What Software do you use for sermon prep and tracking?
What software do you use to:
(1) Prepare sermons (after LOGOS of course 
(2) Plan future messages
(3) Organize message series
(4) Track what you've preached, when and where
(5) etc
Thanks
Pastor James
Comments
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James Alexander said:
What software do you use to:
(1) Prepare sermons (after LOGOS of course
I use WordPerfect (like Word but less expensive and IMHO, a better word processor). I keep all my sermons in a directory, and store them, by age, in several sub-directories.
James Alexander said:(2) Plan future messages
(3) Organize message series
Also WordPerfect. I have a subdirectory under my "Messages" directory called "Notes and Planning." I use one file for each series.
James Alexander said:(4) Track what you've preached, when and where
I have a WordPerfect file, just for that purpose. I created a table that includes the date, message title, Scripture passage, and misc. notes. I also use this to do some message planning, as I look ahead at seasonal things (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc.), and let's me look back to find messages on a passage, and what I did for (e.g.) Thanksgiving for the years since I started tracking this.
The Sermon File Addin (for Libronix) had some other tracking/finding capabilities that I have often found helpful, but I haven't used it since I started using Logos4 (can't wait till it's released for L4!).
I have tried a few other ways of doing this, but, in the end simple and all in one place works best for me. Usually I can find what I'm looking for with just the above organizational methods. Sometimes Google Desktop search helps me find what I'm looking for.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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James Alexander said:
What software do you use to:
I use Openoffice.org Writer. I have used a spreadsheet from time to time to organize long term plans but it's rarely kept up to date.
I Open my Document and in the File -> Properties I include, title, passage and the date and location preached in the document notes.
In My spreadsheet I've got the Weeks laid out with titles in another column, and I hot link them together to the wordpro documents.
I had been doing the tracking with sermon file addin in L3, but not since starting with L4 at all (and I've got a massive backlog to bring into L4 once sermon file makes it.
Beyond that all of my messages are saved in a rather robust directory and subdirectory structure.
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Well, I have a mac, so this may be different for you if you have Windows.
But, for sermon tracking I simply store them in a folder and tag them in the "comments" section with the scripture and date reference on 'get info' for the file. This way I can easily search by scripture or date and find the sermons I've preached.
For writing the sermons, I use Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, using a basic outline format
When I plan out series, I generally use Excel - but I prefer lectionary preaching over series preaching as I find it keeps me truer to the textual message
For sermon illustrations, I use "Books" - a free program for Macs. It allows me to log books or files and add keywords, files, etc. I use an RSS reader and anytime I find an article that could possibly be a sermon illustration, I email it to myself. I then print the articles to pdf and attach them to the program. This way when I prepare my sermon, I search by topic keyword (after doing my exegesis and figuring out my message) and get a list of all illustrations that match. For more info on how I do this, send me a message. Logos also has an option to give you illustrations based on suggested topics for a passage - but you have to have some illustration resources in your library to begin with. I have 1 I think, so it's only marginally helpful at this point. Also, remember that you can set up an RSS feed for any Google News search. I have RSS feeds for anytime "miracle" and "answered prayer" show up in any news article anywhere in the world as long as it's online.
Pastor, seminary trustee, and app developer. Check out my latest app for churches: The Church App
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James:
Though I attended school 30 years ago, my experience in the pulpit has been much more recent that that. Having said that, here are some answers to your questions:
[quote](1) Prepare sermons (after LOGOS of course
I use a number of tools. I use MS OneNote and David Michael's TheJournal to organize my LOGOS material. I expect that LOGOS Notes will be up to it at some point, but I will have so much (time and energy) invested in these tools, I will not want to switch.
I use OpenOffice or LibreOffice (depending which machine I am using) to actually prepare my sermon outlines. OpenOffice when through some changes last fall - at which point it started to be developed by two separate teams. At this point, they are not too different, but who knows about the future.
[quote](2) Plan future messages
(3) Organize message series
(4) Track what you've preached, when and whereI use google docs to to all three of these - I use the spread sheet function, one sheet per year - though I see no reason I could not use one sheet to track all my sermons, but started adding sheets for each year early on. I suspect an MS Access database could do this, but I do not own Access.
I also publish my sermon outlines on my blog - which allows me to archive my sermons.
Probably not as complete as others - but a place to start.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
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After Logos, I use MS Word to write my sermons, MS PowerPoint to display my sermons, and MS Excel to track my sermons (because that is what I have and am familiar with). Having read some of the above comments, I'm interested in looking up some of this other software and I'd really like to see the imput of those who are using some of the tools that Logos provides.
Rich
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I use SermonBase Message Planning software to track all of my Series and Messages throughout the year. It also allows me to plan out individual messages elements like Intro, Conc, Mains, the Goals for my sermons, and associated Music, Illustrations, and testimonies.
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Thanks for all of the responses. I have tried most of them, but I'm still not satisfied. The Microsoft and related apps work but they don't allow me the planning and tracking that I'm looking for (maybe just a lack of knowledge on my part). The sermon base package is ok, but is too expensive for what you are getting (imho). If LOGOS would just come up with the perfect answer [;)]
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James Alexander said:
I have tried most of them, but I'm still not satisfied.
I'm not a minister but we do take turns giving devotions in meetings. I keep track of a lot of my devotions using "Sermon Library" from Legacy of Love. It includes a free trial to see if you like it or not. A lot of features as well.http://www.legacyoflove.net/
It also sounds as if Logos will be taking a new approach with their sermon file add-on. http://www.logos.com/4/missingfeatures
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James,
You infer that you want to plan and track your sermons better, what specifically are you looking at doing?
Let me explain where I am coming from: I am a very relational person...I am not-at-all a detailed person, so it can be challenging for me to plan what I will be preaching on next. To help me with that, I divide the Bible into three areas: O.T., Gospels and Acts, and Epistles. My plan is to preach through a gospel (or Acts), then an epistle (or two) and then an Old Testament book. I also have the liberty to change the order of those three as I feel led by the Holy Spirit. So in the two years that I've been at my present position I started with Colossians, preached through Jonah, and then the Gospel of Mark and now am doing selective Psalms (mainly ones not normally preached on). After Memorial Day, I'll start Hebrews and that will take me up to the Advent, which I want to expound. Come 2012, I'm praying about preaching through Judges and then the Gospel of Luke. All this from a man who has a desk somewhere under all that paperwork!
I have never been a very organized person, but with the help of my wife and, of course, the Holy Spirit, I have a bit of a plan based on what my congregation needs to hear and learn, and I pray that I can do the best job possible to lead them the way God wants His flock to go.
I hope that this helps, and I know that there are many more shepherds out there who can help you and encourage you in this process. If you would like to see my spreadsheets, feel free to contact me (I think people can send "personal messages" right?), and I'll send it to you.
God bless brother,
Rich
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Let me try to explain myself better. I am currently working full time in a secular job for another 2 years. I am not the senior pastor at my church, but do preach there about 15 times a year. I have also done pulpit supply preaching at a variety of other churches (now that I'm done with seminary, I hope to expand in this area). I prefer expository preaching over topical, but my pastor is 100% topical. I have been able for the last several years to preach a 5 week series in the summer, but most of my preaching is one or two weeks at a time.
I am getting to the point that I get confused trying remember if I already spoke on a certain passage or topic and at what church. So, short-term I'm looking for something that will help me keep track of what I've preached, when and where. Long-term, I want something more sophisticated that will meet these short-term goals and help me plan out sermon series, and be able to see what passages I've used (i.e. have I referenced John in 47 or my last 100 messages, but I've never used a Psalm etc)
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Rick,
Program looks interesting, but I'm a MAC.
Does anyone have any insight into what the sermon addin will do?
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I like your parenthesis! To know if a person has referenced a passage within a given period of time would be vitally helpful. I know that I have run into that problem a couple times as I've prepared HOME Bible Study notes that accompany my sermons.
You have a much more difficult time tracking your sermons since it is topical and not expository, but I think a good spreadsheet would still be able to help you. Currently I have the following columns in my spreadsheet:
Date Text Title Topic or Key Ideas Suggested Songs or Scritpure to be read Type of Psalm (for current series only)
(Man, I've got to learn how to be "high speed" like some on this forum and post a picture of what I'm talking about!!!)
Something you might consider would be to set up a spreadsheet with the following columns:
Text (I'd list these in Biblical order) Title Topic Date Additional Scripture Used or Notes
This way the first thing you'd see would be if you had used a particular text or not, and then you could see when you had used it. It would be more complicated to look at the final column and see what other texts you had referred to, but you would at least have it recorded.
Just something to think about,
Rich
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And I'm a PC[:P]
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Here is a pic of my SermonBase records listing the Date, Message Title, Series Title, Speaker, also Drama, Music, Video and Testimony.
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I use MS Word for writing my sermons and also I preach from it (I do from my notebook).
I use PowerPoint to show visuals with my sermon.
I use OneNote to store my notes and ideas for the preparation, also Logos Notes and Clippings.
To track my sermons I see the Metadata of the doc files sufficient (you have a lot of information actually there).
I keep those sermons I preached abroad or in some other churches in a special folders.
I tried many possible ways in those 30 years I preach but this is what works best for me now.
Bohuslav
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James Alexander said:
Thanks for all of the responses. I have tried most of them, but I'm still not satisfied. The Microsoft and related apps work but they don't allow me the planning and tracking that I'm looking for (maybe just a lack of knowledge on my part).
If you have Office Pro, have you thought about designing your own database in Access?
It's the only tool I know of that allows you unlimited flexibility for how you want to store / retrieve / report the info...
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB0 -
I use Apple Numbers, their version of Excel. Just lay out tables for AM/PM/Wednesday with columns for sermon text, sermon title, theme, brief notes, date notes (holidays, events, etc). Makes it easy to keep it all straight and easy to search to find where I may have preached something similar. I also keep a table of sermon ideas.
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I use OneNote to store my notes and ideas for the preparation, also Logos Notes and Clippings.
I have not found a consistent way to use OneNote and would be interested in how you use it.
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Gene Britton said:
I have not found a consistent way to use OneNote and would be interested in how you use it.
Quick answer for now -
I use one notebook per series and one tab per sermon. The first entry in each tab is the scripture - usually in Greek or Hebrew and several translations. I will also include a stab at either structured English or a sentence diagram. Having worked in Computer Science for most of my career, I feel more comfortable with structured English but enjoy playing with sentence diagrams even with no formal training in their use.
I then include one entry for each resource - though occasionally I may include multiple resources (e.g. if I am looking up the definitions of a word, I may include several dictionary entries in a single entry) in a single entry. Sometimes I will print the resource to OneNote, sometimes I will copy and paste the resource into OneNote - the latter is preferred if I will be highlighting or commenting the text. Since I use a tablet PC I often find myself making handwritten notes as I study.
The final entry is a working teaching outline before actually moving on to the writing of the sermon.
The sermon, itself, is typed in OpenOffice (or, now, LibreOffice) - you can get an example of what the outlines look like by checking my blog, though I preach from a folded 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper printed on all four sections. I only modify them into a single column when transferring them to the blog.
I hope that gives you some idea of how I use OneNote - feel free to post questions. Like most of us, I still have much to learn - and enjoy doing so.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
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I just came across a free note taking program like OneNote, but it's for the Mac. It's called Growly Notes.
Installed it today. Haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, but it's promising.
The mind of man is the mill of God, not to grind chaff, but wheat. Thomas Manton | Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow. Richard Baxter
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Michael Ballai said:
I just came across a free note taking program like OneNote, but it's for the Mac. It's called Growly Notes.
Installed it today. Haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, but it's promising.
Another Mac app with some similarities to OneNote is Scrivener (they are also working on a Windows version). Scrivener, however, is not free, though it is an excellent program.
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I use Bento for tracking and planning studies (just link to the pdf's of the study itself), It's essentially a 'pretty' database system, useful for it's sorting and searching etc. Again it's not free, but I found slightly more flexible than Scrivener, which I found excellent as a notepad.
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Thanks Floyd,
Those are things that I can try.
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I have been playing with Bento and really like it. My question before I spend $50 to purchase Bento is Does anyone know what the Sermon Addin for LOGOS will do?????
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James Alexander said:
I have been playing with Bento and really like it. My question before I spend $50 to purchase Bento is Does anyone know what the Sermon Addin for LOGOS will do?????
The sermon file add-in (as it's implemented in Libronix) allows us to read, store, and search our sermon text, as well as look up by title, date, topic (we add), passage and tag (we tag). For example, I tagged my Easter messages with the tag "Easter" and now, if I want to look at how I've preached on Easter in the past, I can just open the resource index, scroll down to tags, click that and scroll to my desired tag.
It's really quite helpful.
But it doesn't (as implemented for Libronix), have a designed way to store or track other service elements (song of application, who led worship that day, e.g.). If you want to track those things, a spread sheet or database program may be your best bet, and may even supplement the Sermon File addin, if you choose to get it.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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I
use MS Word to write my sermons, MS Excel to track my sermons, and store my sermons
in Dropbox. Dropbox allows me to access my sermons from my desktop, laptop, ipad,
and android phone. Under master file "Sermons", I organize them by biblical
books in subfolders.0 -
Steve Clevenger said:
and store my sermons
in Dropbox.I also use Dropbox to store my sermon Word document and Powerpoint presentation, The reason is to have it available in case of HDD breakdown on my Notebook (what happened to me already).
Bohuslav
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Bohuslav Wojnar said:Steve Clevenger said:
and store my sermons
in Dropbox.I also use Dropbox to store my sermon Word document and Powerpoint presentation, The reason is to have it available in case of HDD breakdown on my Notebook (what happened to me already).
I do the same - but for a different reason. It lets me move between my desktop, my notebook, and my netbook - I don't have to worry about having the right computer with me as I develop the outline.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
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After trying several demo versions of software, I purchased and am using Notebook by Circus Ponies.
Thanks for all the help.
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Well, I could probably build an Access database, but OneNote impresses. It is indexed and fast. I have used it since version 1 where I work. And, it continues to improve.
It is in effect, a database. Once you learn its paradigm, it is easy to utilize.
I write in MS Word, send to iPad via Dropbox, then open in Pages.
On the PC, I am testing various tools for storage and database functions.
OneNote maintains MS Word formatting (has its own tools, too,)
You can customize tags, perhaps not in the way many would like, but it is pretty flexible.
I have looked at Sermon Library and Sermon Base. Sermon Base is overkill for what I want. Sermon Library is pretty good. SID errors out. Kerux is in beta for Access 2010.
But, OneNote may be a format that hopefully won't go away soon.
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James Alexander said:
What software do you use to:
(1) Prepare sermons (after LOGOS of course
(2) Plan future messages
(3) Organize message series
(4) Track what you've preached, when and where
(5) etc
I used the sermon file addin when I was using L3, but since upgrading to L4 I don't use it. I am old school and carry around a paper planner. Franklin Covey to be exact. Inside my planner I have a page for the 5 w's of what, where, when, why, and who. I keep track of all the places I preach. I alway keep track of school assignments.. everything I need I track in it. Now in the new digital age I do use the PlanPlus for Outlook to make a digital master copy of my 5 w's. Once the sermon file addin is released for L4 I will simply use my logos books to keep track. I have some note pages in my planner that is for any ideas I might catch. I use my planner and Logos 4 side by side sometimes to research some stuff. There again, it's my system and works for me. I am a PC and use Word to keep track of some things as well. All in all, my ideas on who and what to preach on come from my bible study using L4.
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James Alexander said:
What software do you use to:
(1) Prepare sermons (after LOGOS of course
(2) Plan future messages
(3) Organize message series
(4) Track what you've preached, when and where
(5) etc
Hi James,
A picture may help more than words...
By organizing files this way, I can use Windows search to find by date (if desired), I have both sermon & research notes organized & filed by Scripture passage--which as an expository preach I find to be much more helpful...
And when I preach from more than one passage (as you can see in examples below), I'll make a shortcut to the single copy of the file, rename it so the other passage is listed first, & then place the shortcut in the folder for the other book of the Bible that references this Scripture.
When I do preach topically or preach a series, I'll just add a folder whose name relfects the topic or series topic (which sort underneath the books of the Bible, which I'm looking for more often). And I'll put a shortcut to each message in the series / topic folder.
EDIT: If I wanted to keep track of where I'd preached it, Microsoft Word offers a tag in the document info that I'd use. Here's another picture:
Hope someone finds this useful...
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB0 -
Bill,
I've used much the same convention in naming and organizing my files as you.
[c] Great minds think alike. [c]
Sarcasm is my love language. Obviously I love you. 0 -
Hi Tom,
Cheers! [C] [Y]
I'd often thought about posting & even started one.... but I had the 1,000 words, no picture, & even I didn't want to read it. LOL. This a.m., I went the other route...
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB0 -
Excellent, Bill (and Thomas).
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I am a OneNote user, here is my basic structure
I do my sermon calendar for the next year in October (year running from Dec to Nov)1. Yearly notebooks
2. In each Notebook I have subnotebooks for Ministry areas
Preaching
Planning/Leading
Professional
Pastoral
Programming
Under the preaching notebook I lay out a sub-sub notebook for each series during the year, funeral preaching, Evening (Cowboy Church) and other
In each series notebook I have a tab
for research areas
for sermons with my own numbering system (series #, week in year, Sermon in Series) each sermon gets a note
Under each sermon there are sub-tabs for research personal notes, PDFs, articles, web materials etc.
I have used this organizing method since 1992, Incorporated OneNote since 2008. At this time I am Bi-vocational so I need a lot of up-front organizing to keep on track. The strength to planning a year in advance: I never wake up Monday morning and ask myself "what will I preach this Sunday?"
ymmv, but that's how I do it. Hope it helps
Bob
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Well I'm late to this party but find it good because I'm looking for something to help me continue on my task to becoming more organized. After 26 years of preaching weekly you'd think I'd have this down. LOL
I use word to write and to keep notes. My naming convention is by date, [today's is 20111031_sermon] likewise I'd put _bulletin for the bulletin. It keeps it together on my computer. I also try to email a copy of it to a separate gmail account so I've got a back up as well as keep HDD back ups at home and work.
For planning I've found Google Docs works well for plugging things in. I use a spreadsheet and have typical place for date, seasson, text, working title etc. But I've found I can share it with others and have an up to date list of greeters, fellowship hosts and anthems/special Music.
In addition I've got a cells for my Call to Worship, Hymns and even the Prayer of Confession. The only downside google docs is that it dosn't maintain format within the cells. I've been thinking of trying the "forms" feature to see if that would work.
Our church is also moving it's website and will be using Duplo (I think that's what it is called) which has a "Wordpress" plug in as part of it. I plan to use it for sharing sermon and perhaps another way of indexing.
The biggest problem I have is going back over some 12 years of 'hard copies' and tryting to figure out if any of them are really worth keeping.
Peace
Alan
Portland, OR
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Bill,
I would like to know how you organize your sermon folders on your computer. My husband is a preacher, and I would like to get his sermons organized in a way that he will less likely "misplace" them.
Is there a way you could show me more screen shots of your personal filing system?
I would appreciate it GREATLY. I have researching the best "skeleton" for filing sermons on the computer. My husband preaches mostly expository messages. He would probably have 3 main folders: Books of the Bible, Topical, Illustrations.
Kristian
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Hi Bill,
I saw that you were using OneNote. Are you aware that there is a OneNote version for the iPhone/iPad? I've tried it and it syncs with Microsoft's SkyDrive and then is available to your MS OneNote on your regular computer. I lucked out with MS earlier this year- my 5GB free account was increased to 25 GB!
Yours in the Risen Christ,
Wayne
Rev. Wayne M. Pask, Emeritus
Richmond,VA
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Kristian Lane said:
I would like to know how you organize your sermon folders on your computer. My husband is a preacher, and I would like to get his sermons organized in a way that he will less likely "misplace" them.
Others can say more about "organizing" - the one piece of advice I can suggest for not misplacing them is to store them on the cloud somewhere - SkyDrive (from Microsoft), Dropbox, etc. Storing them on your own computer makes the assumption you will never have a disk fail or never change computers. Storing them in the cloud makes the material available wherever your husband may be - at home, at the church, at the coffee shop, etc. Most of these tools handle syncing between the cloud and the multiple devices that may be used, assuming they have been connected to the web since a file was last updated.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
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HI Kristian,
Thanks for the question, and it sounds like you are doing it right in terms of the skeleton structure of creating folders for each of the books of the Bible, and various topics. But I bet you have run into the same problem which I had encountered, and that is that one sermon can fit under BOTH a "Book of the Bible" folder and a "Topical" folder. For example, a message on Galatians 5:22-23 could be placed in the Galatians folder, or it could go in the "Fruit of the Spirit" topical folder. What to do? You don't want to duplicate everything.
So the solution which I came up with was to create my own database software to track my sermons. So for my message on Galatians 5:22-23, I mark it as a Galatians message, and then I also mark it as a topical message on the fruit of the Spirit. Now when I do a search in the database software, I can look under either heading and find the same message.
The software was so useful for me, that I made it for other pastors too. It is called SermonBase and it is available on my site at HighPowerResources.com.
Hope that helps.
God's best to you,
bill
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I prepare all my sermons in Google docs/drive. I arrange them in folder by book, and I find Biblia.com to be an useful resource when I am not at my desktop (which has logos installed.)
I would not recommend using much formatting (especially in Word) if your sermons are also uploaded to the church website (painful personal experience!!)
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mab said:
I just came across a free note taking program like OneNote, but it's for the Mac.
It's not free but I understand that MS Word for Mac has the same functionality as OneNote when used in Notebook View. ...if you already have that.
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I recently purchased a Lenova Twist running Win 8. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it included a "FREE" copy of OneNote - separate from the trial version of MS Office that I don't expect to be using (I use LibreOffice). I don't know if this a new trend, but I found it convenient since I am a regular user of OneNote.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
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