Church media user’s guide Keep it simple

Posted: 10/28/05

Church media user's guide: Keep it simple

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ARLINGTON–Just because churches can afford multimedia with fancy bells and whistles, that doesn't mean they should pull out all the stops at every opportunity, a North Texas communications instructor insists.

“Now you can get equipment at a pretty reasonable cost, when in the past it cost way too much to be practical,” said Ron Bland, a lecturer in the communications department at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“That has benefited a lot of churches, but just because you have the tools doesn't mean you're using them effectively.”

While many churches now have media screens in their sanctuaries, he said it is easy to be lured into the trap of making it look pretty and forget it is first and foremost a communication tool.

“Media is supposed to support the message. So, it shouldn't be the attention-getter,” said Bland, a Baylor University graduate. “If we are worrying about how pretty the background is, we're missing out on the fact the important thing is the words written on that background.”

Simplicity is the best way to communicate using media screens, Bland said.

“Bright letters on a dark background or dark letters on a bright background” work best, he suggested. “Keep it simple; you don't want the background to become the focal point.”

While floral or pictorial backgrounds may be aesthetically pleasing, they make it more difficult to read what is written on them. So, if the message is what's really important, use a plain background, he suggests.

“White letters on a dark background are probably best,” he said.

Bland suggests that approach in part because most congregations have a number of senior adults who don't need any additional visual challenges.

Type also looks better and is easier to read if letters are kept the same size from slide to slide. Changing the size of the letters to fill the screen is not effective communication, Bland said.

Churches using screens should leave what is written up as long as possible–until something else is ready to take its place, he recommended. Some may read a little slower than others or may be copying it down. It is frustrating to those people to approach the end and to have it disappear.

“It doesn't hurt to leave things on the screens. People who have read it aren't going to be distracted by it. They've already read what's there and put their focus back on the pastor. But for those who are still looking at the screen, give them a chance to finish,” he said.

Once churches put screens in place, they should be used for maximum efficiency, Bland said. Use the time before the service starts to display announcements of upcoming events. Photographs of new members might also be displayed, along with their names, so that the congregation can put names with faces a little quicker, he suggested.

Screens also are useful for displaying photographs or video of past mission projects and other events that might encourage participation by others, he noted.

A church website also can be an excellent communication tool, especially for smaller communities that either don't have a newspaper or one that is published only weekly. Events like funerals may come and go before the next publication date of the local paper, but the church website can get that information out quicker.

Many churches that have websites fall short of using the audio and video capabilities they offer, Bland asserted.

“It's very easy to stream the video of your services onto the Internet. It used to be that churches taped their services on audio and took them to people who couldn't make it to church. Now, we can do the same thing with video through DVDs and the Internet,” he said.

One way to get members to check the church website more often is to make sure something new is there each day. He suggested video devotional thoughts.

“Internet devotions for a week can be knocked out in 45 minutes easy,” he said. The site can then be programmed to change the video file each day automatically.

Churches need to be aware that more and more people are checking websites of churches before they ever attend. Bland and his family joined First Baptist Church in Midlothian recently, but before they attended services, Bland already had heard his pastor preach on the church's website.

“These new ways of communicating are only going to get more important,” he said.

“The church is changing; it has to. Society is changing, and if the church doesn't start using the tools people are used to, we are going to start missing out on some people.”