Bible Study Magazine???

I am considering getting a subscription to this magazine. For those of you that have ordered this product, please tell me what you like about it? What are some of the negatives?

I have been recently asking questions about good begining bible study books. In a way, I am needing more assistance in the use of logos 4 to study. Until very recently, my study has been a commentary and the bible. I am likely going to add one book to learn how to study the bible. I am needing more help on how to use all these different resources. Is it just a matter of doing the "search" that I want and start reading what sources comes up?

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Comments

Randall Hartman

I know there are some people who are fans of the mag. I subscribed and quickly decided I was not one of the fans. I thought the mag would focus more on the theory and mechanics of Bible study using Logos. There is some of that but not as much as I thought.

It surprised me that it was common to read articles by people who were still in school. Rarely do I recall reading articles from established and well-known scholars. Perhaps using such academic heavy hitters would not appeal to most readers?

Also every time I got an issue I was annoyed by the big picture of some sort of religious "rock star" on the cover. I have no interest in, for example, how Mark Whats-His-Name studies the Bible. For some reason I would have loved to see pics on the cover of Dead Sea Scroll fragments or the Codex Siniaticus. Maybe the "feeling" I get from the cover is that the mag is about people when it is about the Bible.

Having now given my minor rant I will say that once in a while there were a few articles that were interesting. I think the magazine is doing well in a difficult time to be in the print magazine business. I sincerely wihs Logos well in there efforts and hope the mag is a huge success. It's just not for me.

Steven L. Spencer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69488#Comment_69488

I like the magazine (all in all). Some issues are better than others. But I have found some very insightful articles that have stimulated my thinking. Personally, I think this mag is worth subscribing to. And I am one that does not subscribe to magazines easily. But I enjoy receiving each new magazine.

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69501#Comment_69501

I like the magazine but don't expect it to be something it is not. it is not a serious scholarly journal. It is designed as a magazine for you to read and gain some insight if you are a lay person into studying the bible, how others study it, and it gives ideas about topics that teachers might want to cover for their classes, at least that is why I like it. If you are an average Christian person with out a theological education you will probably learn a lot from it. If you have a theological education it will be less useful for you. And it is not a howto for Logos 4.0. In fact, other than talking about available resources it doesn't have a lot of howto at all. Maybe a little TMI but it is for me a great bathroom read. Takes me about two weeks to get through. I really like the monthly articles on studying through a book. They are going through Hebrews first, which I hope to teach through in the coming year.

Michael Krogstad

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69578#Comment_69578

I would agree with the assessment of Kevin A. Purcell. For the money, it is a good read with some helpful links and tips both within Logos as well as for general study.

NetworkGeek

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69693#Comment_69693

I would love to see the magazine focus on in-depth articles how to "solve problems" using Logos. Take a particular study example and show how to use Logos to dissect it. A simplistic example is the one L4 blog, where the author states an excerpt of an article they read, where an assertion was made about Jesus (I forget what it was). But then the blog writer used syntax searching to analyze Jesus-nouns and verbs etc. to prove the author was probably inaccurate in what they said. Not all examples will disprove someone of course, but it would be great to see real-world examples of what academics-students-scholars are using Logos 4 and how they do it. I would buy that magazine if they had it!

Jim VanSchoonhoven

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69718#Comment_69718

I took the magazine for a year, hoping that it would be a useful tool for getting others into bible study, I did not think it was and I did not renew it.

I found very few how to articles which was what I was hoping to see. Lots and Lots of advertisements for books!

I teach others how to use bible programs in their studies and I was disappointed with the direction I saw in the magazine.

It does have a few very good articles on different subjects, but very few were actually centered on bible study.

In Christ,

Jim

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69730#Comment_69730

It does have a few very good articles on different subjects, but very few were actually centered on bible study.

Unless you mean something different than I do, this is really not true. The most recent edition, with John MacAruthur on the cover, has one interview with MacArthur, a word find, editor's letter, some news, book reviews, and three articles about how to do Bible study, one article that is part of a series of articles on studying Hebrews, and a bunch of other articles about topics related to biblical studies issues like where the Bible came from (five of them), translation (three of them) and others. So the whole thing is about studying the Bible.

BUT there is just a little that talks about studying the Bible with Logos software. That is not the intent.

I have grown to really enjoy the magazine and look forward to it. My "personal time" is much more enjoyable thanks to BSM.[:D]

Brandon Vaughn

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69730#Comment_69730

I had high hopes for the magazine, but have not renewed. Like many of the shortcomings already mentioned, I found that it tended to cater to a particular nitch of the faith (Piper, Driscoll, McArthur, and so on).

Tito

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69740#Comment_69740

I found the magazine very interesting even though it wasn't what I expected. I thought as many have thought that it dealt with how to use the software. Not really, but there are interesting articles. My only complaint is that there are only certain teachers. Even though I respect Piper, McArthur and so on I do believe they do not represent the only good teachers out there and of course they serve a particular view (niche probably) of Christianity as Brandon said. It would be good if they open it up to more engaging teachers even if sometimes not necessarily carry the view of the magazine editors.

Edwin Bowden

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69578#Comment_69578

I like the magazine but don't expect it to be something it is not. it is not a serious scholarly journal. It is designed as a magazine for you to read and gain some insight if you are a lay person into studying the bible, how others study it, and it gives ideas about topics that teachers might want to cover for their classes, at least that is why I like it. If you are an average Christian person with out a theological education you will probably learn a lot from it. If you have a theological education it will be less useful for you. And it is not a howto for Logos 4.0. In fact, other than talking about available resources it doesn't have a lot of howto at all. Maybe a little TMI but it is for me a great bathroom read. Takes me about two weeks to get through. I really like the monthly articles on studying through a book. They are going through Hebrews first, which I hope to teach through in the coming year.

I agree with Kevin's assessment.

I subscribed when it was first announced, even though I wasn't sure exactly what to expect when it was first announced.

It is interesting and has some useful info. I do not find it to be "must reading".

I did renew my subscription (which included a free Logos book).

Jim VanSchoonhoven

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69740#Comment_69740

Kevin, I think we may not be talking about the same thing, but even if we are and looked at the magazine through your eyes, go back and look at all the magazines for the last year and add up how many articles really are centered on helping people to learn how to do better bible studies, and compare how many articles are centered on other topics.

On top of that look a how many pages were advertisement, now look back at my statement. Is it really not true? I said there are a few very good artcles on different subjects(true or false) but that very few were actually centered on bibe study (true or false).

Now it might just me, but a Magazine called Bible Study Magazine, should be mainly about bible study!

In Christ,

Jim

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69767#Comment_69767

Bible study? Do you mean using Logos to study the Bible and you want articles on how to do that? No BSM is not for you. Do you mean study the Bible in general and you want articles that relate to topics that people will study in the Bible? Yes it is all there. The majority is about that. You may not be interested in the topics they select in a given issue. But they are all about issues in Bible study. Background, language study, character studies, etc. Are many of them step by step how to articles? No. But they are mostly about issues that relate to studying the Bible.

So to answer your question. Most of the artciles are about Bible study. But not about how to do bible study. Who said it was "how to do bible study magazine"? If that is what you want you will have to go elsewhere. But you will get a little of that in BSM.

As for ads, what do you want? A $30 a month journal or a magazine. All magazines have a lot of ads. I don't think BSM is any more than most and actually is a little less than many of the mags I read. After all magazine publishing is an ad driven business. Subscriptions really only pay for delivery usually. It is the ads that pay the bills.

But your statement "very few are centered on Bible study" is NOT true. Most are centered on the study of the Bible. Almost all. And of the ones that are not, the interview, the word search, the book reviews, they are of interest to people who do study the Bible since they are interviews of people usually who teach/preach the Bible and how they do their study. The news is about issues related to BIble and Bible study. And the book reviews are usually of books related to Bible study.

Paul Strickert

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69857#Comment_69857

I'll admit that I only saw a sample copy of BSM. It did not impress me, though. I couldn't help but conclude that I'd be paying Logos to bombard me with ads for their products. Why would I want to do that?

Jim VanSchoonhoven

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69865#Comment_69865

Kevin, we disagree, we do not see this the same, I said in my very first post, that I teach people how to study the bible and was hoping this would be a useful tool for doing that, I don't believe it is.

I made it clear up front what purpose I was hoping this magazine would accomplish. In most schools a course titled Bible Study is about how to study the bible, and I thought it was being used in the same way as the title of the magazine, I was wrong, and that is why I dropped the Magazine.

It has some great articles on different topics that we can all study, but that is not what I thought a magazine put out by a bible software company would be about,... with the title Bible Study Magazine! And to be honest, if I am looking for articles on different bible topics I use my Journals.

I was not expecting it to even be about Logos, but rather how to study the bible, I even had hopes that they would cover how to use other programs to study the bible as well as Logos and even articles on how to study the old fashion way with books. I was hoping they would guide people on how to use different types of reference books, instead I find most of their articles about topics that are of biblical nature but for the most part do not help people to learn how to study the bible for themselves.

As a Pastor I have found that by actually teaching other believers how to study for themselves I have seen the most growth in them. I really assumed that Logos was putting out a publication geared towards that purpose. At least with the name Bible Study Magazine. Like is said, I was wrong, and that is why I no longer get the magazine.

I wanted the person that started the thread to know what he is getting, if he is looking for help on how to actually study the bible he will not get very much of it in Bible Study Magazine, but he may not care, he may be looking for articles like you are talking about. And the advertisements may be just what he wants.

In Christ,

Jim

Ward Walker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69893#Comment_69893

I bought it for my wife (to go with her bass boat), and I browse it too.

Oddly enough, it was how I found out Logos 4 had been released...I completely missed that info any other way.

I am surprised by the heavy advertising of print media--it's like selling cigarettes to non-smokers. I wish that Logos-friendly third party publishers would start advertising instead...they keep too low a profile in my opinion.

SteveF

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/70666#Comment_70666

they keep too low a profile in my opinion.

Probably with good reason. Recently, even in these Forums, many took shots at (or totally misunderstood) the concept and role of legitimate re-sellers, thinking that these companies or valid "Mom & Pop" operations were "stealing" from the Logos "mother-ship.' And unfortunately, even one official Logos poster added even more confusion to that "bonfire." So...they may be just "keeping their heads down."?

Regards

Steve

[Disclaimer - I am not affiliated in any way with ANY re-seller, but yes, I also use them - and yes, Logos "permits" &-supplies them or else they would have no product to sell.]

Daniel Arnott

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69762#Comment_69762

Tito

Just a quick question. How do you mean that Piper etc. serve a niche view of Christianity?

Dan

Tito

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72115#Comment_72115

Hi Daniel,

Hopefully I didn't offend you with my comment if I did i'm sorry because that was not my intention. What I meant is that there are other teachers, like Jack Hayford from the Charismatic movement and others but they are not included. Nothing against Baptists or Evangelical teachers either that appear in the magazine which have blessed me immensely but a magazine about Bible Study, in my humblest opinion, can be enriched by the different approaches, methods of study from different branches of christianity not just one or two sectors. It's a Non-denominational publication but there are not many denominations included... Once again just my opinion.

Pat Flanakin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72552#Comment_72552

I have no use for it. I saw one issue and found it to be much like the other pop-Christian stuff of late.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72554#Comment_72554

I subscribed with high hopes but I won't renew because it simply isn't what I expected. Overall, I find the magazine's articles lack depth and the observations regarding the amount of advertising are, in my opinion, valid (roughly a third of the publication tends to be ads). I would offer Ligonier Ministries' excellent "TableTalk" magazine as a contrast ... it is consistently a more engaging and challenging read (and includes a monthly bible study) than anything I've seen in BSM.

Daniel Arnott

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72552#Comment_72552

Hi Tito

Thanks and don't worry I wasn't offended. Just intrigued as to the wording. Totally agree, a good balance of good teachers.

Dan

Wayne Quernemoen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/69857#Comment_69857

I am looking forward to my first copy of this magazine. There seems to be a long turnaround between subscribing, and getting the magazine. Perhaps this is just impatience on my part?

I'd like to suggest some method of obtaining back issues. Just simply having an archive of PDFs may not be the answer, but perhaps a small fee for access to a limited library of articles could be workable. Or, if enough extra copies are leftover from each publication, offer them for sale until there are no more? I guess it's obvious I'm not in the publishing business!

Thank you for the forum and allowing a few minor suggestions.

Wayne Quernemoen

William

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/98025#Comment_98025

Or, if enough extra copies are leftover from each publication, offer them for sale until there are no more?

You can order past issues for 2.95 each issue. just call logos. I am also getting anxious for my first to come out. I would think that by xxx date they would just start with the next issue instead of the current one. And since they come out every other month it does seem a bit lengthy on the wait.

Chuck P.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/98189#Comment_98189

"And since they come out every other month"

They come out every 2 months.....6 per year....

Friedrich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72590#Comment_72590

the magazine's articles lack depth

I find this a bit odd. Certainly there IS a lot of "pop fluff", and to a degree, I am glad there is, because that is were some people are. And though I like "in depth critical thinking and analysis", I occasionally like to read about Kutless and Kaye Arthur, etc. Kind of like life: ebbs and flows between those various approaches and experiences.

I confess i don't know "table talk", have never heard it, let alone seen it. But BSM, imo, does have "in depth articles" that go over some people's head. It also has monthly (heck, a two year running) study, currently on Hebrews. Perhaps you are referring to the overall approach, that BSM is not as overtly "in depth" as TT?

Sharon

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/72554#Comment_72554

I have no use for it. I saw one issue and found it to be much like the other pop-Christian stuff of late.

I sadly agree.