In your notes, you’d contextualize the headings so they are more descriptive, but this gives you an idea of how you can use headings and sub-headings.
Color-Code
In my sermon notes template, I have modified the preset styles to cater to using specific colors for specific purposes.
Using a color-code in your sermon notes allows you to be able to, at a glance, see what’s coming. If you’ve done the hard work of sermon prep and have gone through your message at least one time (or more), your memory will be jogged even easier by using colors.
I let my word processor handle the highlighting. Some people opt for manually doing it. It’s up to you. I find it easier and less time consuming to let the computer do it for me. Especially since I preach from an iPad Mini.
Here is the color-code I use:
- Green Highlight – Illustration/Story
- Light Blue Highlight – Transition Statement
- Yellow Highlight – Bottom Line/Main Point
- Orange Text – Scripture Prompt (I read Scripture from a physical Bible instead of putting the Scripture in my notes – just personal preference)
Format Sermon Notes for the iPad or iPad Mini
I love preaching from my iPad Mini. Instead of hauling around paper, I have all of my notes on my iPad. I use Pages (Apple’s version of Word) to write my messages and then export them to PDF format. I then use a great, free app called Tiny PDF to view my notes. I love Tiny PDF because it allows me to swipe left and right like a book to go to the next page.
If you want to preach from your iPad or iPad Mini there are a couple simple, but important things to do to format your sermon notes.
- Put your document margins to .25″ all the way around.
- Increase the size of all your fonts – body and headings (especially for the iPad Mini).
