15" MacBook Pro

I’m seeing more and more preachers switching to the Mac as they upgrade their computer equipment. I made my switch nearly two years ago now. When people ask me my opinion on switching from PC to Mac all I can say is that it would take some major persuading to get me to switch back to PC.

When I moved to Danville, VA I was doing a live TV program. The graphics for the program were controlled by my computer. I would go into the studio and plug my Acer notebook into their control board and run the backdrop with PowerPoint. I was in front of green screen but what the audience saw was me standing in front of my PowerPoint presentation. I had not been doing the program long when my Acer crashed in the middle of a live broadcast. The next day I went to Office Depot and bought a Toshiba notebook. I had used a Toshiba before and really liked it so I thought this would be the answer to my TV production needs. WRONG! It didn’t take long until the presentation, graphics and video demands of doing the TV program were crashing my Toshiba. I had been thinking of switching to Mac for a while so when the Toshiba crashed in the middle of a live broadcast I decided I was done with PCs and would give Macs a try. I ordered the 13″ MacBook White that I’m writing on right now.

From the time I started using it I have not thought of switching back even for a second. As long as I used it on the live TV program I never had the first bit of technical difficulty. To the contrary, I was able to enhance and improve the presentation quality of the program as result of switching.

As I have compared Apple based software with Windows based software, Apple wins every time. The only thing that I have retained from Windows is my Bible software and some eBook applications.

The biggest objection I hear, and the one that kept me from switching until I was so fed up with Windows that I didn’t care, is that you will have to start over with all new software. However, that really isn’t true. When you see the difference between the Apple and the Windows software you will probably want to start using the Apple stuff, but you don’t have to. As I mentioned above, I still use Windows XP on my Mac. My PC Study Bible probably works better on my Mac than it did on my PCs. And I get some eBooks from people that don’t offer a Mac version so I use Windows XP for those.

So, how am I able to do my presentations in Keynote (Apple’s version of PowerPoint) and still do my Scripture references with PC Bible Study? I use a virtual machine application to run Windows XP within Mac OS X. I can have my Windows apps open right along side of my Mac apps. So, there is absolutely no reason not to switch.

If you haven’t had the kind of nightmare stories with your PC that I have then you may not be as motivated to switch, you’re also an endangered species that thinks Windows is a good OS. For you the motivation would be in the quality of the software applications and how they will effect your work. When I got my Mac I thought that I would continue to use my MS Office software (PowerPoint, Word, etc.). However, when I got a taste of Keynote (Apple’s presentation software) and Pages (Apple’s word processor and publisher software) I dropped MS Office like a hot potato.

Then there are all the other really great apps that are available for Apple that have no equivalent Windows counterpart. Some of the stuff I use nearly every day – Bento (database), Toast (DVD production), Espresso (text editor), Final Cut Express (video editor), Front Row (media player), Rapid Weaver (web design), etc., etc. I absolutely love the Mac OS X operating system and all the great applications you can get for it.

If you’re still in school I want you to go get a Mac today and then download these applications as soon as you take it out of the box:

• NoteBook – by Circus Ponies.
• The Hit List – by Potion Factory.
• Bento – by FileMaker.
• Evernote
• Dropbox

These applications, in conjunction with Keynote and Pages that come with your new Mac, will make your student life much easier and your teachers will love you for it. When I think back on my time in preaching school and how much these applications would have helped me I almost want to go back and do it again just so I can use these applications in school.

If you’re on the fence about switching to Mac then I hope this little testimonial will help you make up your mind. If you’re a Mac user let us hear your thoughts about switching. I’m betting there won’t be any Mac users that regret their choice.

These eight tips were first presented in “The Copywritter’s Handbook” by Bob Bly. I read them on one of my favorite blogs, CopyBlogger, and thought they related very strongly to what every preacher learns about the importance of effective sermon titles.

Here they are:

1. Direct Titles

   Bly calls them “Direct Headlines” but we’re talking sermon titles. This would simply be a direct statement concerning the sermon’s content. For example, “Great Missionaries Of The Bible.” These kinds of direct statements tell the audience what they are about to hear expounded. The hook is the interest in the statement key words – “Missionaries” and “Bible.” I’m interested in mission work and I’m interested in the Bible. I’m interested in the biblical accounts of God’s missionaries. I’m going to pay attention to this sermon!

2. Indirect Titles

   The indirect title (or headline) hooks on the audiences curiosity. These kinds of titles use double meaning to create curiosity. Like, “The Story Of The Tator Family.” People see that and think, “who are the Tators and what’s their story?” Well, the Tators are a metaphor for character traits that we either want to avoid or imitate. DicTator, ImiTator, SpecTator, etc. The sermon has nothing to do with a family named Tator, it has to do with a family of character traits.

3. News Title

   This is a title that draws attention based on a news story. I have used news titles from local news papers and from national news to great success in my lessons. Local news is very effective especially when you’re posting your sermon titles on a sign board or in the same local paper the news title came from. For example, “Issues Raised By The Death Of Terri Shiavo.”

4. The How To Title

   People love this kind of title! When you state in your title that you are going to tell people how to do something that they really want to know how to do, they will pay attention. For example, “How To Love Life And See Good Days,” “How To Handle The Word Of God,” “How To Be And Stay Saved.”

5. The Question Title

   Like the How To title, this one appeals to the audience’s desire to see a particular question answered. It may also appeal to an empathetic response from the audience. That is the, “yes, I’ve had that same question,” response. For example, “Is Once-Saved-Always-Saved True?,” “How Great Is Your Faith?,” “Is There A Universal Code Of Ethics?,” “What Must I Know In Order To Be Saved?,” “What Do I Want?,” “What Are You Willing To Put Up With?”

6. The Command Title

   The kind of title boldly tells the audience what they must do. For example, “Take Heed How You Hear!,” “Flee Idolatry!,” “Obey The Truth!,” “Fortify Your Family!” Notice, these kinds of titles are exclamations of actions that must be taken in order to accomplish a desired goal, i.e. salvation and faithfulness.

7. The # Reasons Why Title

   These titles don’t necessarily have to contain the words “Reasons Why” but they will point to the number of major heading in your sermon body. For example, the title of this article, “Eight Tips For Writing Effective Sermon Titles.” What do you get in the content of the article? Eight tips for writing effective sermon titles. Imagine that. Here are some sermon title examples, “Three Things God Desires,” “Three Parables For Judah,” “Four Great Gifts,” “Seven Things Needed For Your Faith.”

8. The Testimonial Title

   These titles give a testimonial regarding the biblical effect you want your audience to get. I know you have to be careful when using the word “testimonial” because of the denominational abuse of basing salvation on a persons “personal testimony.” This title would be something like, “I Read The Bible And Left The Catholic Church,” “I Am A Member Of The Church Of Christ Because…,” “Confessions Of A Former Mormon,” “I Was One Of Them But…”
   

Remember, no amount of cleverness on the part of the title can make up for poor content. Let me know your thoughts and examples on using titles like these.

Most people spend a lot of time online these days. A great deal of our reading material comes from various web pages on any give subject. Many times we stumble across things that interest us and we would like to read but we don’t have time when we find it. We think to ourselves, “I would really like to read that but I don’t have time right now, I’ll come back later,” only to go away and forget about it to never see it again. I’ve solved this problem with Evernote! Here’s how:

1. I installed the Evernote plug-in for Safari (they also have them for IE and Firefox).
2. I created a @read_later tag in Evernote.
3. When I’m browsing and I see something that I want to read, but not right now, I just click the Evernote button in my browser to send it to my Evernote inbox.
4. Later, when I’m processing my inbox, I can either read these web snaps or save them with the @read_later tag.
5. If its good material for a sermon or article I can slap a “Sermon Thoughts” or “Article Ideas” tag on it too.
6. Since I have Evernote on my iPhone I can catch up on my @read_later stuff when I’m waiting on appointments or any other downtime.

Evernote is a great way to capture and catalog just about any kind of information. After I read the stuff in my @read_later folder I just delete the tag and replace it with where I want that material to live permanently. Since there are no restrictions on how much stuff you can have in your Evernote account, only on how much you can upload per month, you can keep everything and always have it for future reference.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.