So why am I so excited about Slideshare...

If you look at the last few entries I have made here, they all revolve around an online service called Slideshare. This online community allows you to upload and share slide presentation with people in a variety of ways. People can see the presentation on the Slideshare website itself (www.slideshare.net), you can embed the presentation in your Facebook profile, on your blog or website and even email links to anyone you would like. You can get to my Slideshare account and see some of the presentations I have posted by clicking here.

While this may be cool for some, (especially ministry tech geeks like me), it begs the question SO WHAT? I mean, what is the big deal about being able to put your sermon presentations online? Does that really matter?

Well, it might. Obviously leveraging the power of your visuals with your audio will help you communicate more effectively. If not, why did you build the PowerPoint presentation to begin with? But it goes beyond that...or at least it should. 

Think of some of these possibilities...

1. Build short, 3-4 minute presentations to teach people about the inspiration of the Bible, Christian evidences, the importance of the church, New Testament Christianity and more and then embed them in your Facebook profile, blog or congregation's website.

2. Build a short 3-4 minute presentation that describes your congregation, its purpose and mission to attract visitors.

3. Build a presentation to introduce new members to the elders, deacons and ministry staff.

4. Build short presentations to answer common Bible questions that people ask most often.

Getting the idea? There are hundreds of ways that you might leverage this tool in ministry. Share your ideas with me...I would love to hear what ideas you all come up with...let me know!

Here is an example to get you started...

The Beauty of the Universe

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: hubble galaxies)

The Worthy Walk

I must say that I am impressed with SlideShare. I have always wanted a way to connect the sermon audio files back to the PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation and I must say...this is it! The interface is easy to use and once you get the hang of it, matching the audio with the slides is pretty straightforward. Obviously, any fancy transitions and effects are lost in the transfer and I even had some font problems with this newest test file, but that is not a real problem.

I Have posted another test file. Just so you know it is a 25 minute sermon. I wanted to try something a little bigger as a test.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Worthy Walk

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: colossians walk)

Slideshare: Passion for Growth

I have recently discovered a website called SlideShare (www.slideshare.net). It allows you to post presentations created in PowerPoint (or Keynote) online for a larger community to see. The potential here seems great to me.  You can even link recorded audio from a podcast to the presentation and edit it so that it matches your slide changes. I have posted this test here and also on my Facebook profile as a test. 

This test was a lesson I presented in Chapel back in November.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Passion for Growth

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: hard-work passion)

Promote your blog on Facebook

My students often ask me how they can get people to find their ministry blogs. While there are a number of options to getting your blog out there, one of my current students simply posted his blog as part of his Facebook profile and instantly began to get readers. I must admit that I have only been using Facebook for a few months, but this is a great way to promote your blog and get readers. I am an "old guy" and though it is not much I have over 140 Facebook friends. Many younger people have two or three times that number. Post your blog on your Facebook and people will start reading. Offer them something worth sharing with others and they just might tell others to read as well.

Logos for MAC is now shipping!

The day is finally here and Logos for MAC is now shipping! I have to say that Logos was one of the major reasons that I purchased a Windows based laptop six years ago. I have been a MAC user for over 15 years, but Logos tempted me to switch. Eighteen months ago I finally repented of that mistake and came back home to a machine that works. I purchased a 15" Macbook Pro and have been happy ever since. I have been running my Logos through Fusion on my MAC and truthfully it works very well. I have only had a few pesky problems with this set-up. I even teach Logos in the classroom in Windows running on my MAC and for the most part my students don't notice a difference.

I have been using the final beta version for a couple of months now and I must say that it certainly runs very fast on my Macbook Pro. There were still some features missing in the beta that I am hopeful they have added to the final version, but we will see. While I am sure, as a 1.0 product, that there will be some growing pains and some features that we may have to wait for, I am excited at the possibility of being free from the Windows environment.

As always with Logos, they have been faithful to their promise to make a cross grade as painless financially as possible. Those of us with heavy investments in very large libraries on the Windows side can purchase a cross-grade MAC engine for $59 and all of our electronic books will work with it. Unlike many companies (Adobe, Microsoft, and others) that force you to purchase full versions when you switch platforms, Logos has made this simple, easy, and affordable.

I will try to give a full review once my copy arrives and I have time to work with it thoroughly.

Check it out here http://www.logos.com/mac

UBS4 vs. the NA27 Greek texts

The question was asked in class yesterday about the differences between the UBS4 and the Nestle-Aland 27th Greek texts. Here is a link to an article on the Logos website about the differences.

For the sake of class - I would prefer you use the UBS4 so that we can all stay on the same page.