Yesterday, my church used EasyWorship instead of PowerPoint for the first time. Since I haven’t had a chance to train the computer operators on EasyWorship yet, I ran it for both services. I, very intentionally, did 2 things:
1. I continued using still backgrounds. Stills are great for contrast and can really add to our worship experiences when used creatively.
2. I used very subtle motion backgrounds, so our congregation wouldn’t even really notice the switch. Motion backgrounds or loops are wonderful, but need to be used creatively and cautiously, as over-stimulation can be a real factor in many modern worship services. If you throw too much at your people, especially too soon, it will be a distraction and will fight against your mission to “disappear”.
Functionality-wise it worked great. I use EasyWorship at several events and so am pretty familiar/comfortable with the software. Flexibility-wise it is an awesome tool for the Church. Once you go from PowerPoint to a presentation software that was designed for worship (like EasyWorship or MediaShout), you never want to go back to PPT.
Practical Thoughts:
- If your church is like mine, it really doesn’t matter what presentation software you go with, 9 times out of 10, the pastor gives you his slides in PowerPoint. Thankfully, EasyWorship integrates PowerPoint well and can allow you to run through the message slides just as if you were using PowerPoint.
- Keying works great. We keyed several things during the service – from lyrics over IMAG for special music to the names of our pastor or staff members that come up on the screen when they walk on the platform to make an announcement or pray. We had premade a slide template that is all black and has small text on the lower third of the slide.
All in all, it was a great day and “the big switch” was seamless and successful.
