Sermon Manager - Do you preach with ipad?

Shane Rice
Shane Rice Member Posts: 35
edited November 21 in English Forum

I'm curious how people use Sermon Manager, and if they actually use it to preach with. I'm specifically curious about iPad, but really any tablet. How has it been? Do you like it? Did you use it and stop? Why? Did you use paper notes before?

Is the Sermon Manager worth it if you do not preach from an iPad? Do you print outlines?

I'm really curious to see if and how others use it.

I didn't see many posts about it.

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Comments

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 32,454

    I'm curious how people use Sermon Manager, and if they actually use it to preach with.

    It's worth pointing out that, in Logos, preaching is not done through Sermon Manager - it is done through engaging with a Sermon Document created with the Sermon Builder. Sermon Manager is used to organise, tag and schedule services and series. I mention it as you might want to use the iPad for preaching (as I do) even without the Sermon Manager

    You might find the discussions at https://community.logos.com/forums/t/223071.aspx and https://community.logos.com/forums/t/212321.aspx helpful

    In brief - I preach regularly from the iPad (and have been doing so for many years). I create my sermon notes on Logos in my desktop and then use Preaching Mode on the iPad during the service. It works really well for me and I can only remember one or two issues during the years I have been doing it.

  • Scot Wright
    Scot Wright Member Posts: 164 ✭✭

    Hi Shane,

    I retired from parish ministry about ten years ago. My practice was to outline my sermon after a week of preparation on paper, and then preach from that. I now preach occasionally in Kenya and India and have found the ipad with Logos indispensable. Putting my notes on the ipad with the Logos sermon app works quite well. Organizing my sermons with the Sermon Manager is effective for me. I wish I had these tools when I was in full time parish ministry. Of course everyone has a different style. I would suggest that you give it a spin around the block and see if it works for you. I believe Logos has return policy for thirty days.

  • Shane Rice
    Shane Rice Member Posts: 35

    Thanks for the info, clearly, I don't own it right now, and don't know much about it. I'm curious how much it is used, and how useful it is. I don't want to get it, and then find I don't use it. I'm a very proficient computer user, and have used Bible apps for years, but Logos is a whole different animal. I do own it, and use it, but don't have the Sermon builder/manager.  I'm teetering on the edge of buying in, or not.

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,242 ✭✭✭

    I'm teetering on the edge of buying in, or not.

    I use Sermon Manager to archive titles & texts preached and map out future series.

    I use Sermon Builder to get a copy of my sermon into the Logos ecosystem so that my sermons appear in my searches.

    I use Microsoft Word and print out on dead trees each week because of the font/color/formatting options. I "cut and paste" my finished sermon into Sermon Builder (Sermon Document) which makes is searchable AND provides a quick way to get it into Proclaim where I customize my slides. I also save my WORD doc as a PDF and email it to my Kindle account.

    In the pulpit I have my sermon open in my kindle app on my Amazon Fire HD10 Tablet (purely as a backup), I have the Proclaim App open on my Tablet which I use to advance slides and do "telestrator" markups. I have a binder with 5.5x8.5 notes and my paper Bible.

    My Binder and Kindle run in the background 98 times out of 100. But a month ago when our building lost electricity 10 minutes into the service so that projectors, wifi & lights went dark, my kindle app permitted me to see my notes and I was able to hold my paper bible at an angle that allowed light through a window to make it fairly legible.

    https://community.logos.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/152/4454.redundant.jpg 

    Making Disciples!  Logos Ecosystem = Logos10 on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet) &  FaithlifeTV via Connect subscription.

  • Joseph Turner
    Joseph Turner Member Posts: 2,853 ✭✭✭

    I teach classes from my iPad using "sermon" documents. Obviously mine aren't sermons, but I like to teach through a text, so I can easily put in the verses I need with notes and other references in between. There are basic style changes that I have a system for. I did not like it at first because it's pretty simple, and now I like it for exactly that reason.

    Disclaimer:  I hate using messaging, texting, and email for real communication.  If anything that I type to you seems like anything other than humble and respectful, then I have not done a good job typing my thoughts.

  • Alan Monroe
    Alan Monroe Member Posts: 148 ✭✭

    I use an 11" iPad Pro for preaching. Works fantastic. Doesn't take up much room. Very easy to advance pages.

  • Morgan
    Morgan Member Posts: 458 ✭✭

    I preach from a Samsung A7 tablet. I have only ever had one issue with it in the past 6 months in which the sermons were not populating. I keep my phone as the backup if the tablet fizzes out. Some might call one such error a deal-breaker, but I've had far more struggles with printers then I have ever had with the tablet.

    My best practice is to make sure everything is synced up at home before leaving for church and to have all lessons already loaded on my tablet. If I can't do that by the time I leave home I've still plenty of time to fiddle with a printer.

  • Jonathan Spilger
    Jonathan Spilger Member Posts: 14

    I use an iPad for preaching all the time now.

    It's great to be able to make tweaks right up to the minute before I step into the pulpit. And having the file saved to the cloud and searchable during study time for future reference has ben great!

    You could try preaching from a PDF on your tablet for a couple weeks to try it out. Using the Logos app is still a bit easier, but this will give you an idea of what it's like.

  • Joey Midgett
    Joey Midgett Member Posts: 186

    I use Sermon Manager to organize my sermons and Sermon Builder to write my sermons and then preach from my iPad using Preach mode within Sermon Builder. I have yet to have an issue with it and it works better for me than printing, which I used to do.

  • Pastor Don Carpenter
    Pastor Don Carpenter Member Posts: 94 ✭✭

    I preach with Samsung Tablet and use PowerPoints created through the sermon builder.  In short, I believe the Sermon builder and Sermon manager to be the greatest additions to Logos in the last 10 years or so!  I have sermons archived and organized by passage since 2018 in the Logos program.  Any time I open a passage guide, If I have preached a message on that passage, the message shows up.  The fact that sermon builder generates Power Point type slides as I build the sermon is fantastic!  It saves a lot of time and generates something way better than I would do fooling around with Power Point on my own.  The added AI component of plugging in suggested illustrations takes it to a whole new level.

    The sermon manager has been wonderful helping me map out where I have been and where I am going in teaching and preaching the word to our folks.  Since I am old school and preach Sunday Morning, Sunday Night, and Wednesday night along with Sunday School, it can be a lot to keep track of.  I block out about two hours a week just to plan future sermon series.  That way I rarely sit at my computer thinking "what in the world am I going to preach this Sunday?"