Today, many churches are using projection systems to project announcements, songs, scripture and more. The most popular program used to organize all these elements is PowerPoint. PowerPoint can be your best friend, but you have to use it right.
Modern versions of PowerPoint offer many different options including photos and videos in addition to text and it can easily get overwhelming. In addition, churches need to be careful of copyright issues that may arise.
Here are some Dos and Don’ts churches should consider when preparing their PowerPoint presentations for worship.
- Keep it simple: Too many eye-catching animations and other options overwhelm the senses and slow the pace of your service.
- Keep your audience in mind: Remember the demographics of your congregation and adjust colors and graphics to maximize readability. Use font styles that are big, bold, and easily read from every angle. A rule of thumb is body text at least 18 pt. and titles at least 20 pt.
- Color should add not subtract: Generally place light color text on dark backgrounds and dark text on light backgrounds. The red – black combination is harsh on the eyes and difficult to read. Red – green combinations are nearly impossible for your color-blind folks. Yellow text is hard to read, no matter what the background may be.
- Think poetry: For readings, create line breaks at natural pauses. Song texts are poetry; present them with line breaks at held notes and stanzas on a different slides. Don’t crowd your slides.
- Watch out for copyright: Trouble alert! Churches are NOT covered under the non-profit exception to copyright law. When using graphics, pictures, or backgrounds from the Web, make sure they are in the public domain. Not all images that appear in a Google search are free to use. When projecting songs include the writer(s) of the lyrics and the music composer, copyright date, and source in 10-12 pt. font on each slide.