This article on Technology for Sermon Prep is the second half of of 7 Dangers and 7 Benefits of Church Technology.
When it comes to using technology for sermon prep, even though Logos is more expensive than other options, and it’s bulky and frustrating at times, on balance it’s the best option for me. Following are some of the ways I use Logos technology for sermon prep (although much of what I write here is also transferrable to other Bible Software programs such as Bibleworks and Accordance).
How I Use Technology for Sermon Prep
1. Delimiting the Text
Once I have spent some time working on delimiting my text, I usually check it using the Logos Compare Periscope tool, which lets me compare how different Bible versions have decided where the paragraph begins or ends. That can either confirm me in my decision or else challenge me to think further.
2. Comparing the Text
Before beginning to look at the text in Greek or Hebrew, I usually use the Logos Text Comparison tool to study five or six different English versions of the passage, looking for how different versions use different words, tenses, order, missed words, added words, etc. I do this to make my original language study more efficient by focusing my study on the words and phrases where there is some significant disagreement. It’s not that I don’t spend any time studying the words and phrases that are uniformly translated; rather, it helps me know where I have to spend most of my time.
3. Word Study
Logos allows me to hover over a word, discover its lemma and then do a number of different kinds of word studies of varying complexity using different tools. Each word study probably takes about five to 10 minutes compared to perhaps an hour of similar study using books and concordances, and produces far more accurate, independent and comprehensive results.
