Growing up, I went to a mixture of Churches of England and Pentecostal churches. Since moving to Australia as a teenager, I've always been a part of Pentecostal churches, even during the stint that my wife and I had in London. Obviously there are many differences between the two, but one of the more subtle ones is regarding the hymnals and bibles that accompany the Book of Common Prayer in the pews in the mainline churches. Pentecostal churches (in my experience at least) don't tend to do this.

Perhaps it's because the Pentecostal churches I've been to over the years don't tend to have pews as such. I think of the old cinema seats, and the individual plastic chairs, and the easily moveable bench rows - none of which lended themselves to the idea of having bibles put in the back of them. But perhaps it's also that many Pentecostal churches are remarkably 'new', meeting in buildings that are less than four hundred years old, singing songs that were written either in this century or the  last, and certainly not sticking to a formula for church that was found in a book (unless that book is written by the pastor of a mega-church, suggesting that singing, notices and sermon, possibly with communion thrown in somewhere is a good format).

Doing things 'by the book' is just not the Pentecostal way. Of course, if that book is the Holy Bible, then the argument falls flat, but that's not what this article is about. What I'm talking about is the provision of paper to each congregation member. And actually Pentecostal churches have often been very good at this, sometimes handing out wads of paper to each person who arrives at the door, so that they have an A5 notice about the upcoming women's conference to stick on their fridge - presumably next to the same notice that they received the previous week. But even this is starting to fade, as churches discover PowerPoint for their notices.

Song words have long been displayed using overhead projectors - with the move to computer projectors being still relatively new. Some preachers are even using them for their sermon notes, and this is perhaps where I see a danger appearing.

When preachers display their sermon notes on the screen, people no longer need to look up the relevant Scriptures in their Bibles, and soon stop bringing Bibles to church with them at all.

Clearly there's value in the Pentecostal churches encouraging the congregation to bring their own bibles along with them. It means they can stick a bookmark (perhaps one of the adverts for the women's conference) into the particular page which stirred something in them, so that when they next pull their Bible out, they can turn to it and be reminded of the message they heard. If you're using the Bible that is provided for you, then you may not have this advantage. But you can't bookmark something that just appears on the screen above the preacher's head.

So if you're a preacher and you use PowerPoint for your sermons (which I do encourage - as people are often more likely to pay attention if your main points are on the screen for them to read), please try different ways of encouraging your listeners to actually turn in their own Bibles to the verses. If nothing else, they'll get practised at opening their Bibles and finding particular Scriptures. That entertaining moment of explaining to someone that the book of Amos is really easy to find (because it's just before Obadiah) may not be a good idea for the fact that newer Christians may feel a little alienated by the laughter of the people who know the order of the minor prophets, but the benefit of actually getting people to get their Bibles out is very useful.

When I'm training, I encourage my students to try things out while I'm talking to them. If I've explained how to write a database query, I get them to try it out, not only during lab times, but also while I'm explaining it, so that they can get a feel for the concepts. Preachers don't tend to give much time for the congregation to do their own research, but it's not a bad thing. But if your church is paperless, it's almost impossible.

(NB: I rate electronic bibles to be the same as having a paper bible with you - the point is whether your people have come armed or not)