Sermon Builder help me to use it. My study and prep habits seem to be working against me!

I've searched and searched through the forums. I have limited time in trying to learn new tools, but I want to if it'll improve the production and quality of sermons. I'm the pastor of a small church, preparing two sermons in separate books a week and am the only employee of the church, so I have little time to be inefficient.

I recently upgraded to Logos 10 Silver. I've been using Logos since Logos 4 and this is my first feature upgrade since my initial purchase of L4. I was excited to have the sermons feature finally and want to use it. But it's really frustrating. The notes tool, sermon tool and clippings tool, seem like good ideas to all work together but I hate them. Clippings seems to be the most valuable, though I can't figure out how it incorporates into the sermon builder tool.

I also don't use slides in my sermons, but thought that the sermon builder's supposed ease might change my mind. I'd love to incorporate a few slides if it doesn't become a time consuming step.

I watched the video on all of the features but none of them helped completely. I understood them better after but I think the issue is that my archaic workflow is different from the tutorials. The person presenting doesn't think like me.

I thought the easiest thing would be to explain how I normally do sermon prep and see if some one can point me to the glaring issue with not understanding what I'm doing wrong. I think I just wanted it to be simpler. Like only doing the automations (tags, anchors, highlights, etc.) when I tell it to.

Also I only have a 13" MacBook Air screen so that real estate is valuable.

Here's my basic process:

I read the text, paper and Logos. I have a paper notebook next to me to jot down ideas that come to me quicker than I can type. (I'm not that old really but I think better with a pen and paper even if it's chicken scratch). I'm also a really slow typist with bad habits. Writing is just faster for me.

I highlight from open commentaries, do word studies, look up cross references etc. Maybe add a few things to clippings (I seem to understand this feature best). That's my initial study work on the sermon.

When I'm ready to do a draft of the sermon I open MS Word on a new desktop to my right, with Logos on one to the left. I swipe between the two as I work between Logos and Word.

In MS Word: I title the sermon. Copy and Paste the text I'm teaching once to read through to open the sermon.

Then Copy and Paste the Sermon text in BOLD in a different font. underneath.

Then write my sermon in-between the texts in a different for in between using header labels for my different sections.

It looks something like:

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, 

For now, what I want us to see is that Paul had to be asked to leave.

It seems like everywhere he goes there’s a reaction.

I point it out because it could be viewed as cowardly for Paul to have left by night, but it was practical and not his decision.

Paul seems like the type of guy who didn’t back down.

But I don’t think it was out of a desire to fight, but from a heart to see people saved.

"Winners of souls must first be weepers for souls." – Charles Spurgeon

Blank Space more notes...

Back in the Synagogue

and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 

etc. etc. etc.

This is just a sample, not even the best one but...

After I'm done with the sermon, I save it as a PDF and airdrop it onto my iPad to present it. The file gets saved in a folder on my computer (and backup), organized by Book (Genesis, Exodus, etc) and the file name has the date presented in it as well as the main passage.

I guess I was looking for it to be able to be more of a blank slate that I could start typing into without all of the blocks and separations automatically being created.

I also wanted to be able to paste my entire Bible text into the sermon and then work my way through the text putting notes in-between.

I like that I can type the Bible verse shortcuts and have the whole verse appear. I can't figure out how to make the notes portion useful since it just creates a hundred different notes for every idea I have about the text OR one big note that can't be separated when it's brought over into the sermon. I'd love to easily incorporate my cross-reference texts into slides for people to follow along.

So much of me wants this to work, I'm used to working with computers so that isn't normally the problem.

I already wasted a ton of my normal study time trying to force myself to use the tool this week but I didn't get anywhere productive.

Any ideas out there? What I missing? Am I the only person who prepares a teaching like this?

Thanks,

In Him,

Chris

P.S. Sorry for the novel length post