My concern is that there has been no broadening of the type of sermon/homily supported since the ineffective complaints to the sermon workflows in L7 (Frs. Damian and Devin were involved). I was reminded of that fact by a Lutheran's support for moving the sermon assistant outside the sermon builder. The primary failures of both the sermon builder and the sermon workflow include:
- the assumption of a single passage rather than multiple passages (think lectionary) as a text
- the assumption that the passage is Biblical: progressives have lectionaries that include New Testament apocrypha; Catholic allow sermons on the prayers of the Mass; . . .
- the assumption of a single lectionary - several mainline Protestants use the RCL and the Season of Creation
- the emphasis on the application as the primary sense of scripture ... without a nuanced understanding of application.
- utilizing the tool as a lesson maker is severely limited because of the lack of footnotes and tables.
If even some of these were covered we might see people not currently using Sermon Builder moving towards using it as a keystone of their Logos use. My personal suggestions - I'd love to see pastors speak up as to why they don't find the Sermon Builder useful.
- Quotations should fall within the Sermon assistant. It should have two modes: (1) the current one but possibly enhanced by AI selection of quotes and (2) curated quotes as in Quotation series for Catholics | Logos
- Illustrations should have a second mode drawing on traditional illustrations and teaching tales.
- Applications need a different adult audience break down running from contemplative, social justice activist, prayer-oriented for elderly & homebound, to faith formation (general Christian growth).
- Questions need an option to support both content or discussion questions. The questions dataset need to be expanded to include questions without printed answers to expand the Sermon Builder into a usable Lesson builder. Access to this dataset could be AI enhanced and through the sermon builder.
- A link between the creeds, statements of faith, etc. to the sermon content needs to be built. For many church goers, the sermon is the primary vehicle supporting an understanding of theology.
- Sermons may be for daily services and for Morning/Evening prayer which have somewhat smaller requirements are they are usual less formal and shorter
- Sermons may be based loosely on a weeks worth of readings - Thursday-Wednesday for those using the RCL daily lectionary along with the RCL
Please actively seek the input of those whose sermons don't fit into the Logos model (and may not fit into mine). Don't make cool, glitzy AI features make the Sermon Builder even more narrowly focused on a single style of preaching (and indirectly, of worship).