Why a Mac in Church?
Posted on October 12, 2009
Well, I’m glad you asked. Up until about a year and a half ago when I bought my first Mac, I was very against the whole idea. I thought Macs were just overpriced, hard to use, and incompatible with the rest of the world. But then, after playing with a few of my friend’s Macs, I decided I was going to get one, and I’ve loved every minute of it.
But I digress, the reason we’re here is to find out why someone would want to use a Mac in church rather than a PC. First of all, I believe that Macs are much better suited for multimedia. They come with many programs that out of the box are great for the average user when it comes to photo, video, and even sound. And if you’re someone who needs more than those programs offer, you can always try something from Adobe.
The second reason is ProPresenter. ProPresenter is the leading presentation software for the Mac. While programs such as MediaShout and EasyWorship are great for the PC, I believe ProPresenter does a much better job. Like everything else about a Mac, ProPresenter is very user friendly, and easy to pick up even for someone who has never even seen it before. It does a great job handling lyrics, backgrounds, videos, etc. Version 4 will be coming out soon, and it looks like it’s going to include many new and useful features. I can’t wait to check it out. One of the most interesting features I’ve seen is the apparent ease of importing PowerPoint presentations. Now, having not been able to test this firsthand, I can’t vouch for how easy it is, but they claim it’s pretty seamless. Stage Display is another very useful looking feature, which allows you to format a display specifically suited for those on stage.
Right now, the church I attend is using SongShow Plus, but I’m planning on upgrading to EasyWorship 2009 in the near future. SongShow is very outdated and hard to use, compared to all of the other products available. As much as I like EasyWorship, I would switch to ProPresenter in a heartbeat if we could afford the extra expense of purchasing a Mac. The main reason for that is I trust a Mac much more than a PC. I know this is going to stir up some debate, but that’s ok, I’m ready for it. I’ve had many more problems out of PC’s I’ve owned in the past than I’ve had from my MacBook Pro.
Those are just a couple of the reasons I would choose a Mac over a PC in a worship environment. The church I volunteer in actually uses a PC, but again, if it were up to me we would have a Mac. Disagree? You can find me on Twitter, @chaselivingston, I’d love to discuss the topic further. Also, for further discussion, please check out the forum, here.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Other posts by Chase Livingston
»
Tags: church, mac, propresenter
Comments
16 Responses to “Why a Mac in Church?”
-
Subscribe via RSS
RSS Subscribers
Comment Subscribers
Email Subscribers
Wait, I don’t remember writing this, ’cause I sure could have! I’d like to explore the differences in presentation software more thoroughly. EW is coming to the Mac in the somewhat-near future, and it does everything we want it to do…so what are we missing? Maybe it’s not what it can do but how it does it. A classic Mac vs. PC argument!
I agree. That’s definitely something we could continue over in the forum.
The extra expense for a Mac running ProPresenter is well worth it. We made the switch a few years back and haven’t looked back since. We haven’t had any technical issues with the Macs. It is a stand alone machine w/ nothing else loaded on it. It’s fast, works great, and since we purchased a site license all our tech team members from age 10 up are learning the program and using it in their own area. Remove the Mac vs. PC debate for a second and simply look at presentation programs. It’s a slam dunk for ProPresenter. (No I don’t work for them, just love their product and what it has done for our church presentations.)
Thanks for your comment Dave. I definitely agree with you, and hope one day we will have the money to be able to purchase a Mac for our church.
Dave, when you say stand alone, are you meaning it’s not on your network? or do you mean it’s dedicated for that one purpose? If you mean not on your network/internet, that seems challenging to get stuff done, which would be true for both Mac and PC in that situation. If you mean dedicated for the one purpose, then I’m with ya.
I think this discussion will continue beyond this topic over in our forum. I would love to see your continued opinions over there, Dave!
I bought my first Mac for Final Cut Pro. Now that we have Pro Presenter (which feels like it was designed by someone who actually runs worship lyrics), it’s the clear choice.
Paul
Thanks for your input, Paul. If you would like, join us over at the forum for some further discussion on this.
I appreciate seeing articles like this written, but I have to give an honest opinion here… This article is heavy on opinion with very little facts. I am a firm believer in the right tool for the job. I use a MacBook Pro pretty much full time, but I remain VERY realistic on the limitations of the platform and refuse to force it in places where it adds no significant value. I find Apple’s warranty options highly disappointing, and to be fair my hardware failure rates have been much higer across the board. I’m personally on my third battery in just over a year, my wife’s macbook needs a logic board and a replacement top case, and I’ve seen countless other MacBook/MBP systems requiring logic boards to replace failed video chips and other issues recently.
I also happen to really like ProPresenter. They were the first to break the mold and start offering more advanced presentation features. With version 4 they seem to have just barely pulled ahead as MediaShout and EasyWorship played catch up. The best thing ProPresenter has done here is force the other players to step up their game. Unless you need a specific feature that PP offers over the competition I would be highly unlikely to recommend to my customers a switch to the mac for presentations.
For a follow up I’d love to see a real break down feature by feature of the products and really show why ProPresenter kills the competition. You could also show what hardware is realistically needed on each platform and make a case to justify your position of getting the Mac in there. I’d love to read it!
Thanks!
Chris,
Thanks for your input, I value everyone’s opinion. I didn’t really intend this article to be an all factual article, however. It was mainly just to express my opinion on why someone would rather use a Mac than a PC in church. I am definitely thinking about working on a post (or series of posts) that compare ProPresenter to the others (namely EasyWorship and MediaShout). Maybe one day I’ll find the time and resources to be able to make that happen.
Again, thank you for your input, I hope you continue to be active in this community.
One issue I cannot look past is that you are paying for a luxury brand. It has been reported recently that 91% of people that buy a laptop over $1,000 buy Apple. Apple doesn’t even sell laptops under $1,000 (unless you buy refurb). While yes I agree Apple has great engineering and design, stable, in general more secure, and easy to use. One question you have to ask is, IS it really worth paying the 30+% premium?
Windows 7 is out now and it’s ridiculously easy to use, security software is free, and Microsoft give tons of free multimedia software as well, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, Live Mail. AND it runs smoothly on my 2-year-old $350 laptop.
I mean I love BMW’s, I know they are built-to-last, higher reliability, more enjoyable to drive, have more features included, etc. But does that mean it’s appropriate for all church leadership to drive BMW’s?
Whether it’s a personal computing decision, a business computing decision, or a religious non-profit computing decision, each one has to be looked at differently.
I firmly believe churches in all of these have the highest calling in being a good steward with our resources. If you are committed to fight against social in-justices how can you justify a luxury brand computer in your church? If there is a specific task in which you need an Apple to do that task effectively than I can understand.
Look at Fluid Desktop for PC, developed by Thirsty Media. It’s very easy to use, has all the features of ProPresenter 4 at 1/3 the cost. I too would appreciate a full comparison review.
I’d have to say I completely agree with Chris. It’s our responsibility to find the best tool for the job (whether mac or PC) and not let our personal bias drive our decisions.
John,
Posted my reply in the forum to keep things simple.
What forum, wheres this forum, HELP!!!
OK, now I feel really dumb, I found it!
Here’s the link to the forum thread again:
http://forum.churchtechmatters.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=34
Well wouldn’t a PC be a better use of God’s money? Depending on how much better the Mac would be I guess
on the good side, propresenter is soon to be on the PC! and a BETA can already be downloaded!