Displaying song lyrics in worship with excellence is an often overlooked area of preparation, yet one that can really enhance our worship times. Conversely, poor slide production and operation of the lyric display can greatly hamper worship.
Today, I will continue the series (check out part one here) as we look at some additional considerations.
One of my pet peeves with lyric projection is that of misspelled words, repeated words, bad punctuation, and other such small errors. For many in your congregation, this will be a major distraction.
For example:
Many may overlook the above typo, but others will be greatly distracted (probably the difference in your good and bad spellers!)
Here’s the corrected version:
Here’s another bad example. There are two errors here:
The apostrophe is in the wrong place, and a word is repeated. Here’s the corrected slide:
None of these particular errors is picked up by spell check. Don’t be embarrassed to ask someone else to take a look at your slide shows to make sure everything is as it should be.
Another issue is that of title slides. Why, oh why, does anyone want to display a huge slide with the title of the song in the middle of a worship service? It makes me feel much like I’m experiencing a commercial in the middle of a good movie–not a good thing. Here is an example that some would use at the beginning of the song. At least it does legally display the copyright notice.
It would be much less distracting in worship to merely begin the song with the first lines and include the proper copyright notice on that slide:
If you aren’t familiar with the proper display of copyright notices, that is VERY important for you legally as well as aesthetically. (Check out the proper display information here.)
One final thing for this post is the use of all caps. For some reason, many like to use all caps in their lyrics displays:
ALL CAPS, WHETHER IN EMAILS OR IN LYRIC DISPLAYS MAKES ONE FEEL LIKE SOMEONE IS SCREAMING AT THEM! Don’t do it. Using upper and lower case looks so much better:
Just to make sure I have been perfectly clear, when it comes to typos, bad punctuation, repeated words, using title slides, or all caps, remember two words: Stop it!
Perhaps Bob Newhart can assist me in getting the point across:
Next post, I will address additional issues. I welcome your comments.
Kenny Lamm, senior consultant for worship and music for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, is a frequent worship conference leader with a strong focus on equipping leaders in North Carolina (USA) and Southeast Asia. His blog, Renewing Worship, features posts that explore ways to renew–impart new life and vigor to–the worship in the local church.
