Easy Wins – How To Incorporate Visuals

This “Easy Wins” series is intended to help you preach and teach with greater clarity, creativity, and passion. Each post will address one element in the process, creation, and delivery of a message. These are not “the only way to do it.”  Instead, they are things I’ve discovered and implemented in my own 20+ years of preaching. If you use them, I think you’ll find they are easy wins for your ministry.

TOPIC: How To Incorporate Visuals (aka, The Case For Catching The Eye)

You’ve done the research. You’ve created the outline and crafted the sermon. Solid transitions in place. Clarity is there. It’s all coming together. But is there another layer that would be helpful to add? Another lever to pull that might give the sermon more velcro to stick?

Sermons are inherently an auditory experience. You are verbally proclaiming the Word of God to people who are (hopefully) listening. However, adding some form of a visual aid can strengthen the sermon. Perhaps an object lesson or a video clip. Or slides running as you speak. 

The Easy Win for catching the eyes of the audience is simple: Incorporate Visuals in your sermon delivery.

Here’s the HOW:

1. Think Compliment, Not Control – Incorporate visuals with the mindset that the visuals aren’t the star of the sermon, they are there to enhance it. They compliment the audio instead of controlling everything. In other words, your sermon’s main focus is still the verbal declaration of God’s Word – the visuals just serve to compliment that aim.
2. Aim For Clarity – If you are adding another sensory element like visuals, then you should desire that it be as clear as possible. The visual should only serve to bring the point into better focus, not raise more questions.
3. Consider Limitations – Always think of the limits that will impact your visuals. Technical limitations, space limitations, time limitations, etc. You need to consider what would impede the visuals you might use. If you are preaching multiple services in a row, can it be reset quickly? Is there room on the stage? How long will it take to execute? Take time to think through relevant issues at play.
4. Build On What You Know – Before I entered ministry, at my previous job I was helping to train new employees and train other trainers as well. So, I was used to utilizing simple powerpoint slide decks with my presentations. As I began preaching, it seemed natural to me to want to bring that into my sermons as I knew the impact it could have with the audience. So, slides were what I was familiar with and that’s the visual I use with each of my sermons. Likewise, lean into what you know and have used before with visuals. Start there, then branch out. 

Here’s the WHY:

1. Visual Learners – Some people connect to information easier when they can see it. I know this because I myself sometimes need that visual help! There are people in your audience who are the same way. Don’t forsake this information – use it to your advantage. Reach out to those visual learners.
2. Visual Culture – There has been much written about our culture now being post-literate or now “image-based.” For many people, especially younger ones, they have grown up in a culture dominated with visuals. What if the visuals they see for the next 35 minutes aren’t memes or gifs but instead Biblical principles, Scripture, or other things connecting to the sermon? Use what is familiar to them but for a different and Godly purpose.
3. Keep Momentum – Using things like slides assists me in establishing that forward drive of the sermon. We aren’t on any slide very long and so the audience (hopefully) doesn’t feel bogged down or bored. There’s a sense of movement to it all because even down to the visuals, we are pressing on.

There is the Easy Win: incorporating visuals as a means of enhancing the sermon’s impact and influence. 

Have you employed visuals like this before? Did you see good results? Have you had a visual go completely wrong? What other tips or things to consider might be helpful? Let me know in the comments.

**Be sure to check out the Easy Wins page on the blog where you will find more topics just like this. No expensive course or paywall here – my goal for the series is to bless and help others as they seek to improve. 

If you have a topic or question about preaching you’d like to see addressed here, email me at joshhumbert@gmailcom. If you’re interested in me delivering these as live training/development sessions, just email me that as well.**

Thanks for reading. Your comments and insights are always welcomed. If you enjoyed this, please share it. Want more content? Check the archives, my youtube channel, or listen to me on the Cross-Cutting Culture Podcast. Follow if you want to subscribe and always get the latest.