The Tech of Worship

Over the last several weeks, the Worship Teams has been investigating the use of a couple of different software packages for displaying the lyrics, announcements, and sermon notes. No software package is the best at everything, but one that suits many of our team's needs well is Proclaim, published by the people at Logos (http://proclaimonline.com and http://logos.com). In a lot of ways, this won't make much difference to the congregation - all proclaims display nicely. Most of the difference is in the ease of putting the presentations together in a team environment. However, there are a few features for the congregation that some may want to take advantage of.



First, you'll need a mobile device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android tablet. If you don't, then  you should be able to worship and takes notes as before. If you do, then go to the Logos website or the app store and download the Logos app for your device. This is a great app for Bible reading and a whole host of Bible study tools and Christian books. Many Bibles and books are free, but you can also purchase an amazing array of others. You will need to create a user ID and password for your Logos account. (Note, the support for Android phones is coming - the Logos app is there, but the Proclaim support is not yet functional.)

Then, when the worship service begins and the presentation software goes "on air," your app can detect that there is a presentation being shown. You can use the menu to hunt for a presentation, or you will soon get a pop up asking if you want to follow our presentation.

Then, whenever there is a slide on the screen with the following symbol in the lower righthand corner,



that means that there is a "signal" available. A signal can be a scripture reference, for example. Your app will ask you if you want to jump to that passage of the Bible. If you choose to, then your app will jump straight to the passage in the translation of your choice.

A signal can be a calendar event. For example, when the slide is being displayed for the ladies' tea, your app will pop up a notice that allows you to automatically add that event to your device's calendar. Just click, and it's on your calendar, with the right date and location.

A signal could be a website - click and your device will navigate to that website. There are a few other signals possible, but we likely won't be using them.

Logos is more than a mobile device app. There is a full program for both Windows and Mac with an extremely rich set of Bible study features. This program can also be downloaded from http://logos.com. This is the Bible software I use far more than any other, and I continue to build my digital library with commentaries, theology books, pastoral books, and so on.

You can also access your Logos library through a web browser at http://biblia.com. It's not as feature-rich as the full program, but it's great to be able to get to your books even if you're away from your computer.

The program, the app, and the website all stay in sync - leave off reading in John 3 in the program, and then later go to the website, and after you log in, you'll go straight to John 3. Plus, your entire library is available on all three platforms (for the most part - some book licenses are only valid in the program version).

Many of you use YouVersion (http://youversion.com) on your mobile device. That's good software, too. But we can't sync it with the presentation on the screen. Currently, we are using YouVersion to allow you to follow the sermon and take notes. We are still testing that - some of you like it, some of you don't. We're trying to find a more usable system for notetaking on your devices in a way that connects directly to our sermons somehow.

If you have any questions on getting set up with this, please just let us know!