Bishop Reynaldo Domingo's Site

 

A study published by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that when questioned three days after an event (such as a church sermon), people remember only 10% of what they heard from an purely oral presentation, 35% from a purely visual presentation, and an astounding 65% from a combined visual and oral presentation.

For this reason, IRM pastors and deaconesses are encouraged to use visual aids during sermons as much as possible so that the members can remember more from the message. And for those churches that can afford to have its own LCD projector and computer, Microsoft Powerpoint is a great tool for preparing presentations that serve as visual aids.

Although some may be intimidated at the thought, it’s actually pretty easy to prepare a presentation in Powerpoint. Here is a very basic guide for Microsoft Powerpoint 2003:

1. Open Microsoft Powerpoint. A blank presentation (titled Presentation1) will appear on your screen.

2. To make the presentation more visually appealing, choose an appropriate background picture for your sermon. For example, for a sermon on prayer, you may choose a picture of praying hands. To put this in your presentation, click Insert > Picture > From File and choose the file from your computer. The picture will automatically appear on your presentation. Make sure that you are not violating any property rights when using images.

3. Resize the picture to take up the entire space by clicking and dragging the corners of the picture. You may also want to modify the picture so that text can be seen easily over it. You can do any of the following:

a. lessen the contrast (by clicking “Less Contrast” in the Picture Toolbar)

b. increase the brightness (by clicking “More Brightness” in the Picture Toolbar)

c. change the color to Grayscale (by clicking “Color”)

4. To add text, click Insert > Text Box. You may now write any text, such as the outline of your message or the Bible verses from which your sermon is based.

5. You may want to modify the font (in the toolbar at the top of the page) so that the text can be easily seen over the background picture. You can do the following:

a. change the font face (avoiding fonts that are difficult to read and applying bold face if necessary)

b. change the font size (a size of at least 44 is ideal)

c. change the font color (choose colors that work well against the background)

6. Once you have typed your text, you may want to add special effects. To do so, click Slide Show > Custom Animation.

7. Afterwards, click Add Effects > Entrance and choose any effect such as “Fly In.” For this particular option, you can change the Direction (from bottom, from top, etc) and Speed (Very Slow to Very Quick).

8. Once you’ve animated the text box, right click the animation and choose Effect Options so that each line will appear one at a time.

9. Choose the tab named “Text Animation” and change the Group Text to “By 1st level paragraphs.”

10. You will notice that each line will now be assigned a number to show the order of the animation.

11. To add more pages, click Insert > New Slide or Duplicate Slide.

12. Don’t forget to save your work! Click File > Save and choose a file name. The extension of Powerpoint is PPT so that the file will appear in your computer as filename.ppt.

Once you’re done, you can check how your Powerpoint presentation will appear by clicking F5. Remember, if your church has its own computer and LCD projector, you should maximize these tools by using them for sermons, praise and worship songs, announcements, etc.

To view samples of the Powerpoint presentations used by Bishop Rey Domingo for his sermons, please click here.

Here are also some tips for using Powerpoint at church.

1. Do not put the entire text of your sermon in the Powerpoint presentation. You do not want the members only reading the screen and not listening to you anymore. Include only the outline, some verses, plus keywords or important phrases.

2. It may not be advisable to put all the verses in your presentation. If you do so regularly, the members may stop bringing their Bibles to church once they get used to reading the Scripture text from the screen.

3. Test the presentation beforehand to make sure that the text is readable from the back of the church.

4. Include interesting pictures in your presentations to keep the attention of the members.

5. If you have Internet access, you may visit http://www.biblegateway.com to copy Bible verses in different versions and languages (including Tagalog for New Testament).

NOTE: This guide is written for computer newbies and beginners who would like to use this technology in God’s service. If you need more detailed help, you may send an email to terbidoodles@yahoo.com. Thanks and God bless you!

 

The Internet is a blessing of God which gives us an easy way to communicate with friends and churchmates around the world, as long as they have Internet access of course. We encourage all IRM churches to create their own website to be able to share their local news, pictures and announcements.

Although some may be intimidated at the thought, it’s actually pretty easy to start your church’s website since there are a lot of free, user-friendly providers you can use, such as Multiply. Here is a quick guide to using Multiply to create your own website.

1. Go to http://multiply.com/ (you may click this link and it will automatically open to the Multiply website, or you may type this in the Address bar of your browser).

2. Click the “Join for Free” button at the bottom left side of the page.

3. Choose a user ID. You may choose your church’s name for this such as “irmmarikina.” The user ID will be part of your website address (e.g. http://irmmarikina.multiply.com).

4. Fill out all the other information. You need to have a valid email address for this because you will need to confirm the Multiply account first by clicking a link in your email. To learn how to create an email address, please click here.

5. Once you have a Multiply account, sign in by typing your user ID and password in the upper right hand corner of Multiply’s home page at http://multiply.com/.

6. Click POST so that you can upload any of the following. Always choose “Access: Everybody” so that anyone can see what you put in your site.

a. BLOG – You can type short news articles and updates about your church. You can even write essays, reflections or devotionals.

b. PHOTOS – You can create albums of various church activities and take advantage of the advent of digital cameras and mobile phones capable of taking good quality pictures. Upload pictures of your church activities to document the event and to be able to show how it went to other interested people.

c. VIDEO – You can upload videos of various church activities directly to Multiply, or link to a video in another website such as YouTube.

d. MUSIC – You can upload songs composed by your members, or recordings of your praise and worship segment, or even the pastor’s message.

e. EVENT – You can post your upcoming church activities in the calendar so that everyone can see the schedule of events at your church.

f. REVIEW – In case a member would like to write a review of a Christian book, movie or album, you may post them here. 

g. LINK – You can provide links to other IRM websites like this one so that visitors to your site can also visit the websites of other churches.

h. PM (Private Message) – If you want to send a message to another Multiply user, you can use this feature.

7. To change how your website looks, click “Customize My Site” in the right sidebar of your homepage.

8. To post a picture of yourself or your church (or even of the IRM logo), click EDIT in the headshot box above the “Customize My Site” link.

9. To choose the background, click the “Choose a Theme” button at the upper left corner.

10. You can also choose which feature to show in your website (e.g. only Photos, Blogs and Links, etc) by clicking the HIDE button in each feature you don’t want to use.

After creating your website, don’t forget to announce the website to our church so that other members can check it out. Remember, your website will be http://userID.multiply.com. Please also send an email to bishopreydomingo@yahoo.com so that your church’s website can be included in the LINKS portion of this website.

NOTE: This guide is written for Internet newbies and beginners who would like to use this technology in God’s service. If you need more detailed help, you may send an email to terbidoodles@yahoo.com. Thanks and God bless you!

Email (or electronic mail) is a means to communicate with friends and churchmates wherever they are, as long as they have Internet access of course. We encourage all IRM members and workers to have an email address so that updates, announcements and e-newsletters can be easily distributed. IRM churches can also sign up for a generic email address, which more than one member can open.

Although some may be intimidated at the thought, it’s actually pretty easy to have your own email address, since there are a lot of free, user-friendly providers you can use, such as Yahoo. Here is a quick guide to using Yahoo to create your own email address.

1. Go to http://mail.yahoo.com (you may click this link and it will automatically open to the Yahoo website, or you may type this in the Address bar of your browser).

2. Click the “Sign Up” button at the bottom right side of the page .

3. Fill out the needed information.

4. Choose a Yahoo ID, which will be part of your email address. For example, if you choose “bishopreydomingo” as your ID, your email address will be bishopreydomingo@yahoo.com.

5. Once you have a Yahoo account, sign in by typing your Yahoo ID and password in the upper right hand corner of Yahoo Mail’s home page at http://mail.yahoo.com/.

6. To check if you received any email, click “Check Mail” or “Inbox.”

7. To write an email, click “Compose.” You will need to know the email address of the person to whom you would like to send an email.

After creating your email address, don’t forget to tell it to your friends. Remember, your website will be userID@yahoo.com. Please also send an email to bishopreydomingo@yahoo.com so that you can be part of our mailing list.

NOTE: This guide is written for Internet newbies or beginners who would like to use this technology in God’s service. If you need more detailed help, you may send an email to terbidoodles@yahoo.com. Thanks and God bless you!