I really like LOGOS Bible software. As someone who is on the road a lot – being able to carry hundreds of Bible commentaries with me is very useful as a lot of my prep work gets done on trains, in coffee shops and airports. I love the fact that I can use most of the resources really effectively on my smartphone (ok I used to use my Ipad a lot for it – but that’s another story). So I was really excited that LOGOS have created another set of resources to help Pastors and Teachers. The series is called “Pastorum”
There are a number of different resources which are aimed to help preachers “kickstart” the preparation process.The latest addition is called “1,500 Quotations for Preachers.” Here are the key products in the series:
- 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church, with Slides
- 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, with Slides
- 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation, with Slides
- 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans, with Slides
- 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, with Slides
The positives
– if you are a logos user then the slides integrate nicely into your ecosystem – which means they are easy to search
– the quotes are from right across the history of the church – too many preachers get stuck in one era – for example from the sounds of some preachers nothing good happened either before or after the reformation – these quotes will help some preachers to break out of their historical boxes
– the slides manage to combine readability, a graphic that relates to the era that the quotation is from and readability
The negatives:
– in an age of google you could most likely find a lot of these quotations online anyway (admittedly you would have to dig around to make sure your sources are correct)
– if you are preaching regularly using powerpoint or keynote – you could probably get close to the design quality of the slides – and they are unlikely to fit the feel of the rest of your slides
– there is no shortcut to reading widely yourself so that your own depth of knowledge and insight is growing
Conclusion
Like any tool this one can be used well or badly, you can use a hammer to bang in a nail or to hit your thumb…
If you are looking for a shortcut to scholarship there is no such thing – a preacher that relies solely on this kind of a resource is likely to preach wooden, borrowed sermons that lack integrity. However a preacher that is seeking to broaden the historical range of their quotations might find this nicely produced package a kick start to exploring the riches of historical theology.