Posted by Gary R Collins on October 5, 2009Comments 0
Can you remember the sermon from last Easter Sunday? This year we attended our daughter's church on Easter where the sermon, at most, was ten minutes long. The message was concise and to the point: the Resurrection of Jesus is all about changing lives both for now and for eternity.
The message stuck because it was preceded by the words of a young woman who emerged from the choir and talked for maybe 20 minutes about her descent into drug and alcohol addiction and her recovery when she met some believers who told her about Jesus. We all were mesmerized by her story. She painted a verbal image of how she had changed and the image and accompanying message stuck - at least with me.
There are other images, of course, including poetical, musical and video images. When I speak I try to use visual images even as I reduce the numbers of words on the screen. I want to use good images. I suspect that poor-quality clip-art images can undermine the impact of a good-quality, well-prepared message.
But all of this presents a big problem. How do we find quality images? This week I read a manuscript from a young psychologist who presented a lot of great facts but with almost no stories or other images. The book was factual but dull. When we discussed this, my friend noted that it is very time consuming to find good stories and good visual images. It is easier to use straight text.
About that time I got this message from a psychologist friend on the west coast: "I agree with you about the value if simple clear visual aids, but I find them an enormous challenge to develop. As I pondered this, I noted that your Newsletter [and your blog] has been virtually all text--including this one. That led me to wonder if you, too, find it difficult at times to come up with suitable visuals."
My friends are right. I don't discount the value of well chosen words but images also leave an impact. Even so, good images are not easy to find. Now that I have posted this blog I need to do something about my text heavy newsletter and blogs. Can you give me a month to correct this problem? I have a young techie friend who will help me start including images, message-carrying images, into my writing. Now that I have posted this promise on the blog, everybody who reads this can hold me accountable.
In the meantime, can you tell the rest of us where you get good images and how you use them?
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