How to use a computer to write sermons
My computer is a nearly indispensable tool for me in writing my sermons on a weekly basis. I don’t use it for absolutely everything, but I’m sure that 70% of my regular preparation and writing happens in from of my trusty computer. While I intend to expand on this and unpack each step along the way, I thought it would be helpful to get a sense of the workflow on writing sermons on a weekly basis. I use a Mac, but I expect that many of these steps would have equivalent versions in Windows or Linux. Here goes:
1. Manage the sermon project in Omnifocus. I am a huge Omnifocus fan. It allows me to track multi-step projects, assign deadlines, make them repeatable, and generally helps to keep my sermon writing on track every week. So I will have multiple steps and little tasks assigned for each day of the week. This insures that my sermon writing doesn’t come down to “what am I going to talk about” on Saturday night. We would like to avoid that as much as possible!
2. Keep all of my research and do my actual writing using Scrivener. Scrivener is the ultimate writing tool. I can hardly describe how much I love it! It allows me to keep all of my sermons for a season in one project, as well as my notes, links to web sites, snippets from various places that I’ve gathered, references, past sermons, and to manipulate all of this in a beautiful and simple interface. It makes writing fun! I’ll be writing a more thorough review of Scrivener later, but this is really the linchpin of my writing work. I can hardly believe I worked without it until a few months ago.
3. Textual and Commentary work in Accordance and Logos. Accordance (imo) is really outstanding for textual study, keeping notes on the fly, and working with the myriad of translations. Logos has the most Lutheran resources from CPH & NPH & Augsburg/Fortress. They overlap, but they are both great programs that are only improving as the years go by. Logos, incidentally, also has an iPhone app so that many of your resources really can be had on the fly.
4. Greek/Latin New Testament audio. This is the newest part of my sermon preparation regimen. This amazing site has mp3 files of the entire New Testament read in both Greek & Latin. It is amazing! And free! It is helping me to grasp the original texts in a whole new way.
5. Lutheran Service Builder. I wouldn’t say that this is a part of my weekly workflow in terms of preparation, it is certainly worth mentioning. Having all of the texts of the pericopes, introits, graduals, and hymn texts right at hand is really really useful for the liturgical types. I find myself using it that way pretty often.
6. Apple Pages. If I am making my sermon available in a printed form, I will format it in Apple Pages. This is my “go to” word processor. It’s elegant and beautiful, has a wonderfully intuitive interface, and is easy to use. Unless you are doing lots of tables work where you are importing complex formulas from Excel or something, Pages is a great option. Don’t get my started on Microsoft Word…
7. iTalk, GarageBand, iDisk, and WordPress. I podcast my sermon over at Lutheran Logomaniac pretty much every week. The way I do this is fairly simple: I record the sermon on my iPhone using iTalk. I then edit the audio using GarageBand, export it to mp3 and save it in my public documents folder on iDisk (you could also do this easily with the free Dropbox), and then publish it in both text and audio with WordPress. While that sounds like a complicated process, the whole thing actually takes about ten minutes or so.
That’s it on the first pass. How do you use your computer for writing sermons?
Related posts:
- Using Scrivener to Write Sermons: Part 1 – Research By Pastor Todd A. Peperkorn, STM In my last post...
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January 21st, 2010 at 12:15 am
Nice post Todd.
I have a similar process but it is not all on the computer. The tools you describe really sound exceptional! I usually begin with Lectionary at Lunch and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. It is an online exegetical study by sem profs for the OT and Gospel. It is a great way to walk through the languages for preaching. (http://tinyurl.com/65prop) I use Remember the Milk (See this blog http://tinyurl.com/y86×9pd) for keeping track of the preaching project. Not as sophisticated as Scrivener (not available on the PC). I also publish my sermons as a podcast, but I usually record the sermon live on Sunday morning. I use Audacity for recording and editing. It produces a nice mp3 that I post via Podbean (http://wattswhat.podbean.com) to iTunes for Pirate Christian Radio. (http://piratechristianradio.com/ it is broadcast on Tuesdays at 1:30pm CST).
January 21st, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Great post. Very useful information.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Todd-
What is your work/study process or flow between Accordance and Logos?
January 28th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Good question, Christopher. I still haven't delved much into Logos 4. I bought the Original Languages edition a few months ago, but I just despise using it in VM mode, so I continue to use the old Mac version and the Alpha versions. The older Libronix version works pretty well.
Frankly, I just don't find the Logos interface that great. In terms of actually studying the text of the Scriptures, Accordance just seems way better, even still. Now I know that Logos has a huge following and that it has exclusive rights to the CPH content. At some point I'll sit down and watch a bunch of screencasts and learn it for real.
In the meantime, I really only use Logos to check any CPH resources that I have in there. Book of Concord, some commentaries, CSSB, etc. Mostly I use Accordance.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Thanks. I've been trying to force myself to use Logos (Mac Alpha), but it's been driving me nuts. I'd like to develop a system where I study the text in Logos, and study additional resources in Logos.
Another question, if I may: I've recently switched back to OmniFocus as well (I've tried Things, Life Balance, and Toodledo, which all have strengths, but I keep coming back to OmniFocus). How do you lay out your tasks for sermon prep (i.e., what are your tasks, and do you give them individual start or due dates)?
January 30th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Thanks for the tip on Scrivener. I wrote my sermon in it this week, and I think it has the potential to be a very powerful tool for me.
February 7th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Todd
I'm sorry i didn't know that you were the author of the article. I saw many editors listed but none mentioned for this particular one. I came to this website through Charles Lehman's website, so I incorrectly assumed he was the author. I have not used, nor have I heard of Accordance. I use Logos exclusively, thus my ignorance, question, and interest.
Rev. Larry Wright
February 7th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
can you post screenshots of your sermon process using Schrivener? I would like to get a look at this product in the process of sermon writing.
March 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I really appreciate this post and the next post on using Scrivener for sermon writing. I’ve checked out Scrivener in the past, but this makes me want to actually try to use it. I have used OmniOutliner or MindMap software to do my outlining, but then I end up going back and forth with Pages to do the actual writing. I have always questioned what to do with the material that I write but don’t include in the sermon. And then I have to save an outline file and a manuscript file. Now that I’m back to using the historic lectionary, this will make it much easier, because I am more likely to come back to the same text more often. I need to have a good system for saving notes.
I am also using Accordance and Logos 4. I have used Accordance for several years, and it still allows me to interact with the original text more easily. But Logos has the Lutheran material, and I’m thinking of mainly using Logos as just a reference library but not as exegetical tool. Do you use Accordance to keep exegetical notes on the text, or do you do that in Scrivener, too?
In my former congregation I had to reformat the sermon to PDF to publish on the web site and I recorded the sermon audio through the sound system into Amadeus, uploaded with Transmit, and posted to podcast in Blogger, I think. Now that I’m in a new congregation, I haven’t done any of that, for various reasons. How is the sound quality in iTalk?
I look forward to seeing more posts on these subjects.