I hate the beach. There, I said it. I don't like sand, especially hot sand. I despise salt water. I'm not a huge fan of the sun or being hot. And yet, I take my family to the beach at least once a year. Why? Because my wife and kids love the beach, and I love my wife and kids. Their enjoyment of the beach is more important than my distaste for it.
At the church where I work, our teaching pastors love to use a large flat-screen video monitor as a teach aid. They put up teaching notes, fill-in-the-blanks, scripture, and occasionally maps or images. It works well as a teaching aid when they interact with it.
I hate the flat screen. There, I said it. Half of the time the pastors don't interact with the screen, so notes just pop up on the screen without so much as a gesture from the speaker. In those cases, I find myself asking, "Wouldn't a lower third work better for this?" It also makes IMAG so much more difficult. If you are unfamiliar with the term, "IMAG" stands for Image Magnification. The problem is that we need to get a shot wide enough to have both the speaker and the flat screen in the image. That can mean taking the "MAG" out of "IMAG."
But just like tolerating the beach for love of my family, I am willing to tolerate the flat screen for love of my church. If the speakers can communicate more effectively with it, then I will work with them to make it work as well as it can. We have been refining the use of the flat screen for well over a year. Just this past weekend, we used a combination of the flat screen and lower third graphics that left everyone saying, "That worked really well."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back under my umbrella.
