Good Day All
I need some advice please. I am a reformed pastor in South Africa, just starting out in full time ministry and I need to seriously build my library (especially commentaries and other exegetical resources). So I am considering Logos (I am currently using Bibleworks and e-sword, so I have the resources available on those programmes).
So essentially I would like some advice firstly on,
1. Where do I buy this in SA (can I only by directly from Logos)?
2. Where do I start, what is a good base package (budget is R10 000.00 which is about $ 780, I can push to $ 800)? Or would you recommend I star very basic and buy modules that I find useful?
My main concern currently is good commentaries. I have a few hardcopy commentaries no complete ( or even close to complete) series. Only on e-sword do I have the free ones available like Calvin, Matthew Henry and so on.
I would much appreciate your help please.
Thank you
Jacques Prince
Hi Jacques - and welcome to the forums.
Jacques Prince:1. Where do I buy this in SA (can I only by directly from Logos)?
You buy resources directly from Logos - either through their website or via a salesperson - contact details at https://www.logos.com/contact
Jacques Prince: 2. Where do I start, what is a good base package (budget is R10 000.00 which is about $ 780, I can push to $ 800)? Or would you recommend I star very basic and buy modules that I find useful? My main concern currently is good commentaries. I have a few hardcopy commentaries no complete ( or even close to complete) series. Only on e-sword do I have the free ones available like Calvin, Matthew Henry and so on.
You will find that there are many different views on this - to outline a couple:
Some options to think about:
Probably the best option is to go for one of the Starter packages to get some of the core resources such as Bibles and some basic reference tools and then look at the commentary sets
But well worth contacting a salesperson and explaining what you want and seeing what they can advise
Hope this helps, Graham
Thank you Graham
Your suggestions are appreciated and I will certainly keep your advice in mind. I have also now contacted the salesteam and will see what they suggest.
May the Lord bless you!
Also you can do a payment plan if you find that you want more than your $800 will currently allow you to purchase. You'll find that option available when you put something in your cart over $100.
Author of the Chronological Word Truth Life Bible Series
WordTruthLifeBible.com
Jacques Prince: So essentially I would like some advice firstly on, 1. Where do I buy this in SA (can I only by directly from Logos)? 2. Where do I start, what is a good base package (budget is R10 000.00 which is about $ 780, I can push to $ 800)? Or would you recommend I star very basic and buy modules that I find useful? My main concern currently is good commentaries.
My main concern currently is good commentaries.
First, welcome to the forums, Jacques.
What part of SA? I was able to spend a few weeks over there about ten years ago, working on a ministry project that my wife's parents have over there in Mmametlhake.
To answer your questions, Graham gave some good advice. You budget won't let you start with a lot and Logos is very expensive. The average library in Logos would run R50,000 or more. Be sure you will have the ability to invest more than your initial money or you may become very frustrated.
The Reformed Bronze base package is a logical starting place, but it does not have a large number of commentaries. Silver adds the Focus on the Bible set, an excellent reformed set, but goes well over your budget.
Reformed Starter would leave you with about $400 in your budget to buy specific commentaries; you might look at that option if there is a particular set you want. You'd need to assess which set(s) you really want and see if that would fit in your budget.
Be careful of the payment plan option. That's a very American idea, but I don't believe going into debt is a good idea. I don't recommend it.
Hope this helps. Ask all the questions you wish and we will try to help.
My thanks to the various MVPs. Without them Logos would have died early. They were the only real help available.
Faithlife Corp. owes the MVPs free resources for life.
Jacques, welcome.
I would recommend you look at the base packages (reformed and standard) as well as look at some specific high quality commentaries you want. If you get a big base package you might not get the commentaries you really want (Pillar, Lenski, etc). You might be better off getting a smaller package and also purchasing the good commentaries you want.
On the other hand, the biggest bang for your buck is in the base packages so you will tend to get more resources for less money there. What you will really want to do is just spend a few hours on the site looking at all the pros and cons of each.
(OT: Do you know Joel James in Pretoria?)
Jacob HantlaPastor/Elder, Grace Bible Church gbcaz.org
Hi Doc
I am from Vereeniging, on the border of Gauteng en Free State, about 30 minutes drive to Johannesburg. Mmametlhake is about 2 hours drive from where I am, I've never been there though.
Thank you for the advice, I ended up going for a reformed starter and then added a few resources on which I received a generous discount. It has already been a great help in organising my ministry.
Hi Jacob
Thank you for the advice, I decided to go for the reformed starter and added a few commentaries, worked out well so far!
I can't say that the name Joel James rings any bells to be honest. Perhaps in future we may cross each other's path... the pastoring community (especially on the reformed side) is shrinking quite rapidly in South-Africa of late, unfortunately.
May the Lord Bless you!
Jacques
Jacques Prince:My main concern currently is good commentaries. I have a few hardcopy commentaries no complete ( or even close to complete) series. Only on e-sword do I have the free ones available like Calvin, Matthew Henry and so on.
Hi Jacques,
You may like to know that the Reformed Commentary bundle is currently available for $859.99. That's a great package: https://www.logos.com/product/51811/reformed-commentary-bundle. Perhaps you should add it to your wishlist, in case your budget ever grows!
Jacques,
You should look into meeting up with him. Great guy with a lot of ministry and pastoral training going on. http://www.gracefellowship.co.za with a sweet annual conference: http://www.gracefellowship.co.za/shepherds
I'm glad you figured out a set to get. You will be very happy with Logos. The more you use it and integrate it into your daily study the better it gets.
Jacques, moving to Logos was a great idea for me. Obviously going into debt is a bad idea - however. However, I went on a payment plan, and for me (I'm on Social Security disability and needed Logos to help launch a writing career) and it really took the sting out of the pretty steep (but worthwhile) startup cost.
As for commentaries - I own the paper version of the New Interpreter's Bible, and, working from a recliner, I swear those suckers are so heavy I can't breathe with one of them lying on my chest. Now I have the Logos version, and I'm wondering why I ever invested in those unwieldy books. There is no comparison. There is no way to search through those paper commentaries (ANY paper commentaries) as effectively and quickly as with the Logos ones.
Just one more thing: whether you're copying out Bible texts or citations from the commentaries, they paste into your Word document with full references that you can automatically footnote or list in a bibliography. I'm obviously not talking plagiarism here - the entire point is to cite there source properly.
Hope my experience helps.
Gerhard Venter
Georgia, USA
(Ons praat Afrikaans in die huis, ingeval jy Afrikaanssprekend is)
Dankie Gerhard
Ja ek praat die hemelse taal van moederskoot af ! Dankie vir die advies! Wat doen jy in die VSA?
I've been on Logos now for a year or so and I am enjoying it so much. Still need E-Sword and Bibleworks for the Afrikaans Bibles since I preach mainly in Afrikaans (just occasionally in English). I ended up going for the Reformed Starter and then added on a few great commentary packages like Tyndale, BST and Baker (later also Boice when it was on an unbelievable special). I also got the MacArthur pastoral package.
Groetnis
Vereeniging, Gauteng, SA