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Content about Technology -- Religious aspects -- Christianity

September 3, 2004
Palm Power: PDA programs for pastors

Iappreciate a good gadget. Many times a day, I reach into my pocket for my personal digital assistant (PDA) in order to look up a phone number, schedule an appointment, or update my to do list. When I do, no one around me looks twice. However, if I pull out my Palm Pilot (one brand of PDA) to do a pastor-specific task—look up a Bible verse, write out the melody to a new song I’ve just heard, review my prayer list, or brush up on my Greek at the bus stop—peers and passersby rubberneck without shame.

June 3, 2004
Is Computer Projection for You? Helps for getting started

RW 71 introduced a new column on Technology in Worship, asking basic worship questions that should precede technical questions about using presentation technology. If your church has decided to use computer projection, its time to ask the next question: How do we start?

—ERB

June 3, 2004
Projectors in Worship: Summary of a Survey

In the summer of 2003, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship studied the use of video technology in worship in West Michigan. Over 900 churches in Kent and Ottawa counties were surveyed, with a 36% response rate. The following summary includes the key survey questions, a summary of the response, and some additional questions for considering your own media program.

June 3, 2004
Using Screens in Worship: One church's criteria

Five years ago, our church decided to use a projection machine and screen in worship. We discovered that the appearance of projection-screen technology was forcing us to provide some answers to questions we had not even begun to ask. For example,

March 4, 2004
First Things First: Considering Multimedia in Worship

In RW 69, we announced a new column on technology issues in worship, to alternate occasionally with the column “What’s on the Web.” This first article concentrates on the worship questions that precede the technical questions in using visual images.

>—RR

September 2, 2003
Behind the Curtain

There’s a lesson for worship leaders in a famous scene in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and company are meeting with the Great and Powerful Oz, whose voice and visage have them shaking in awe and wonder. Meanwhile, the dog Toto pulls back a drape, revealing an ordinary fellow frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers, desperate to conceal his role in the spectacle of sight and sound. He bellows, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

September 1, 2002
Questions About Worship and Technology: A starting point for discussion

Quentin Schultze asks many questions here that churches should be asking. Author of Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age (Baker, 2002), Schultze continues to study technological issues that affect worship planning and leadership. After reading “all of the literature I could find on technology and worship,” Schultze offers the following list of questions as a place to begin thinking, not as an exhaustive list.

March 1, 1999
Some Pros and Cons: Shedding light on overhead projection

Our thanks to the thirty-nine members of the Calvin Theological Seminary community (students, spouses, staff, faculty) who responded to an open invitation to participate in this pro/con feature. Respondents were from the U.S., Canada, Korea, and Romania.

PRO

Using overhead projection of songs in worship is helpful for the following reasons:

May 31, 1997
Gizmos and Grace: One example of how new technology can help worship leaders

Have you ever filled put one, of those product cards in a card pack or magazine? I ordered a catalog from "Banner Media Services," hoping to get some new banner ideas for use in worship. But the word banner was used in quite a different way than I expected; the company was marketing audiovisual equipment. More catalogs followed from different companies that mysteriously got my address; they offered a dizzying array of sound boards, microphones, video systems, "cassette ministry" systems, and more.