iPod in the Pulpit?

[Duane Maynard]

Just saw a news report of a Catholic Priest using an iPad program he developed on his iPad during Mass. Do you think ...?

Think of the power as the Pastor steps to the Pulpit and takes control of the music, overheads and reads scripture/with notes from his iPad.

A tech savvy Pastor could!

What say you?

*I am linked on Facebook with a Pastor that served in a Church we once attended. He does a regular online devotion post the he gets from various books using Amazon Kindle. I know nothing about this except it seems to be a library at your fingertips. Is this anything like Google Reader online?

[Jon Twitchell]

I am the one-man (sometimes 2-man) technical department in my church. We have one powerpoint presentation with EVERYTHING loaded onto it (sermon notes, picture slides, song lyrics, videos... and on weeks when the pianist is away, even the music). It sits on a laptop that sits on top of the digital piano. I have a remote clicker that I use to run the service... but I often hand it to a teen who is adept at making the laptop click along to guide the service. It's very rare that we have any technical glitches, because I've planned the services out carefully.

I could envision some sort of podium built with an iPad dock in it... you slip your iPad into the podium, and it runs the sound, the powerpoint, and the sermon notes all at once.

[Paul DeBaufer]

I was the technical director at a fair sized church with a tech team of 12-14, 4 working each service (well when they showed up). I often thought that the sermons would work out better if the pastor had control of his slides from the pulpit. So, I like this idea, however would the preacher find the control distracting?

When I preached at this church (there are two screens one forward, one rearward) I projected my sermon on the rear projector while the projection tech projected my sermon slides on the front screen. I never did that again, but I had the whole manuscript and I found that distracting. But I liked having a degree of control, I don't like waiting for slides or having them beat me.

If I could program my i-Pod I certainly would and use it.

[Ryan Scott]

When I was leading a service in KC I ran the sound board, powerpoint, and preached without the help of extra technology. We only used the sound board for music, so it was pretty simple. When I had to speak during the service I'd either speak from the back or move to the front. The times of waiting for me to walk, I felt, actually helped continue to atmosphere of worship and rest. In that light, I'm all for as few people as possible having "responsibilities" in worship so more people can be free to participate in worship.

[Shea Zellweger]

Having also been the one-person tech crew, I can see how that iPad or other slate computer would come in handy.

[Paul DeBaufer]

I liked preaching when I was doing sound and video. I would set my volume, let my wife operate the camera, then begin the sermon from the tech booth, usually with something from one of the worship songs, as I walked forward. But an i-Pad would be a great asset for me, if I could control my own projection and still have my notes (and with the new digital sound boards, no one would ever have to be in the tech booth.)

[Jeremy D. Scott]

I don't have an iPad and won't for a while, but if and when I do get one, Keynote will be one of the main reasons. For a while, I used a Macbook to do my own advancing, etc., but it was cumbersome at times. An iPad would be great, I think. I know of one Nazarene pastor who preaches using one each week.

[Dana Grant]

Our pastor uses his iPad for his sermon notes. He used to use his iphone. I think he can see better now....LOL

[Betty Bolerjack]

Our pastor uses a remote clicker with a 100 ft. range to control his powerpoint slides. Mark (or a sub) controls everything else from the "tech" booth upstairs. When it is time for the sermon, Mark loads the powerpoint (he uses Media Shout for the songs), then Doug takes control. We have at least 3 people involved in tech areas during a service. I can't feature Doug doing anything other than controlling his sermon slides!