Forget Powerpoint?
February 8, 2011Alan Kurschner tells us why Powerpoint is not prophetic:
In summary, I simply do not find sermons supplemented with Powerpoint conducive to the qualities of soul-grabbing, prophetic, anguishing preaching. So pastors, just focus on edifying the flock’s souls at that moment and allow your well-prepared sermons to speak for themselves.
I agree that unfortunately numerous powerpoint slides can be used as a replacement for a well crafted sermon structure and poor delivery. But I do think there is a place for it in maintaining contact with / interest of the congregation. I tend to use only one slide to give hearers an overview of where we are going and support the central point of the message. I don’t believe passionate prophetic messages and powerpoint are mutually exclusive, I think of slides just like seasoning – a little can go a long way!
Thanks Colin,
Martyn
Preachers shouldn’t be bound by man-made rules, either for or against Powerpoint etc. It can indeed inhibit the preacher in (say) a sermon on repentance; on the other hand if your task is to (say) introduce one of the OT historical books to people who have no grasp of the flow of the OT, it can be extremely useful.
Bad powerpoint is er… pointless, and not powerful! Judicious use of it as one tool in the preachers armoury can be helpful. Preaching must be more than conveying information; but it cannot be less than that – and PP can at times assist with this.
The real danger of PowerPoint is NOT that it inherently inhibits passionate, soul-winning preaching, but rather the time it takes to produce good presentations. Preachers can be sidetracked into the production of artistic slides, at the expense of prayer, study and time with people. This is the real PP trap.. imho