Organizing Illustrations & Sermons

Because there is not an option yet for a sermon add-on, how do you notate and organize your sermons and illustrations? I would like to have an electronic way of storing material, but I'm not great with coming with ideas of the easiest way to do this.

For example:

1) 8-page word document (sermon on John 1)

2) Web article as an illustration (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/flood.teenager/index.html?hpt=C1)

Any tips? How do you do it?

Joel

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Joel J.

By the way, I didn't mean that that story should be reduced to an illustration. It is an intense story that displays sacrifice, but should call us to pray for the hurting family.

steve clark

You might find that Favorites is well suited for this.

EDIT: Joel, if you think this might be useful to you, then let me know and later when i get home from Bible study i can post an example or 2.

Bob Schaefer

For example:

1) 8-page word document (sermon on John 1)

Hi, Joel...

For myself, I'm just going to wait until the Sermon File is released for L4. When I consider the capabilities it should have, it just doesn't seem worth it to spend a lot of time copying and pasting my sermons into note files or some other stopgap approach.

If you want to get started now, and don't mind having L3 installed alongside L4, you can always purchase the Sermon File right away, and start setting things up using L3. It's a little bit of a pain, but it should work in both L3 and L4. (I started doing that, and then abandoned the project. I'd rather wait - my sermons aren't going anywhere.)

2) Web article as an illustration (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/flood.teenager/index.html?hpt=C1)

Steve mentioned using Favorites for web articles. That's definitely a viable option. I personally tend to copy and paste the articles into a note file devoted to the topic of the article - this accomplishes two important things for me:

It makes the text of the article searchable within Logos.
It provides me with an archived copy of the article, in case the online version ceases to be available at some point in the future.

I'll include a line in the note file that provides the URL for the article in its original location, as well as the date I accessed it, in case I ever need to cite it in a bibliography.

The great thing about Logos is that there isn't one "right" or "best" way to do these things. Each of us is able to organize our research in the way that makes the most sense to us. [:)]

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/212989#Comment_212989

I personally tend to copy and paste the articles into a note file devoted to the topic of the article - this accomplishes two important things for me:

It makes the text of the article searchable within Logos.

It provides me with an archived copy of the article, in case the online version ceases to be available at some point in the future.

I'll include a line in the note file that provides the URL for the article in its original location, as well as the date I accessed it, in case I ever need to cite it in a bibliography.

This has been my approach as well and it has worked reasonable well except on articles with tables and graphics. L3 did a better job of containing the entire article; L4 does a better job on the search.

BillS

Because there is not an option yet for a sermon add-on, how do you notate and organize your sermons and illustrations? I would like to have an electronic way of storing material, but I'm not great with coming with ideas of the easiest way to do this.

For example:

1) 8-page word document (sermon on John 1)
2) Web article as an illustration (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/flood.teenager/index.html?hpt=C1)

Any tips? How do you do it?

Joel

Hi Joel,

I used to try to save illustrations by topic. But life is filled (as isScripture, application commentaries, news sources, & other on-line sources) with so many sources of good illustrations that I no longer try. Instead, I do 3 things for each message (I preach weekly). 1) I look for Scriptural illustrations, since I view part of my role as as helping people to understand the overall Bible story. 2) Absent a Scriptural illustration, I look for fresh illustrations that are current to the week's context. And 3) together with the other research (selected exegetical & application material from Logos resources along with several other carefully selected sermons on the same passage), I compile a weekly research document. In that research document is almost everything that'll make it into the weekly message. As each idea is used (my words), I highlight the source (attributed) in the research document.

It's a different story on sermons, though. There, I've organized them in two ways.

The original, I'll file by Scripture reference & title. (This past week's message file had the title "John 1_29-42 - Come & See.doc"). I also flle the week's research in a separate file named similarly ("John 1_29-42 - Research.doc"). Why store the research? It may help reduce the time required to do research in a subsequent sermon on all or part of the same passage. It'll also contain unused illustrations that may be relevant to a subsequent message. Both sermon & research file are stored in a folder bearing the name of the Bible book they're drawn from. (On those occasions it's more than one Scripture, I name the file that way & file both documents in both folders.)
If the sermon also has a strong affinity with a topic (more often, Easter, Father's/Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.), I'll create a link to the original & store the link in a folder bearing the topic name.

It's pretty flexible... Hope this helps.

Joel J.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/213085#Comment_213085

@BillS --

Thanks, Bill. This is not only helpful, but I deeply appreciate it.

I'd love to start a database of illustrations, but I think that you are right. With limited time in life, it is probably better to focus on research and sermons, allowing room for fresh/contemporary illustrations.

Your ideas about the organization are simple and very helpful. I will be starting to do that now. I've always hesitated because I didn't want to get stuck in a system that didn't work. The way that you described, though, sounds like it will work really well.

Thanks again. I appreciate it very much.

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/213133#Comment_213133

Thanks, Bill.

You are very welcome.

Blessings!