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Powering ahead

Lots of churches now use PowerPoint, but, says John Allan, we could all do better...

When you preach in lots of churches, as I have for years, you become aware of just how much PowerPoint has changed everything. It doesn’t seem five minutes (maybe that’s just my age) since overhead projection was the latest big thing; yet now dusty OHPs lie neglected in cupboards while even the smallest congregations gather round their new digital projectors, and PowerPoint adorns every sermon...

However, going to a lot of churches reveals another fact: most of us aren’t using it very well! How can you make your PowerPoints stand out from the crowd?

Here are three possible answers. First: use something else! There are different kinds of free presentation software available, each of which does things slightly different from PowerPoint, allowing new effects and extra transitions. Online, you can use Google Presentations (http://docs.google.com) – you don’t even have to download software to your computer – or OpenOffice Impress, which you can carry round on a flash drive and use rapidly in any computer anywhere, without needing to install it.

Second, you can use some of the cutting edge PowerPoint stuff which few have spotted yet. Microsoft Labs have just released Pptplex (www.officelabs.com/projects/pptPlex/Pages/default.aspx), a free add-on which enables you to show slides as if they’re part of one rolling canvas, and to zoom in and out of individual slides at will. You’ll need Office 2007 for this to work, but if you’ve got that, Pptplex can be very effective indeed.

Third, you can stay up to date with PowerPoint tips, tricks and freebies. Indezine (www.indezine.com) is the world’s leading survey of everything PowerPointrelated, an email magazine you can receive free of charge from energetic Indian expert Geetesh Bajaj – and although it’s primarily business-related, you’ll be amazed at how much free stuff useful to churches you can pick up.

You want your church to be different and special, don’t you? So why not think hard about the place where your people’s eyes are going to be focused most of the time?