Why I Use My IPAD to Preach?

When I first started preaching I preached from handwritten notes that were on paper that I cut and punched holes in to fit into my Schofield loose leaf Bible and it made it easier for me because I always had my Bible with me. I prepared my notes by handwriting them the whole time I evangelized which was well over eleven years. I was not long after I started pastoring in Rome, GA that I began to use Microsoft Word to process my notes on computer and I would print them out on legal size paper, punch holes in the edge and carried them in a binder. I did my notes in this manner into my tenure here at New Chapel until about 2008. I bought a Sony Reader and would transfer my notes. I really thought I was uptown, but the Sony Reader was somewhat difficult for me. I really went from the Sony Reader back to my note binder and was never consistent with the Sony Reader. I bought my first IPAD in 2010 and am now using an ipad3. My main purpose in this purchase was for preaching and still is my main purpose for the IPAD. It has been a great transition over the last few years from my leather preaching binders, to Sony Reader, to my IPAD. I preface my explanation of how I love preaching from my IPAD with the understanding that this system may not be best for you, but it is the favorite of all the processes I have found for myself. After all these years of tweaking my personal notes this method has proven best for me. I am a manuscript preacher. I do want to make it clear I can preach without any notes in front of me, but I have found I seemingly can drive a thought home in the mind of the congregation when I preach a prepared manuscript. I copy and paste scriptures into my message where I want to use them and even highlight them in yellow. I often highlight key words or key phrases and color-code my manuscript to make it simpler for me to follow. If I use a power-point in my delivery I have the power-point slide number in BOLD type as to where it should be opened. I personally like to handle my own power-point while I preach. I do not like depending on someone else to do it for me as often I have to tell that individual when to open the next power-point slide and to me it takes away from the lesson or the message. Once I finish my manuscript, I save it formatted as both a PDF and Word documents. The reason I save it in both formats is simply that if I ever want to use the notes again, and I will, I can take the Word document and work with it as it is and still have the original message saved as I first preached it in PDF. I send the finished PDF manuscript to my email and open in my IPAD in IBOOKS and there I save it and open it for review and preaching. IBOOKS has clearly become the best option pertaining to simplicity in flipping through pages. If I simply preach from the PDF on my IPAD, one accidental swipe can cause me to move from page one to ten in the blink of an eye. IBOOKS for me is the key to effectively turning the pages during the delivery of the message while I am preaching. I take only my IPAD to the pulpit when I preach I lay it flat on the pulpit. In some churches the lighting causes a glare and I will find something to prop the top of the IPAD up to remove the glare. I usually have nothing with me at the pulpit but my IPAD. This may not be something everyone who uses an IPAD does, but it works for me. When I walk up to the pulpit, I simply hit the home button, swipe, and the manuscript is right there before me. I do not read my manuscript as I preach I simply glance down and take in the next few things I want to say and keep my eyes focused on the people as much as possible. The people sitting in the congregation cannot tell when I am flipping the pages on my ipad manuscript, and I like it that way. I am an older preacher as I am now well above 60 years old and was initially afraid I would appear flashy for preaching from an IPAD, but that quickly became a non-issue. I preach from my IPAD for the sake of efficiency, comfort and the ease of knowing my notes are right before me ready to be preached. I feel that over the years I have developed my manuscripts so that anyone can read them and use them. Except for a few grammatical errors and a few misspelled words (which by the way are less frequent because of spell check) my notes are in book form and are almost ready for the publisher. Just a note, I am not preparing these manuscripts for the publisher I am preparing them for the preacher, so I as the preacher can publish them publicly to the people. I love to study God’s Word. I love to write message manuscripts to preach and I love to preach the manuscripts that I write. I love preaching, especially good preaching. I am not saying I am a good preacher, but I do the best that I can to preach as good as I can, because God’s Word needs to be proclaimed boldly and clearly so that all who hear will be saved. I believe as a preacher of this great truth I must handle the Word of God with tender love and care. This is why I use my IPAD to preach.