How Should We Think About Lyric Projection on Sundays?
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Many, if not most, churches today project lyrics on a screen to enable congregational singing. But technology has given us a variety of options for lyric projection that require biblical discernment, thoughtfulness, and intentionality. In this first episode of Season 8, Bob Kauflin and David Zimmer explore what our aim is in lyric projection, suggest ways to do it well, and challenge the common assumption that we should use whatever is available.
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Thank you Bob and David! Your work is always so insightful and helpful for our members and volunteers!
As someone who helps with graphics at my local church, this was a refreshing and amazing reminder of what should truly impact the people God allows me to serve, using the gifts He has given me. As Graphic Designers, we often focus on visual impact and creating the 'Wow Effect' to be successful in our work. This conversation has given me a new perspective on that! May God help us serve Him better!
Thoughtful reflections, thank you both.
Talking of grammar - line 1 of “His mercy is more” has a comma - and it has caused quite the discussion in our church! We agreed to remove it. I’m also a fan of capitalising the H and Y in Him and You etc - when speaking of God. 20:42
My church every Sunday has printed out pamphlets/hands outs that contain lyrics to songs and a breakdown to the sermon with room to write notes.
Going back a long time (probably close to two decades!) my church used different backgrounds - sometimes moving - although they wouldn't change for each slide. Ever since, we've gone for black backgrounds and white writing - the other benefit of this is that it's the best option for those who don't have good eyesight anymore and those who are colorblind.
I also try to use 2-3 lines per slide, as I think that gives context to the song but keeps focus on the lyrics being sung, rather than it being a mini paragraph on the screen. However, for higher tempo songs, I've sometimes opted for four lines as I think it can actually be more distracting to have constant slide changes (although we've also dispensed with any fade times to help with that).
I've found it's better to put the next slide up slightly earlier than you think is needed, and of course, it's better to get it wrong occasionally than be late every time. (We don't tend to have a fixed song structure so sometimes you have to take an educated guess as to whether the chorus is repeating or it's going to the bridge, for example).
Overall, this is such an underrated part of a church service that can massively reduce distractions if done properly.
Since your talk at WG, I got rid of all our fancy backgrounds. No one has said anything and it's so much easier to create the slides.
Talking of spelling - I remember once “angles sinning” rather than “angels singing”. 22:25
Probably written by a Latino then. Los Angles = City of Angels (which it is not!).
Your guidelines make great sense. An example of needed punctuation is the phrase “My one defense my righteousness” from a popular contemporary worship song. Without punctuation, the phrase could mean either “You’re my one defense, You’re my righteousness” (what the author intended), or “My one defense is my righteousness” (heresy). I wish the author had inserted the word “You’re”, but adding a comma after “defense” helps to clarify the meaning. Thanks for a clear explanation!
Someone please tell me what is so hard about having a faithful hymnbook?
Well, one obvious problem is, that you can not easily take up new songs. Here in the state controlled Lutheran church in Denmark, a board have to first take up a whole new set of songs and hymns for the hymnal, which is only updated maybe every third decade, and then they print and distributed that to all church. Massive and costly undertaking. Compare that to project a new song on a screen. By the way, that stiff system for sure do not secure better songs and hymns, quite the contrary. Many of the old Lutheran hymns from the beginning of the Reformation has been removed and most of the body of hymns today are from the 19th century, when for instance pantheism were rampant here in Denmark, a heretical idea, that God is all things, for instance the stone you kick on the beach, not personified. That is the same fundamental idea, as the New Age movement. For instance, in a hymn book with hundreds of hymns, I could find about five, that mentioned the blood of Jesus Christ as a payment for our sins.
I'm old enough to remember books of hymns. How easy was that. Hundreds of hymns ans choruses 😊
🙏🙏🙏❤️✝️
Funny note, well, to me at least: When I saw the tittle, I thought, that you were going to talk about vocal projection of the lyrics, like my old English teacher would say it: Pro-nun-ci-a-tion! You are very good at that; I can always hear and sing along with your lyrics. Some Christian vocalists, none mentioned, none forgotten, have a tendency to sign with very elaborate phrases and beauty, but then the words are often lost. Projection is a very good idea, and, as Bob Kauflin said, there is tradeoff of all things. I live in Denmark, the Lutheran church here is state controlled and very conservative in form, but crazy progressive in ideology, which is a paradox really. Basically, all things going on in church is controlled by Catholic derived liturgy and very stiff and uninspiring. As far away from the living word as can be. We got hymnals, and it is good, that all knows the songs and can follow along in a hymnal, but it is massive undertaking to get new songs into the church: You basically got to hope, that this new song, that you like, makes it to the new hymnal decided by a central board every third decade or even rarer, and then a new hymnal then will be published and distributed to all church, a massive undertaking and also expensive. It absolutely will not be sung in any Lutheran church before that. It does not make a better quality of songs either, as for instance do only five hymns in the current used hymnal even mention the propitiation of our sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, a central Christian and also Lutheran doctrine! So, yes, I am all for a more modern church, where you can easily and quickly share new songs, as long as they are according to Bible doctrines and also the projection is well done and not to fancy. Images are very dangerous as a focus point. I am for instance convinced, that the Jesus Christ popularized in the world today is Catholic derived and may be antichrist, not Jesus Christ. The fact is, that the modern image of Jesus comes from a painting of Leonardo Da Vinci, Salvador Mundi, and he was a known gay man and cross-dresser and many guess, that the painting really is his gay lover. How about that! Anyhow, Jesus Christ definitely lived as an orthodox Jew and would dress and look like one, which is not a popular look among orthodox Christians, funny enough, and the Bible do not describe the looks of Jesus Christ at all, plays no emphasis on those at all, but all about His greatness and goodness. Maybe we should focus on that too and not create confusion with images, I feel.
I remember operating the transparencies(as you called it)/acetates(as people like me - in Scotland - called it) and the church I was in, that was using them, essentially stopped singing together - kind of just because all of the musicians and singers gradually left thriugh various issues - which was quite sad. Anyways, it wasn't until around 2010 that a then-new church where I am started worshipping in our church building and are using projection. So then, having just watched your podcast now and, for me looking back and maybe comparing the two technologies, I think I'd have to say I'd gladly go back back to OHP in a heartbeat. Remembering that the OHP + OHP person would be at the front of the room again and, considering that many of the congregation might be looking at the OHP person sometimes, I'd think I'd have to explain at least once about a couple of the points you mentioned.
Good morning! Please, traduction to the spanish! From Guatemala