TIP of the day: Sermon Starter Guide part 4 - Thematic Outlines and Journals

1.  While the Sermon Starter Guide will contain a Thematic Outlines section regardless of how it is invoked, the results are different. For Preaching Themes, the Search is based on topics; for Scriptural references, the Search is based on reference. Note that this data comes from the Thematic Outlines data set.

2. The contents of the Thematic Outline section is basically a reformatted Dictionary of Bible Themes.

Note that you can save the references to a Passage List.

3. While the Sermon Starter Guide contains a Journal section regardless of how it is invoked, the results are quite different. When invoked by a Preaching Theme, the section is filled by a Search on Topic; when invoked by a Scripture reference, the section is filled by a Search on Bible Reference. Note the the copious use of "more" and "search" at the journal level and at the list level.

4. The Search argument built for the SSG invoked by a Preaching Theme illustrates the set of topics included under the umbrella of "Preaching Theme".

5. By default the journals are shown in alphabetical order by journal name. However, one can sort the articles by year which allows one to track the history of a particular concept, interpretation ...

6. One can also sort the Journal articles by author allowing you to quickly pull together a list from your favorite authors.

7. Mouse over the Journal Title in the detail lines brings up the standard resource popup; over the article title brings up the standard content preview.

8. A quick way to learn the syntax for a Journal search is to allow the application to build a search.

You can then delete the topics that are not of interest to you and get a more focused list of articles than is provided by the Guide. (Yes, I wish there was a way to see these very long search arguments in their entirety. What I do is copy it to NotePad, modify it, and copy it back if I am getting confused.)

9. In contrast, the search invoked from the bottom of the Journal section from a Sermon Starter Guide invoked by a scripture reference is a model of simplicity - and easy to adjust to focus more closely as your sermon takes shape.