At our recent meeting on using PowerPoint in worship, the question was raised, "What is the best way to switch between presentations?" If you don't want to have the whole congregation watching you as you close your announcements and open up the worship service, check out these tips from Rev. Dave Berg, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Rochester, Minn.:

"Black screen is an option, and most remotes for projectors will be able to 'freeze' the slide that is on the screen and go real time when you are ready.

"For something quick you can hit 'alt tab' to toggle between shows… or merge the shows together. If you have multiple feeds (additional pc’s, dvd players, cameras, etc) you can use a 'switcher box' which will set you out about 30 bucks at Best Buy.

"Ultimately, I think churches need to start using Media Shout and other software designed more for this sort of thing. What we do with PowerPoint is try to adapt it to the worship situation where these issues happen, rather than something like Media Shout, where it is designed specifically for churchy stuff."

Thanks Dave!