a powerful call for change.

How do you tell a compelling story?

Blog Like Jazz

Aside from the blatant rip off of the title Blue Like Jazz this post doesn't really have anything to do with the book (it's a good book though, you should read it).

I'm actually thinking about my music theory teacher in college Ike Graul. He told our class that we were allowed to break the rules of music theory if we wanted to, but we had to know the rules and we had to have a good reason for breaking them.

Jazz musicians tend to be some of the best music theorists in the industry. They know all the rules, and then the proceed to break most of them - with a purpose.

In presenting, there are a bunch of rules, and it's good to know what they are. But sometimes you need to break the rules to make some really good music. Don't break the rules because you don't know them or because you just want to. But it's good to jazz it up a little from time to time.

Stupid Rupert

Seth Godin says:

Rupert Murdoch has it backwards

You don't charge the search engines to send people to articles on your site, you pay them.

If you can't make money from attention, you should do something else for a living. Charging money for attention gets you neither money nor attention.

How does this apply to preaching? It tells us that we need to look at the whole picture. Murdoch just sees news and money - it cost money to report the news, therefore people should pay money to get the news. Godin sees a bigger picture of the internet economy - money gravitates toward attention.

Look at the whole picture - don't just use images because you think you're supposed to. Think about the "economy" of your church - do you have a lot of artists, bankers, college kids, retired people? What will connect with them?

Be Careful Little Slides What you Show

Just like with everything else, it's important to check your slides before you project them (or show them on TV). You may not use everything that you learned in math class, but basic adding is kind of important.

Text Boxen

Over at Slides that Stick they posted about the difficulty of reading text over different backgrounds. This picture is very cool and compelling. The image tells a story and draws the viewer in.

The text looks like it was added by a 5 year old. The effect is ruined by the way the text seems to be superimposed on the image rather than part of the image.

It is important to get great images to communicate with your audience, but it is just as important for your text to fit. Avoid putting text over multiple backgrounds/colors - it's hard to read and distracting. Sometimes it can be nice to put a shaded box around the text to set it off from the rest of the image.

Google Image Swirl

Google just launched a new experimental feature called Image Swirl. It allows you to search for an image and then get a visual representation of the related images. This is pretty cool if you want to do a general search and get a specific picture. It's a lot easier than clicking through pages and pages of pictures to find the right one for your presentation.

I think this may find a regular spot in my image-search rotation. What tools do you find helpful for image searches?

Motion Background Overload

Easyworship is a popular piece of software for projecting the words of songs and sermon presentations. A lot of churches use it, and a lot of churches over use it. It has the ability to project moving backgrounds behind the text. This is one of those cool ideas that tends to be over used and distracting.

We were attending a church and one Sunday they had a different moving background behind just about every slide. I asked the computer guy after the service if they had gotten a new background pack. He said that they had. And they used every single one that Sunday.

Don't do this. Please. If you absolutely need to use a moving background, then only use one. I'm not a fan of using any moving background myself. But that's just my opinion.

The important principle here is to make sure that whatever you project will get your point across and not distract from it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! In spite of some problems that I see with a whole hearted acceptance of everything that is involved in Thanksgiving, I still think celebrating it is a great idea.

By the way, Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird. He thought that the bald eagle was a disgusting, stupid bird.

Thanksgiving

We talked about the place of Halloween in church, and it's my opinion that holidays should be recognized and celebrated in the church. Sometimes I think we approach Thanksgiving with the opposite perspective from Halloween. With Halloween the church often rejects the holiday completely. With Thanksgiving the church often wholly accepts the holiday.

What is some of the things that we celebrate on the third Thursday in November aren't in line with the teachings of Jesus? This wouldn't be a popular message to preach would it? Descrying the evils of gluttony might be offensive to people's tradition of gorging until they pass into a turkey coma. How would it go over if you spoke about being Christians first and US citizens second? Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrating the history of our nation after the pilgrims. But that history is filled with mistakes and evils as well as things for which we should be thankful.

How do you deal with unpopular topics?

DVD Knife

Lifehacker delivers a review of a little piece of software that could be incredibly useful for adding movie clips to your sermon. It's called DVD Knife and it allows you to stick in a DVD and pull out exactly the scene that you need.

If you've ever tried to work with inserting DVD clips into your sermon, you will know that this could be a huge time saver.

7 Pathways to God

John Ortberg's "God is Closer Than You Think, has a section in which he describes the 7 spiritual pathways in Christian history.

1. Intellectual Pathway - "... draw closer to God as they learn more about Him."
2. Relational Pathway - "... have a deep sense of God's presence when they're involved in significant relationships."
3. Serving Pathway - "... God's presence seems most tangible when they're involved in helping others."
4. Worship Pathway - "... have a natural gift for expression and celebration."
5. Activist Pathway - "You have a passion to act."
6. Contemplative Pathway - "God is most present to you when distractions and noises are removed."
7. Creation Pathway - "... have a passionate ability to connect with God when they are experiencing the world He made."

These pathways describe different preferences and connection points for us. None is better than any other one, but too often we emphasize just a couple to the exclusion of others. The intellectual and worshipful pathways are given prime position on Sunday morning, but the activist who cries out for social change is often ignored. We need to allow our people to explore all the different pathways. Have a time of quiet contemplation right there in church on Sunday morning. Spend time looking at art and discussing it. Go outside and experience creation first hand.

How can you help people explore the 7 spiritual pathways?

Reader Survey

I'm curious about who is reading this blog. Would you let me know what's going on in your life so that I can write a blog that will be more helpful to you?

Where are you working?

How often do you preach?

What (if any) presentation software do you use?

What questions do you have about preaching?

What books are you reading?

What websites do you follow?

What's your favorite song?

If you have some time to let me know what's going on with you I would really appreciate it.

Facebook

You need to get on Facebook. You are probably already on the most popular social networking site in the history of the internet, but if you aren't you need to change that. Facebook is where people are going to communicate and connect with new and old friends. Sure, that's nice.

But Facebook is where your sermon can gain the power to really connect to people where they are. It's way too easy to prepare a sermon while sitting in an office behind a desk with no connection to people. But sermons are all about people. One way that I found to connect the two is to pose questions on Facebook as they come up in my sermon prep.

Don't try to clean it up or explain the background or exegete the text. Just ask the kind of honest, gut wrenching questions that real people ask.

If God is good then why do bad things happen?

Do I have to be perfect?

Is it ok to kill people?

Why are kosher laws not in effect any more?

Ask these kinds of questions and then stand back. The results are great and the connection with real people is amazing. I found so much fodder for my sermons using this method, that I don't think I'll ever go back.

Black Screen

Sometimes the Black Screen of Death can spell doom for your re-booting computer. But if you don't have the flashy cursor and you are giving a PowerPoint presentation, the Black Screen can be your friend.

You don't have to have something on the screen all the time. I will say it again, you don't have to always project something. The power of your images comes when they integrate with your message to amplify the total content. If you leave up a picture after the point has passed you weaken the impact of the point you just made and the point that you will be making.

You can either insert a blank, black backgrounded slide, or if you have the computer within easy reach while you are presenting, you can press the 'B' key to send it to a black screen. Some fancy remotes even have a built in button for this purpose.

Don't neglect the power of not projecting anything.

Learning Styles

We are currently in training to become certified English teachers. We're working temp jobs during the week and going to class on the weekend, so I hope I can keep putting out good stuff on this blog.

One thing that struck me is in our class discussion of learning styles. There are a lot of theories and many discussions about learning style, but one thing most people agree on is that people absorb information differently. One theory that I've seen the most is the visual, auditory and tactile learning styles.

If we are only preaching using the spoken word, we are doing a huge disservice to all of the members of the congregation who connect through the visual medium. It's almost like we are refusing to speak their language. It's important to bring the visual element in so that we are honoring the way that God has made people to understand their world.

Then I thought about the tactile (or kinesthetic) learning style. Where does our preaching give people a chance to touch, to taste, to smell, to move? We need to be aware of the fact that there are people in our church that just don't get it from sitting still and being quiet while someone talks to them. They need to be doing things, experiencing things.

Maybe we could bring in some clay for a sermon on the potter and the clay. Or how about hiding bread makers in the room set to start baking at the beginning of the service so that at the sermon on the bread of life, the smell of fresh baked bread is wafting through the crowd. What ways can you think of to engage people in the way they learn?

Windows 7: continuing review

One cool new feature in Windows 7 that I think will be especially helpful for everyone and their Mom is the new file dialogue system. At first blush it looks like what you've used forever, but up in the right corner it has that nifty little "search documents" field. It instantly searches the titles and the content of your documents.

I'll say that again, in case you missed it. It instantly (as in right now, no waiting, or clicking, as you type) searches the titles and the content (if you can't remember what you called it, but you can only remember what you said) of your documents. This is huge. This is amazing. I love it!

If you're like me, you have files all over the place and sometimes it can be difficult to remember where it is. No worries anymore. I know that Mac has had their searchlight going for a while and the search feature from the Windows start menu is just as cool, but having that search feature there when you click "Open Document" is a perfect little touch that makes using Windows 7 a joy.

Collaboration

Collaboration is such a huge value to most people. Having the chance to work together to make a meaningful contribution excites passions and connection. Too bad the sermon is often devoid of collaboration. Very often the sermon is a time where one person is speaking their own thoughts (or reflecting on the thoughts of authors) about the bible. Where is the collaboration?

I will admit that it is very difficult to prepare a sermon collaboratively. It takes a lot of work to get to a place where the sermon can invite other voices. I learned a lot from Ron Clark at the Agape Church of Christ about how to preach so that others are involved. There we would look at a piece of art and discuss it as a church. We would have questions in the middle of the sermon and spend time discussing how the text could apply to our lives.

I know you may be skeptical about how this could work in a large church. I will admit that with 1,000 people the atmosphere is going to be different than with 50, but you can still pose questions. A lot of churches have their greeting time (which is usually pretty lame and boring where visitors feel even more alienated because the members are just firming up lunch plans). What if the greeting time was a time to discuss a work of art shown on the screen? People could walk around and talk with a purpose and it would get them thinking about the sermon.

What could you do to collaborate on the sermon?

Kuler for color themes

Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen kicked out a cool review of a web tool called Kuler which you can use to create a color theme for your presentation. If you have a photo at the core of your presentation, you can extract colors from it to create a palate for the other elements in your slide. As you can see in the picture, it makes for a nice effect.

I can think of a few times when I had to fiddle with the colors of a slideshow and this would have been nice. I think this would be more useful if you are doing a series that has one, central image, or if you have some branded artwork that you want to integrate into your presentations.

PowerPoint on Purpose

Over at Biblical Preaching.net Peter Mead has some good things to say about using PowerPoint on Purpose.

For some people, whether or not to use powerpoint is not even a question. It is assumed. I don’t assume I should use it. My default is no powerpoint, then if I use it, I use it on purpose. . . I don’t think it is worth using in order to show your outline (that’s for you, not them), or to show your preaching text (they need the practice reading their own Bibles). I don’t think it’s worth using if it means sacrificing preparation time for formatting time. I certainly don’t think it’s worth using just because you have a projector and a laptop. I don’t think we should use it just because it is used in the business world (please note many in the business world are lousy speakers, and many of the good ones left compulsive powerpoint use behind years ago!) I’d rather have listeners engaged with me and with the Bible in their laps than with a screen.

Haddon Robinson has said that, “A picture is not worth a thousand words (the people who make pictures came out with that!) Some words will never be captured in a picture.”

Yes! I agree. I tend to prefer using PowerPoint more often than not, but all of Peter's points are good and well thought out. Don't just throw something together just because it's expected. Let the content and Scripture drive the visuals, not the other way around. You will dramatically improve the quality of your PowerPoint if you use less quantity and more quality.

TED will rock your world

The TED presentations are phenomenal. If you haven't seen one yet, you are missing out. Below you will see a conductor explaining how the art of conducting applies to leadership. A good conductor can lead without telling everyone what to do at every moment - often the leadership is better when there is less control exerted. A conductor invites the musicians to share their own story and together to make a better story.

Maybe in your presentations you don't need to spell everything out. Maybe your sermon doesn't have to tell people what to think, but rather invite them to explore on their own. Encourage the church to engage the story of Scripture and together you can have a better story.

Dunbar's Number

Seth Godin is good. He recently blogged about the Dunbar number which is 150. You can maintain 150 relationships. Except I have 500+ friends on Facebook. How do you reconcile that?

Seth argues that you can't really be friends with all those people, not matter how hard you try. I think he's on to something, my Facebook friends aren't super close, and my closest friends aren't really participating on Facebook.

However, I do think that my number of acquaintances has skyrocketed with the advent of Facebook. I never would have reconnected with some high school friends if they weren't online. There is power in that participation.

I think churches need to connect on Facebook. It may not lead to deep and meaningful relationships, but it is an access point for people to get connected. You can set up a church group on Facebook and encourage people to become fans.

What does this have to do with presentations? Well, your presentations are better if you are presenting to friends - if they can connect and interact with you on Facebook, that will give more power to your sermon on Sunday.

How do you connect with people?

Dilbert

The PowerPoint Ninja has shared some Dilbert comics that refer to the software in question. Two things: 1) this is funny stuff with which most people can identify; 2) this is a barrier that you have to overcome with your congregants that have to suffer through this type of work environment. Many times people are bludgeoned by PowerPoint and don't want to experience the same thing at church.

Simlar Search in Google Images

Google has added a new feature to their image search that allows you to find similar images. So if you see something you like, you can click on the link below the image to find more like that. Very cool. This is a good way to find images that will work well for you.

Cool images that communicate

From Slides that Stick comes this image where a pie chart has the data represented with images instead of colors. This is an eye-catching and thought-provoking way to represent the data.

What if in the next budget meeting, there was a pie chart that had pictures of benevolence, missionaries, church buildings, and salaried staff? Would that affect how you budget? Would that help people to realize where their money is going?

How else can we creatively visualize things so as to make a point?

Learn from the Pros

Two of the biggest names in presentations are Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds and they got together to answer some of the most common questions about presentations. Below is the first of three parts to this video. While what they say is not all directly applicable to the art of preaching, they do have a lot to teach us. I especially like the presentation matrix that Nancy shows. Where do your sermons fall on this matrix? What effect should that have on your work?

Windows 7 - first thoughts

I've been using Windows 7 for about a week now. I plunked down some green for the upgrade from Vista. Overall, I'm happy with the upgrade. 7 does some cool things that make me happier to use my computer. There are a few bugs and quirks that I am figuring out (like hibernation killing my fingerprint reader), but general operation is just as smooth as before, if not more so.

Some people have claimed performance increases over Vista. I haven't seen anything overtly noticeable on my machine in just normal use. I did do an in-place upgrade so I wouldn't have to reinstall all my software. Any OS will be faster after a clean install, so take that with the requisite portion of NaCl.

As for presentation stuff, I think Win7 might just have a few killer apps that will make you happy to get a new laptop with it installed. Pressing the Windows Key and 'P' will trigger an easy to understand selection of the display options (computer only, duplicate the display, extend the display, projector only). No more hunting and dinking and pressing Fn+f8 repeatedly while the audience is waiting for you to get started.

I also love, LOVE, the new taskbar. If the Mac and PC characters from the commercials had a baby. The cute kid would be the Win7 taskbar. It does the dock stuff that has been so cool on OSX, but it adds a Windows productivity twist. Jump-lists. If you right click on a program on the taskbar you will see a list of files recently opened by that program (just PowerPoint or Word, not all your recent documents). And you can pin certain files to the list, so say you are working on a PowerPoint presentation and you get to where you are going to present - just access the jumplist and find your file (or pin it there the night before the presentation to make it even easier). One step gets your presentation open and ready! So cool.

Am I gushing? I might be. I'll have more thoughts as I play with things, but my first impressions are favorable. I would say that if you bought your computer in the last year or so and don't plan to upgrade for a while, the Win7 upgrade might be a good move. If you are looking at getting a new machine in the next year or so, just wait and get Win7 preinstalled.

Flame ON!

On the good ol' interwebs there's a thing called a "flame war". In discussion forums and on blog comments some people think it's fun to start a fight. They pick out some characteristic or something and attack. Relentlessly. It can be a frustrating experience to be on the receiving end of a flame attack. There's no reasoning with a troll (one who starts a flame war). They just enjoy getting a rise out of people and keeping the argument going.

This can happen in church too. Have you ever heard: "Some people have told me they don't like the use of PowerPoint"? The 'some people' tactic is usually just a way to make the critique anonymous. The criticizer is basically a troll. They are inciting an argument, complaining for the sake of complaining.

Sometimes, you just need to disengage. Ignore. You can never win a flame war. Ever. Some people just argue and complain. Sometimes you just need to ignore and move on. You can't keep everyone happy. Don't try.

Halloween and other hollidays

There are a lot of different opinions about how Christians should interact with holidays. Halloween is one of the most contentious. Should we avoid dealing with evil things? Should we ignore? Should we descry? Should we embrace?

On the one hand, if we completely ignore what is going on in the world we risk becoming irrelevant. But if we completely embrace what the world is doing, we become just as irrelevant.

One thing I like is to interact with the holidays - how has Halloween shaped our culture? How has the church shaped Halloween? Within the conversation is our relevance. Our world is tired of authoritarian commands to think or feel a certain way. They are hungry for a chance to explore and discover for themselves how to think and feel.

Let's provide that opportunity.

Windows 7: should you or shouldn't you?

The new version of Windows came out last week. Windows 7 has received some of the best reviews of any Windows product . . . ever. Wired gives it 8 out of 10 filled in circle thingeys.

Microsoft's loyal customers are finally getting the operating system they deserve with Windows 7, and it was well worth the wait.

First, to provide full disclosure (as critics have requested in our previous Windows 7 write-ups) yes, I am indeed a Mac user. But until heading to college, I grew up on a steady diet of Windows. (I made the switch after a system crash that resulted in the loss of an enormous school project.) With that said, Windows 7 thoroughly wowed me, dissolving the grudge I've held against Microsoft for many years.

The latest OS from Microsoft delivers a truly next-generation interface that will transform the way we use our computers, while addressing a number of nagging issues that have turned off Windows users in the past. The Windows team deserves a round of applause.

I'm updating soon. I'll give you my thoughts once I've had some time behind the wheel. However, if the critics are to be believed, this is one upgrade you should make.

More Wisdom from Seth

Seth Godin again shares some thoughts that are valuable for church leaders:

"Notice me"

If the new web has a mantra, that's it.

So much time and effort is now put into finding followers, accumulating comments and generating controversy... all so that people will notice you. People say and do things that don't benefit them, just because they're hooked on attention.

Attention is fine, as long as you have a goal that is reached in exchange for all this effort.

Far better than being noticed:

* Trusted
* Engaged with
* Purchased from
* Discussed
* Echoed
* Teaching us
* Leading

Sometimes our churches act like this. We preach, teach, worship, and serve just so people will notice us. What if, instead, churches become leaders in the community? What if churches facilitate discussion in the community?

Flashy, well produced images can get you noticed, but sometimes a simple picture of a family that is being helped can have greater impact.

Performance Affects Perception

I recently saw this article over on Wired and it is just fascinating to me.

In a study of 23 non-football athletes who each kicked 10 field goals, researchers found that players’ performance directly affected their perception of the size of the goal: After a series of missed kicks, athletes perceived the post to be taller and more narrow than before, while successful kicks made the post appear larger-than-life.

The article goes on to explain that after each kick the participants were asked to use a model to represent their view of the goal post.

Interestingly, the change in players’ perception didn’t just depend on how many goals they missed — it also mattered how they missed their goals. Folks who failed because they didn’t kick high enough perceived the crossbar to be taller, while those who kicked to the side viewed it as more narrow.

Things really do look different to us based on how we interact with them.

So what does this have to do with preaching? As we represent visuals we need to be aware that past experience affects the way people will perceive visual input. If you are wanting your church to reach out to the homeless, it will be difficult for them to overcome their past experience (mental disorders, rude, frightening) until they have a new experience. Take video of a homeless person in your town and interview them about their life. Share that with the church to begin to change their perceptions and start to change their actions.

How to Engage Culture

My friend Mark recently blogged about how Christians should engage culture. He brings up some great thoughts:

I've never minded addressing matters about which Scripture is clear, such as dishonesty, greed, sexuality, etc., but I've never felt I had a vantage point from which to comprehensively stand in judgment on all of culture. Quite often, I've known intelligent, sincere Christians who have stood on either side of some issues. If we are going to be divisive, it has to be about matters of good versus evil, which simply cannot be glossed over and replaced with Republican versus Democrat, or vice versa.

The conversation turned to how Jesus addressed culture in his teaching and preaching. I think that Jesus was bold in addressing the cultural issues of his day, but he never aligned himself with any political or religious party. Jesus spoke in parables that would sneak behind peoples' prejudices and open their eyes to a different kind of culture. I think it was Michelangelo who said the best critique is to create something beautiful. Jesus critiqued culture by creating a better, beautiful culture.

How do your sermons create beauty as a critique of culture?

What is the Gospel?

My friend Mike recently blogged about what constitutes the gospel. I like what he has to say:

What to you is the Gospel and where in scripture does this come from?
How much of the Gospel do you hear each week?
Does your minister/radio host/preacher always come back to Jesus even if he is preaching from Song of Solomon or Numbers?
Do you agree that each message should point back to Jesus every week?

I was really excited the way Ike Graul preached the Gospel this past Sunday as our youth group visited PUMP church of Christ. He pointed back to the sacrifice of Jesus and tied it to the Lord's supper. It was a very good way to wrap the entirety of our service to the Gospel of Jesus.

Good thoughts.

How do you preach the Gospel? How do you use images to represent the Gospel?

I like to use everyday things as examples to show how the gospel can be embodied in our lives. I preached a sermon this summer about obedience and I used a picture of a toilet seat. My point was that married men obey their wives and put the toilet seat down because they love their wives. Our obedience to God is also because we love him. That one image is what everyone remembered from the sermon. Go figure.

Cable News is Ruining our World

Seth Godin is a student of culture and often offers insight about things from an entrepreneurial perspective that have great application to church work. Recently he discussed Cable News:

Cable news thinking has nothing to do with fires or with politics. Instead, it amplifies the worst elements of emotional reaction:

1. Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
2. Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
3. Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
4. Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
5. Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
6. Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
7. Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
8. Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
9. Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
10. Confusing opinion with the truth.
11. Revising facts to fit a point of view.
12. Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.

If I wanted to hobble an organization or even a country, I'd wish these twelve traits on them. I wonder if this sounds like the last board meeting you went to...

Worse, does this sound like a recent sermon? Friends, our job is not to persuade people to think like we think, or to entice people to fill the seats on Sunday morning. Our job is to speak as one who is speaking the very words of God (1 Pet. 4:11-12).

Be an Artist who is a Christian, not a Christian Artist

Over at Media Salt they discussed Christian Media a while ago.

When you hear a piece of media described as “Christian,” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, if I’m honest, it’s that it is probably a piece of crap. It’s watered down music that is a poor imitation of pop culture, with different lyrics. It’s a poorly written novel that’s “more acceptable” to read because it’s been sanitized of harsh language/circumstances and deals exclusively with faith. It’s a straight-to-video movie with a cheesy plot and even worse acting. Most of all, I think it couldn’t be further from what God expects us to do with all of our creativity.

Yup. I agree.

But it hasn't always been so. Once, Christian artists were at the forefront of the artistic world: Da Vincci, Michelangelo, Handel, etc.

I say we let people be artists and encourage them to express their faith (and doubt and fear and shame and anger) through their art. It doesn't need to be all sanitized, happy, touch-feely crap.

For preachers: learn to be a good public speaker. Trust me, your preaching skills don't necessarily translate. Join Toastmasters and see what it's like to get your point across in 3 to 5 minutes. I dare you.

G.I. Joe!

Sometimes the picture says it all. What images can you use that need no words to explain? How can your sermons become more powerful without you speaking? Weird thought, I know, but sometimes it is better to let people work through things on their own and to let the pictures stimulate the thoughts.

Ignite

So Ignite is a series of presentations that can be no longer than 5 minutes and use 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds. It is a geek culture phenomenon that has reinvigorated presentations.

What we can learn from this is that brevity is highly valued in the geek/youth culture. Get to the point. Images are powerful vessels of meaning. Use them well. Timing is everything, as in comedy, so it is in presentations. Practice.

Check out one of the presentations below.

PowerPoint tips and tricks #5

Jan Schultink over at Slides that Stick highlights how to stretch an image to fill a slide. There is nothing worse than have your image skewed or having awkward spaces around the sides.

Here is how to do it:

1. Right-click the image, select format picture and click "reset picture" to restore the original aspect ratio (between height and width)
2. Re-size by dragging a corner until both the height or the width are at least equal to the full screen
3. Reposition the image and crop the bits of the image that are sticking outside the canvas
4. Select the image, press format and compress pictures to reduce the file size of your presentation

Check out his post for some good example photos and more sticky, slidey goodness.

Mustached Americans

Apparently Mustached Americans earn 8.2% more than their non-Mustached counterparts, but they also tend to save less of that money (11% compared to 14%).

About AMI

The American Mustache Institute, the bravest organization in the history of mankind behind only the U.S. Military and the post-Jim Henson Muppets, is the world’s only facial hair advocacy and research organization, with more than 700 global chapters. AMI battles negative stereotypes and discrimination against Mustached Americans. Based in St. Louis due to the presence of the world’s largest mustache – the Gateway Arch – the organization is committed to recapturing the mustache’s glory years of the 1970s, when there existed a climate of acceptance, understanding, and flavor saving for people of Mustached American descent.

Why do I share that with you? Because it's funny! Sometimes humor can make a point more powerfully than any other emotion. I wonder if Jesus was chuckling when he talked about the camel going through the eye of a needle. One thing, though. Humor has to be contextual. Don't just tell a joke to tell a joke and then move in a completely unrelated direction. Rather, make sure your humor relates to your topic. In this case, if you were preaching about equality or financial stewardship, this could be a good humorous example.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I recently read Don Miller's new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I like it. A lot.

He writes about story and how his learning about story has helped him to change the way he lives real life in order to make it a more compelling story. I dig it. I think that story has a lot to teach us about life. Stop and think about why almost every story has the same basic elements. And it never gets old. There is something about story that speaks to a deep part of us. Story stirs a deep longing within us.

Sermons can be stories. Jesus was a master at using story to captivate and educate people. In order to be a good story there has to be a plot and conflict and resolution. I won't belabor the idea of preaching in stories, that's been done before. Rather, think about how images can powerfully evoke a sense of conflict or resolution. Images can guide people into and through the story of the sermon.

Know your Memes

So if you watched The Office recently, you saw Dwight rock a sweet t-shirt with three wolves howling at the moon. But, did you know that it is an internet meme found on Amazon.com reviews?

Later on, during the wedding people start dancing down the isle which is a direct take off of a Youtube video of an actual wedding.

The whole show was filled with memes, and that kind of referential humor is a huge component in the communication of younger people.




Some churches are using the memes to their advantage:



How are you going to address this?

Your Church is Wheelchair Accessable - is your PowerPoint?

Ok, maybe you don't need a ramp up to your slides, but you do need to think about people with disabilities when you present. What about those who are hard of hearing? Make sure that if you are using a video clip or playing music that at least the key words are clearly communicated (subtitles maybe). What about the blind in the congregation? Make sure that you mention the image on the slide so that they aren't left out. This is also a good thing to do for podcasting, so people can get the point without having to see the slides.

You must consider copyright

Lifehacker posted about how to understand copyright law. That got me to thinking about this oft neglected topic. I have rarely heard discussion about the copyright of sermons or the use of copyrighted images in PowerPoints. Guess what, you have to think about it. As a preacher you need to have the highest standards for your work. Don't plagiarize - give credit where necessary. Don't steal people's images. If they are a commercial image - seek permission.

Now, I will admit to grabbing pictures from Google Images from time to time. The line isn't always clear. I usually think about how I might be impacting the livelihood of the photographer. If there is no way that they would make money, I use the image, if I'm taking money out of their pocket, I will pay or find a different images.

Also, don't steal a sermon from someone else. If you were inspired, that's fine, but give credit. Mention the book or sermon that prompted your thoughts. There's no shame in being inspired by other works, but there's a bunch of shame in stealing from other people.

Glance Test

Nancy Duarte nailed it. She blogged about the "glance test" which says that a slide must be comprehended within 3 seconds. The principle is that we cannot both listen to a speaker and comprehend a slide, therefore the comprehension must fit within the spaces in speaking - no more than 3 seconds.

Do your slides past the glance test?

Semiotics: how words create meaning

Semiotics describes the study and use of signs (words usually) and how they bring meaning. An image alone caries meaning, but pairing an image with text can amplify meaning, or change the meaning.

For example:



vs.



Totally different meaning by just changing the words

Brain Rules: What's Wrong With the World - Edition

Here is a great interview with John Medina of Brain Rules. He talks about some shortcomings in the current generation as far as the cognitive neuroscience is concerned. This is part 1 - in later parts he will discuss things that are encouraging him.

Check it out!

Demitri Martin

Visuals need not be complex in order to be effective. Demitri Martin is a funny guy who does a great job using his visuals, even though they aren't fancy-schmancy. Enjoy.


Demetri Martin: Material Enhancers (Standup Comedy) - The funniest home videos are here

Toward a Theology of PowerPoint #7

Way early on in the history of the church the Christian apologists came into contact with Neo-Platonic philosophy. In some places they showed how Christianity is at odds with this philosophy, but at other places the early Christians attempted to show how Christianity was compatible.

At some places this has been a bad thing. The Neo-Platonic thinkers said that the ultimate God was unchangeable, and impassable. The Christians agreed, and absorbed that theology which said that God could not feel emotion nor change his mind. I can't see how the jealous, passionate, weeping, God of the bible could be without emotion. I can't see how the God who argues with Moses and Job and Abraham could be unchangeable.

When we present God as one who doesn't emote, it seems like he doesn't care. If God doesn't care, then how is it good news to be a part of his family? In creating presentations, it is important to show that God cares. Use images to evoke emotion and to show that emotion connects us to God, who feels.