Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Preaching from a Tablet - Yes or No?


There has been some discussion as of late as to whether a preacher should use an iPad or other device when speaking to a group. Some say yes, some say no. Personally, I nearly always preach from either my Kindle or an iPad. Here are some reasons why.

  1. Preaching from a device keeps me on track. I type up my notes and load them as a PDF onto the device. This prevents me from losing my notes or having the pages get mixed up. There is nothing worse than losing your place on the paper or having one of your sheets fall out.
  2. The device is more efficient. With just a swipe of my finger, I can go to the next page or go back to a previous page. There is no shuffling of notes or pages to drop.
  3. Putting my notes on a device is more economical. Let's face it, paper and ink cost money. The average sermon outline is around 4 pages and the average manuscript can run up to about 10 pages (well, if you are verbose like me). Those little ink cartridges are expensive and they always seem to run short on the day I am supposed to preach. Putting my notes or manuscripts on my device lets me use as much color and "ink" as I want without the fear of running out or having to shell out $20 just to print my maunscript.
I have had the privilege to preach from a Kindle, Kindle Fire, and an iPad. All have their benefits, but I think the best option is the iPad. The screen is bigger and it is much easier to flip to the next page just by swiping. The Kindle Fire is also a good option, but the screen is a bit smaller.

2 comments:

  1. How do your students view preaching from the iPad (or kindle)? Mine always hated it, so I had to ditch it.

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  2. The only comment that I have been given is that I am very "gadgety." I have a lot of gadgets (iPod, camera, phone, etc.) I don't really make a big deal about it, so they haven't really said anything. They did enjoy the fact that I walked around and showed pictures on in during one of our lessons because we don't have a projector or monitor.

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