1,500 Quotations for Preachers: A New Resource from Logos

June 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

1500-Quotations

Okay. Admit it. How many of you have been trying to find a quote that would go well in your sermon…or perhaps some of you have bulletins that often require a pithy quote that’s printed toward the beginning of the bulletin…hoping to give people a little something to think about while they wait for worship to begin…?

I’ve been there before, and have ran straight to Google and typed in some lame search like “sermon justice quote really good.” It doesn’t really take you to the most relevant search results.

A few weeks ago, I was given the chance to check out a new resource from the fine folks at Logos: 1,500 Quotations for Preachers. I’ve downloaded Logos a few times, but I also end up deleting it. I never really seem to get much use out of it, and part of that, I’ll admit, is that I probably haven’t sat down and spent the time I needed figuring out how to best use the program. Which, I guess is part of my critique about Logos…I feel like I shouldn’t have to set aside time to figure out the program.

1500-quotations-for-preachers-with-slidesAt any rate, I’ve been trying it out again recently, and the newer version of their program is certainly better than it used to be. And I will say that this 1,500 Quotations for Preachers seems like it could be a pretty cool resource. Now, I only preach about once a month currently, and so I haven’t had a chance to really try out the product, but I can see how it would be beneficial for finding some little nuggets to share with folks, or to find ways to incorporate into your services.

This is from the Logos website’s description of 1,500 Quotations for Preachers:

Find precisely the words you need for any occasion with 1,500 Quotations for Preachers, a five-volume set, with slides. Selecting a fitting quotation to share with your congregation—a task that can often take hours—will now take you minutes. In this resource you’ll find entries from more than one hundred authors and works, including Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, G. K. Chesterton, Charles Spurgeon, and more. Share the quotations with professionally designed slides—one to accompany each quotation [source].

This is a 5-volume set, and you can see the individual titles below:

  • 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church, with Slides edited by Elliot Ritzema
  • 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, with Slides edited by Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince
  • 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation, with Slides edited by Elliot Ritzema
  • 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans, with Slides edited by Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince
  • 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, with Slides edited by Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince

One of the cool things about this digital resource, is that each quote also comes formatted on a slide that can be directly sent to Keynote, PowerPoint, or saved as a PNG graphic, like the one below:

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1,500 Quotations for Preachers sells for $92.95 for the entire 5 volume set. The price seems a little steep for a digital resource, but if you’re looking to use up some Professional Expenses, it might be just right.

Filed Under: Ministry Tagged With: , , ,

The Sketchnote Typeface by Mike Rohde

June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Sketchnoting Presbytery

So I’ve continued to practice my sketchnoting, something I picked up a few months ago, thanks to Mike Rohde’s book “The Sketchnote Handbook.”

It’s been fun and a great way to make the notes I take something I actually want to look at again sometime. Mike’s book was a super great entry point into the world of sketchnoting, and he’s a super supportive coach as well (he even linked to my post here on his Sketchnote Army site). So, I’m a fan of his.

And then I just found out that he had recently released a typeface: The Sketchnote Typeface. Done deal. Game over. I was sold.

The Sketchnote Typeface

I find that these variations of typefaces and fonts add a really unique touch to my graphic design work, as well as to handouts and things that I do with design for my ministry. Just using the Sketchnote Typeface for something as simple as a header in a Word document handout for a Christian Education class is a huge “special touch” that I think makes people notice it a bit more. You can read in detail about what went into the production of the Sketchnote Typeface here. And as far as fonts go, the price is right. It’s $29 for each of the fonts, but you can get all five of them for $99. Included in the full pack are:

  • Sketchnote Text
  • Sketchnote Italic
  • Sketchnote Bold
  • Sketchnote Square
  • Sketchnote Square Dingbats

Again, you can see full descriptions of each of the fonts here. Now, I’m not a typeface/font guru, but I can already imagine multiple uses for this font in my library, and I’m excited to see all of the different ways that I’m able to use it. Of course, I’ll still be keeping up with my own personal sketchnoting and the development of my own typeface as I draw and keep notes, but this is a great tool to have.

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: , , ,

Animate: Kickstart Your Adult Discussion Groups

May 29, 2013 by 4 Comments

Animate Faith Course

This title of this post is misleading, but misleading in a good way. It’s misleading because I have used the seven-session Animate Faith education series for adults, college students and youth. Of course, I’ve tailored it for each group, but the DVDs and leader materials are so multipurpose that I’ve found really cool uses of this curriculum with many different groups that I work with.

Animate Faith came out last summer, and our church used it as we kicked off our Adult Education class. We had a great turnout, and people really loved the curriculum. The videos were engaging and way more interesting to watch than some other theologically progressive Adult Education curriculums that I won’t name but are essentially just a collection of old, white, liberal men who just come off as talking heads.

We bought the personal journals, leader journals and the DVD, but (and I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this) you really don’t need the personal journals. I love the personal journals – they are engaging, filled with great Paul Soupiset artwork and a breath of fresh air from other “fill in the blank” type of participant materials that other curriculums might use. But not many of our folks used the journals very much. We could fill out time by simply watching the DVDs and having discussions.

The facilitator guides were super helpful, and were filled with way more topics, questions and discussions than we had time for in our 1 hr class period.

And that’s another thing I’ll mention. It is seven sessions, and so we planned to spend seven weeks on Animate for our Adult Education Class. But, we were limited to about 45 minutes on a Sunday morning before worship. And you know how classes go on a Sunday morning. By the time people showed up and were all there and ready, it was about 9:10, we probably started showing the videos around 9:15am and then really started to get into some good conversation around 9:25am. At that point, we only had about 20 minutes before the pastors had to go and get ready for worship.

There are many ways to use Animate. If you choose to use it for a Sunday morning class where you have limited time, I’d recommend setting aside two Sundays per lesson. Others might use it for a small group program, where they have more flexibility and more time for each of the lessons, and then perhaps one week would be fine.

As I mentioned above, I’ve had good success with showing the videos to college students, as well as some of my older youth in youth group. Each time, they get different things out of the video presentations, ask great questions and we’ve had really good conversations.

I think that Animate really stands out as something new and different in the world of Christian Education curriculum. Part of it could be the fact that I love everything that sparkhouse has been coming out with. But I think that the Animate series allows new voices to enter into the conversations in our churches today.

I was having a conversation with someone this past week about Marcus Borg. Now, I like Borg. He’s a nice guy, and I agree with him on many things theologically. But…to be blunt…he connects with an older generation. I think he, and all of those Jesus Seminar guys, are part of the “old school liberal theologians” who still have a place and who have done a lot of good theological work, but I think there are new voices coming into the conversation that connect with a broader audience.

I know some people who don’t like Borg, but will listen to Brian McLaren speak and read his books. I think McLaren and Borg are asking a lot of the same questions and trying to get people to a similar place theologically, but I think it’s much easier for some folks to listen to and hear from a McLaren, Scandrette or a Bruce Reyes-Chow.

So go check out Animate. You won’t regret it.

Or to see more posts about Animate over at Patheos, go here.

Filed Under: Emergent, Ministry Tagged With: , , , , ,