Every worship service utilizes lyrics – i.e. words that the congregation is expected to sing, speak or read silently. This is typically shown via a video projector on one or more screens. But who determines the content of these slides? And what is the process whereby that content is generated every week for worship? And how do you ensure high quality in this presentation?

Overall, the worship service is the responsibility of the minister, so the minister will certainly have input to the lyrics for the service. This may take the form of Bible verses and/or creeds. Slides containing the Bible verses that are read or referenced should always be shown. Slides containing the liturgy should always match the bulletin. Other slides may contain creeds or statements of faith. Some slides may be used to make points or provide illustrations to the sermon. The minister will determine the scriptures and the translations involved. The words may even be shown in multiple languages – e.g. Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Latin, ….

Typically, the minister delegates the music to a music director or director of worship. The music director will then have input to the praise and singing in the service. This may take the form of congregational hymns, choir anthems, or solos. The music director also determines the music, but only the lyrics are typically projected. (Technology exists for showing sheet music, but this is usually only applicable to the musicians.) Slides for this part of the service should always include the lyrics that the congregation is expected to sing. If there is a screen setup so that only the choir can see it, then the lyrics to the anthem may also be viewed. This helps the choir look up from their music books and out towards the congregation.

The process of generating worship lyrics needs to be well defined. After all, the Church will use this process 52 weeks a year. One person on the technical ministry team – i.e. an editor – will be responsible for generating the worship lyric slides. They should receive input from the minister, music director, and anyone responsible for the bulletin. The style and content of the bulletin should match the worship slides, right down to using the same Bible translation for scriptures that are going to be read. There should be a defined sequence of steps involved in this process. Here is one example of that sequence:

• Minister plans the worship service in advance, setting the theme, scriptures, and points to support the sermon.
• Music director plans the music for the worship service, setting the songs and the specific variations to be played. For a hymn, you might have a selection of verses.
• Bulletin source is prepared, setting the content for the bulletin.
• Technical ministry team receives input from the minister, music director, and publisher of the bulletin. There should be a hard deadline for this – i.e. well before Sunday morning!
• Editor prepares the set of slides to be shown during the worship service. This takes time, but it can leverage the content from previous worship services.
• Editor publishes a draft of the slides for this coming Sunday.This should be in the final sequence, just as they would be projected on Sunday morning.
• Slides are reviewed by all parties concerned. Any exceptions are reported to the editor.
• Slides are delivered to the sanctuary control room on Friday at noon for presentation on Sunday morning.

The slides should always be reviewed by multiple eyes. One editor will tend to overlook certain issues; and you don’t want them showing up on Sunday morning, when they will be difficult to fix. The slide presentation software should catch typographical errors – i.e. be sure to run the spelling checker, for you can expect that somebody in the congregation will be an English teacher. The reviewers should look for quality issues – e.g. the transposition of slides in a music verse. The review process should seek to add polish to the finished presentation, not provide an opportunity to make lots of changes. IMHO, getting the whole process done by Friday noon is critical to having a slide presentation on Sunday that is high quality.

One could think of this process as a collaborative one. You could even agree to publish the prepared slides on the Church’s intranet so that they can be reviewed online. Given the weekly timeframe of preparing for worship this Sunday, this would avoid having to wait for eMail comments to circulate. Worship Presentation Software should support this process, not hinder it.

May worship always be focused on reverence and awe – Hebrews 12:28.