Visual Aids in Churches or Sunday Schools

[LamorakDesGalis]

I'm interested in what visual aids and/or multimedia is used in your Church or Sunday School - or a church you have visited. And your opinions of such things. For example, in an evangelical church I recently visited, the words to the songs were projected on a screen and hymnals were not used. Also the pastor used a powerpoint presentation to supplement his sermon. In the Sunday School, a dry erase board was used for prayer requests and also for some of the lesson.

A friend of mine teaching Sunday school still uses transparencies on an overhead projector, but he is the only one I know. It seems some 10+ years ago overhead projectors were common, and now they have declined in popularity. Many - including myself - now use powerpoint presentations for teaching, especially adults. My wife still teaches children's Sunday school the same way that she has been teaching for years, without multimedia - even without a flannel board.


LDG

 

[plmarquette]

one should use what is available, what works to compete with what is out there
video....
multimedia.....
projectors....
christian movies.....
christian teaching tools....
avoid only chalk and talk....dry, dull, boring, ineffective...

 

[LiturgyInDMinor]

Multimedia projectors instead of hymnals is evil.
For the love of our LORD stop it!

















j/k

 

[Strong in Him]

I'm interested in what visual aids and/or multimedia is used in your Church or Sunday School - or a church you have visited. And your opinions of such things. For example, in an evangelical church I recently visited, the words to the songs were projected on a screen and hymnals were not used. Also the pastor used a powerpoint presentation to supplement his sermon. In the Sunday School, a dry erase board was used for prayer requests and also for some of the lesson.

A friend of mine teaching Sunday school still uses transparencies on an overhead projector, but he is the only one I know. It seems some 10+ years ago overhead projectors were common, and now they have declined in popularity. Many - including myself - now use powerpoint presentations for teaching, especially adults. My wife still teaches children's Sunday school the same way that she has been teaching for years, without multimedia - even without a flannel board.

At our church, all the hymns, the Bible reading(s) and any responses for the prayers are projected onto the screen. It means people are always singing with their heads up instead of bowed over a book. People also put photos on the screen for meditation/reflection, and/or any diagrams that illustrate a point. Powerpoint has been used and short clips from DVDs.

I have never used powerpoint. Any visual aids I use are very visual and hands on - objects, puppets, Gospel illusions, writing prayers on post-it notes etc.

 

[LiturgyInDMinor]

At our church, all the hymns, the Bible reading(s) and any responses for the prayers are projected onto the screen. It means people are always singing with their heads up instead of bowed over a book.

Is this bad?

 

[Strong in Him]

Is this bad?

Of course not, but it muffles the singing. And no one's preventing you from using a book or a large print words folder if you want to.

There's a noticeable increase in volume when 100 Methodists are belting out "And Can it be?" with their heads up.

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

one should use what is available, what works to compete with what is out there
video....
multimedia.....
projectors....
christian movies.....
christian teaching tools....
avoid only chalk and talk....dry, dull, boring, ineffective...

Your list of mediums are nearly automatic for getting people's attention quickly, while chalk and talk techniques can be at a disadvantage - especially for younger learners. However multimedia is complicated and sometimes fails, a power cord has gone missing, etc. So when it does fail, one must be prepared to teach using alternative methods. Sometimes the chalk board - or dry erase board - is all that is available.


LDG

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

Multimedia projectors instead of hymnals is evil.
For the love of our LORD stop it!

LOL! When projectors fail then they certainly ARE evil!

I know that hymnal sales have been declining for quite some time. So it would be interesting to take a survey and see how many folks - or churches - still use hymnals.

LDG

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

At our church, all the hymns, the Bible reading(s) and any responses for the prayers are projected onto the screen. It means people are always singing with their heads up instead of bowed over a book. People also put photos on the screen for meditation/reflection, and/or any diagrams that illustrate a point. Powerpoint has been used and short clips from DVDs.

That's pretty much the way it is at my church as well.

I have never used powerpoint. Any visual aids I use are very visual and hands on - objects, puppets, Gospel illusions, writing prayers on post-it notes etc.

Those techniques are simple, but VERY effective. I'm sure your students appreciate them!


LDG

 

[boswd]

Multimedia projectors instead of hymnals is evil.
For the love of our LORD stop it!


I agree evil, I tell ya EVIL. j/k as well


















j/k

I agree, evil I tell ya, EVIL. j/k as well.

But not a big fan of the whole visual aid karaoke type services. The more Liturgical the better.

 

[Dorothea]

Well, icons all over the nave of the church and in the narthex are a great learning tool of following Christ's life and the lives of the Saints who've gone before us. In Church school (Sunday School), our church is very small, so we have the Lord's Prayer poster on a bulletin board in the room and an icon of Christ. We have Bible crafts books and such, and there are some Orthodox movies on the Saints and Christ, but that is for older children, like junior high and up.

 

[Sphinx777]

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[boswd]

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That's what I'm talkin 'bout. Ahhh every now and then I like to go this Greek Orthodox Church for a service. And sometimes during lunch I will head over to the Church of Holy Cross (home base of the RCC Dicoese of MA. and the largest Cathedral in New England) and also over to the Advent (a very high Anglo Catholic Episcopalian Church) as well.

They are quite moving. Just great settings for worship.

 

[Tangible]

Liturgy should learned by heart! Hymns too! and ALL the verses.



Actually, my son will be learning the words to several theology-rich hymns by memory during his catechism classes at our LCMS church.

You should see how many verses some of the old Lutheran hymns have, especially the ones meant to be sung while everyone takes their turn at the communion rail. It can take quite a while to commune a few hundred people and they need a lot of verses to fill in the time.

I've heard it said that in the old days Lutherans were expected to have their own personal hymnals to be used at home for daily devotions and to bring to church on Sunday like Baptists bring their bibles. The Lutheran hymnals include not only hymns and liturgy but daily prayer forms, the Psalms, canticles, prayers for different occasions, and other devotional materials. I imagine the Book of Common Prayer is similar.

Singing from hymnals doesn't have to be muffled. If you hold your hymnal up high in front of you, you don't wind up singing into your belly-button.

 

[Albion]

In my church, the pastor MAY say "The next hymn is on page 230" but that's about it. No one seems to need anything more. As for Sunday School, I'm not really up on that.

However, in churches of other denominations that I've visited, and where overhead screens are used, I like some of them and don't like others. But I am mostly sympathetic when it's something other than a hymn being projected, like sermon points that the pastor is working through.

 

[Albion]

Liturgy should learned by heart! Hymns too! and ALL the verses.

Ah yes--the Wisconsin Synod.

I've heard it said that in the old days Lutherans were expected to have their own personal hymnals to be used at home for daily devotions and to bring to church on Sunday like Baptists bring their bibles. The Lutheran hymnals include not only hymns and liturgy but daily prayer forms, the Psalms, canticles, prayers for different occasions, and other devotional materials. I imagine the Book of Common Prayer is similar.

I think so, although the BCP also has several catechisms, all the settings for funerals, marriages, confirmations, and so on, plus the calendar and Morning and Evening Prayer taken from Monastic usage. I seem to think that the Lutheran books are more focused on Sunday worship services and include they hymnal (which is separate in Anglican churches from the BCP)...but my memory could be way off about the Lutheran books.

 

[Tangible]

If it's a class setting, like a Sunday school class or a catechism class, I don't see anything wrong with using whatever media might be appropriate for teaching.

In the church service though, I would have a real problem with big screens and other technology that could distract from the reverent attitude we should take while worshiping before the throne of Almighty God.

In my mind anyway, electronic media cheapens the worship experience.

 

[Tangible]

my memory could be way off about the Lutheran books.

This is a pdf sampler of the new LCMS hymnal (careful, it's a really big file).

 

[Dorothea]

That's what I'm talkin 'bout. Ahhh every now and then I like to go this Greek Orthodox Church for a service. And sometimes during lunch I will head over to the Church of Holy Cross (home base of the RCC Dicoese of MA. and the largest Cathedral in New England) and also over to the Advent (a very high Anglo Catholic Episcopalian Church) as well.

They are quite moving. Just great settings for worship.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the inside of an Orthodox Church. Is a Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, Russia:

 

[boswd]

WOW!!!! I's like worshiping in a museum. I just love them.