Meet with the music leader in advance of the rehearsal so you have a full understanding of the order and flow of the service. The Solution: Attend rehearsals and take good notes. Lagging changes are just as bad as putting slides up in the wrong sequence. This can trip-up your song leaders and your congregation. Never attempt to follow what they do on stage. The Problem: Improper and untimely slide changes are a major distraction to people trying to sing what you show.
The person running the slideshow has to be intimately familiar with the songs so that he or she can anticipate slide changes and lead the leaders and the congregation. For a smooth presentation, it is essential that the slides lead, not follow, the singers. #2 - MISLEADING LYRICS The Goal: If you project lyrics for your songs, you need to time the appearance of the text with the singing carefully. Save your creative variations for special music numbers. You'll find that the flow of the service is much smoother. Figure 2 Songs are often selected to tie into the message of the morning, so consistent backgrounds also make the entire service seem more connected. This will provide continuity for all of the graphics (Figure 2). When you do this, the congregation is drawn to look for the changing background instead of concentrating on the content of the slide.Figure 1 The Solution: Instead of using a mishmash of backgrounds, choose a single color and style for each week, month or sermon series. The first song's lyrics might be projected over a blue animated color wash, the second over a video of billowing clouds, the third on a red one and the sermon notes over a still background (Figure 1). Hopefully this little list will help you keep your media ministry on the straight and narrow.#1 - CRAZY COLORS The Goal: Treat each service as a continuous, coordinated presentation.The Problem: A lot of churches use different backgrounds or video clips behind the lyrics of each song. Fortunately, you can learn from these miserable mistakes and avoid making them yourself. Along the way, I've identified some common mistakes that are being made. I've visited a lot of modern multimedia churches and I've seen the good, the bad and, sadly, the ugly. Anything that distracts people from the focus of the church service is a major mistake. In a church setting, excellence has to be at heart of everything you do. Unfortunately, most people in ministry have never quot Simple Solutions to Church Media Mistakesby Chuck PetersChurches of all shapes and sizes are making media a major part if their ministries. Graphic Guidelines For Media Shout Scripters