Sermon units data set

Phil Gons (Logos)

Please create a data set that helps preachers decide how many sermons to preach when preaching through a book of the Bible, whether they want to do a quicker overview, a detailed deep dive, or somewhere in between.

MJ. Smith

I would actually oppose this idea as written as a waste of resources, a cluttering of the application, and an undue narrowing of market focus. However, I think the idea has a kernel that is very useful. Expand the perspective to consider preachers, religious ed/Sunday school teachers, and general readers looking for an overview. Then look at the passages as:
- key passages to understanding the book i.e. those necessary for a quick overview
- expansions on the key passages i.e. what one needs for a deep dive
- excursus/digressions i.e. passages with content outside the main thread of the book.

I'd have no objections to finer cuts in the data as long as it remains focused on a broader audience and on the text flow of the book.

Phil Gons (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1332955#Comment_1332955

@mjespuiva-86 The aim is to help preachers who preach expositorally through a book of the Bible plan their sermon series. I've compared dozens of expository sermon series and noticed there are similarities in how preachers divide a book into portions to cover in each sermon. We're exploring helping preachers plan sermon series, and suggesting the numbers of sermons and where the divisions should be is part of what we're considering. Some preachers will go through a book in larger portions, others is a bit smaller portions, and others in very small portions. We have enough data in our own analyses of the structure of the Bible and in the sermons in our platform to produce a recommended set of sermon units for preaching through a book of the Bible quickly, at a moderate pace, and slowly. A preacher could, of course, ignore our recommendations and use their own or modify one of ours, but my hunch is that this would be a helpful tool for expository sermon series planning.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1332955#Comment_1332955

@phil-gons With the narrow focus, I have no interest in the data ... and I wouldn't trust a preacher who needed to use it :-) But if the preachers want it, more power to them.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1332955#Comment_1332955

@phil-gons Just an FYI that I can't edit into my previous post. In churches that use lectionaries, there are usually several books that are being read sequentially (or semi-sequentially) - the epistle, the Gospel, the reading for the Office of Readings ... these are frequently the basis of expository Bible study sessions. So the concept of what you are trying to do is familiar - but the context in which you envision it is less so.

MJ. Smith

This actually could become interesting if integrated with the data from the European preaching texts lectionaries.