Introduction

Chapter points in this section:

What is WorshipSession?
The how and why of OHP retirement
The rise and demise of PowerPoint^®
Who is WorshipSession™ for?
The creative presenter
The improvisational worship leader
The Bible teacher
What’s with the curious name?
How does it work?

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What is WorshipSession™?

WorshipSession™ is “Song Projection Software” which has been designed primarily for use in church worship services. It is software that enables a computer and data projector to replace an overhead projector and / or songbook.

The how and why of OHP retirement

Overhead Projectors began to appear in churches in the early 1980s, as new songs were appearing every week. The OHP allowed worship leaders to write new songs on acetate with a pen, just like writing on paper. It freed worshippers from dependence on books and enabled a "freer" worship style - songs could be strung together in a medley, and new material was easy to introduce. But the OHP has its problems, and as churches came to rely on it more, so its problems became more pressing. The most serious difficulties surround the preparation and storage of acetates, and there are also visual problems - often the image is too small, or too low, or of generally poor quality.

A computerised song-projection system addresses these problems - the computer can easily store all the songs that may be used, and an experienced operator can recall a particular song within a few seconds. The projection screen can be placed in an optimal position, and the resulting image quality is usually very much better than an OHP. If the shape of the building necessitates two or more screens, these can be controlled from one computer, so everyone gets to see the same projected image.

But completely replacing the OHP is difficult because, for all its faults, the OHP is remarkably flexible and adaptable. An OHP user can write directly on the acetate, making “live” annotations to a presentation, or encouraging interaction by recording audience responses. When projecting songs, acetates can be repositioned on the projector, allowing worshippers to see the later verses in a long song.

Another problem is that a computerised system is undeniably hi-tech. Using an OHP to project a few songs is quite easy, whereas a computerised system is complex and requires some learning.

The rise and demise of PowerPoint^®

When electronic projection of worship songs was in its infancy, many churches saw Microsoft’s PowerPoint^® as the obvious choice of software. PowerPoint is specifically designed for use with projectors. It allows a choice of fonts and colours, and offers professionally produced slide templates. Its graphical user interface is comparatively easy to learn.

PowerPoint was designed to meet the needs of professional presenters who might previously have used a slide projector. The user creates slides and arranges them in a sequence, then PowerPoint displays the show from beginning to end. With PowerPoint it’s possible to “go back” to the previous slide, but true random access is not really supported. A typical worship song may be structured like this

Verse 1
  Chorus
Verse 2
  Chorus

To present this song using PowerPoint, three slides could be used (Verse 1, Verse 2, Chorus), but because of the sequential nature of PowerPoint presentations, it would be more usual to use four slides (Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus). This is OK if the song is sung just once. To repeat the song from the beginning, the operator needs to backtrack through the slides, or enter the sequence number of the “verse 1” slide.

PowerPoint also presents challenges with the production and maintenance of slides. Presentations must assembled in advance, and this is quite a time-consuming process. The scope for improvisation is very limited - once a presentation is under way, it is impossible to change the order of slides, or introduce new ones. (Some users get around this problem using a big printed list of songs with slide index numbers. Enter the slide index number to jump to a particular slide.)

For these reasons and others, many churches are now turning to bespoke song projection software such as WorshipSession™, which combines its presentation functions with a convenient way of managing and selecting songs.

Who is WorshipSession™ for?

WorshipSession is for anyone who wants to replace an OHP with a computerised presentation system, without losing too much of the flexibility and ease of use that the OHP brought. It is for church ministers, worship leaders, and teachers - it can be used for special events, and for “ordinary” church services. Because of its unique design, WorshipSession will appeal particularly to several classes of people:

The improvisational worship leader

Unlike most other song projection systems, WorshipSession has been designed to be operated directly by a worship leader - even one who is busy singing and / or playing an instrument at the same time. The functions are accessed by keypresses, rather than mouse control, and its operator’s screen is entirely free of distracting technical details. It can display guitar chords on-screen, and the major functions can be operated from a foot pedal, so worship leaders can dispense with song books and use the software to help them lead worship more effectively.

NOTE: Foot pedal control is optional. The WorshipSession foot pedal duplicates the function of the arrow keys on the computer keyboard. WorshipSession is equally at home with keyboard operation, or with a mouse wheel.

The creative presenter

WorshipSession is based on Web technology - it uses Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as its presentation system. This opens up massive scope for creativity - in addition to varying the font size, colour, background image etc, it is a simple matter to include animated graphics, video, sound effects, Flash^® animations, Java applets and any other effect that can be thought of. HTML content can be produced by a huge number of software packages, ranging from simple to complex, and from free to expensive. The use of HTML enables WorshipSession to be simple for the novice, and infinitely adaptable for the expert user.

The Bible teacher

WorshipSession is particularly good at displaying scripture, and specifying Bible references is exceptionally fast. Preachers can use it to display the scriptures they are using, along with sermon notes.

What’s with the curious name?

“Worship Session” refers to any time set aside for corporate worship. This may be a Sunday service, a teaching session, an evangelistic meeting, or any other form of meeting where songs may be sung, or a presentation may be made. The session may be fully scripted, or completely free-flowing, but usually there will be a measure of structure - a program to be followed. The “Session” covers the whole time from when the first person arrives, to when the last person leaves. It may include a welcome message, a reading, a sermon, several songs, a prayer time, background music, and an information slot. WorshipSession has been designed to meet the presentation requirements of all these activities - it is not limited to projecting songs.

How does it work?

At the heart of WorshipSession is a “Web page sequencer”. Items displayed are mostly HTML Pages, and WorshipSession sequences the pages by selecting the next item from a list.

WorshipSession does not directly control the appearance of the items it displays. Each item is a self-contained Web page, and can fully control its own appearance. The selection of colours, fonts, graphics etcetera is determined by instructions within the page, or by externally linked style sheets. Because of this, WorshipSession has unlimited flexibility, and expert users can create bespoke items for display in WorshipSession, using Web site creation tools.

You don’t have to be an HTML whizz to use WorshipSession. Song Items can be downloaded from the server, or you can enter songs directly into the program, without any need for HTML skills.