Results tagged “users” from Logos Bible Software Blog

We do our best to listen to our users through a variety of channels: comments you leave here on the blog, emails you send to suggest@logos.com, suggestions you share in our newsgroups—and now in our new web forums—and many more. We read all user feedback and make sure it gets to the appropriate department for consideration. Some of our best ideas come from our users.

Thank you for letting your voice be heard. Listening to what you want helps us to provide you with the best Bible software in the world.

We also benefit by learning more about you. Are you a pastor, a professor, a student? Do you know Greek and Hebrew? Do you own a Kindle? This kind of information is vital as we make decisions about products to offer, technologies to pursue, and much more.

Over the years we’ve asked survey questions in the sidebar on Logos.com. We’ve recently added some new questions and put them all in one place. If you’ve never answered our survey questions, or it’s just been a while, visit www.logos.com/usersurvey and answer as many as you want.

There are 39 questions in total (you may see fewer if you’ve answered some in the past), and you can quit at any time and return later to pick up where you left off. You’re free to skip the ones that don’t apply or that you just don’t want to answer. Get started with the Logos User Survey now.

Jeff Straub, a seminary professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota, shares in two posts how he’s made (and continues to make) the transition from a print library to a digital library with Logos Bible Software and why he loves it.

It was a hard sell for me. After more than 25 years in ministry, tirelessly searching for books anywhere they might be found, hoping against hope to find good books at cheap prices, I finally switched . . . to a digital library . . . to Logos. And I love it! I travel a bit, sometimes overseas, and I love the portability of my digital library.

He goes on to talk about the “back-breaking task” of moving more than 100 heavy boxes of books to Minneapolis. I remember doing the same thing about a year and a half ago, but thankfully with only 40 boxes.

On the bright side, at least Jeff discovered Logos before his next move, and at least he didn't have as big of a print library as Rousas Rushdoony did. According to Wikipedia, Rushdoony had more than 60,000 books in his personal library (and read nearly half of them). Imagine what 1,600 boxes of books would do to your back!

Find out more about why Jeff is lovin’ Logos in these two posts:

• Lovin’ Logos
• Lovin’ Logos, Part 2

This week’s “My Story” comes from Paul Burgess, an undergraduate student at CSU.

I am a full-time worker and part-time distance education (correspondence) student studying for my Bachelor of Theology. I have found that I need the Logos software. I am working 50+ hours a week, and trying to study, with a family. I am 52 years old, and find I do not have the time to properly research things by reading through books. I need a system that is almost able to provide me the references before I ask for them (I know that’s impossible), but Logos software has almost that ability. 

By running a search on a word, a verse or a topic, I get exactly what I need: lots of information, commentaries that contain explanations or comments, and other references or cross references. These help me not only understand what I am searching, but its context. I could not get this straight from a book. Even a library as large as the books in my Logos package would not give me the understanding I need, because I would have to trawl through the books manually, or through the indexes manually, which would take hours or days. One quick and efficient search, and I have everything at my fingertips. 

The real benefit is the depth I can go to within minutes of starting the search. I can refer to books, commentaries, Bible versions and hermeneutics systems, including Hebrew and Greek versions, and have the understanding I need, in the depth I need for my course, or for my own understanding.

I find that the information that is available to me would be overwhelming, without the strong and efficient software that encompasses it. I own other Bible software, but I find that I use Logos almost exclusively. I do use the others rarely, just to look at another commentary, to ensure I am getting a well-rounded view, but I find that these other systems more often than not add nothing, but confirm what the Logos system has provided me.

I cannot recommend this system highly enough. 

I also must note that I had a few minor glitches when I started using the system, but the support team were quick to respond and were excellent in their diagnosis of the issue and rapid in their response to resolve these glitches, which were really my incorrect answering of setup messages. Living in Australia and being on a totally separate time zone was no obstacle to the Logos support team, who communicated with me via e-mail and also rang me to ensure that I had the answers I needed, in a timely fashion, on my correct times, which I find very gratifying. Too many companies ring when its convenient for them, not for the customer.

I bought the Scholar’s Library and am saving my “pennies” to buy the upgrade to the Gold version, because I am so impressed with this package. If I had found this package first, I probably would not have bought the other systems. I would strongly recommend that anyone considering a reference library consider Logos as a primary choice, because of the strength of the system, the depth of the books contained, and the ease of use of this powerful system.

I am sure I am using only a small part of the system, but it is easier to use and gets me the information I need better than any of the other systems, or a book based system. I also could not afford to buy a book based system, nor do I have the space.

I have recommended the Logos system to studying ministers, to ministers, and too lay people like myself. I would strongly recommend this tool.

Thanks for sharing your story, Paul. Enjoy your $100 worth of unlock credit!

Read more stories and find out how to submit yours on our Newswire page. If we use your story, we will apply $100 worth of unlock credit to your account as well.

One of our users from Brazil, Israel Cavalli, has done a great service to Portuguese-speaking Logos users by creating 17 training videos for Logos Bible Software. Israel teaches a free mini course on Logos at his university, and he created these videos in an effort to help even more people learn how to use Logos even better.

All 17 videos are hosted by YouTube and available online at his site Theocnologia.

1. Libronix 01 – Introdução
2. Libronix 02 – Instalação
3. Libronix 03 – Página Inicial
4. Libronix 04 – Visão Geral sobre o estudo da Bíblia
5. Libronix 05 – Escolha da Bíblia favorita
6. Libronix 06 – Opções de Guia de Estudos
7. Libronix 07 – Outras opções do “Guia de estudos”
8. Libronix 08 – Guia Exegético
9. Libronix 09 – Estudo de Palavra
10. Libronix 10 – Estudo de Tópicos
11. Libronix 11 – Plano de Leitura
12. Libronix 12 – Acesso rápido
13. Libronix 13 – Devocionais
14. Libronix 14 – Oração
15. Libronix 15 – Minha Biblioteca
16. Libronix 16 – Notícias
17. Libronix 17 – Blog

If you have Portuguese-speaking friends who use Logos or are interested in becoming Logos users, please let them know about Israel’s videos.

See also our Spanish training videos on our Spanish site.

It’s time for another episode of “My Story.” This one comes from Dr. Beau Abernathy, pastor of CrossPointe Church.

Dear Logos,

Words escape me to adequately express my appreciation to the Lord for you and your ministry!

As a bi-vocational church planting pastor, time is a premium commodity. How do I balance being a loving husband and father with work and church responsibilities? In order for a new church to grow, one part is that the people coming need to sense that the messages are excellent, challenging and life-related.

When preparing a message, in the time it would take me to get out of my chair, find a commentary (provided I own it in the first place), and get back to the study, I can flip through a dozen commentaries with Logos! It is the most effective, efficient use of my time to use Logos Bible Software when preparing messages, studying, and I have recently begun to use it with my quiet time with the Lord. The Word Study feature takes the years of Greek and Hebrew I took in seminary and condenses it into an understandable, usable format in seconds—something I could never do with the hard-copy reference books.

Probably the feature I like the most in Libronix is the “Copy Bible Verses” button in the taskbar. I use “Copy Bible Verses” on a daily basis so that I can paste passages from various translations into a message, church letter or pastoral letter very quickly.

Thank you again for providing this service for the family of God and for those called to shepherd God’s people!

Thanks for sharing your story, Dr. Abernathy. It’s always a joy to hear how Logos Bible Software helps pastors like you to be better pastors—and better husbands and fathers. Enjoy your $100 worth of unlock credit!

Read more stories and find out how to submit yours on our Newswire page. If we use your story, we will apply $100 worth of unlock credit to your account as well.

Last week I wrote a post about my Logos epiphany; that moment when I realized I can have my entire theological library with me all the time. Over the week many users posted comments about the time when they had that same realization. Reading the comments, I was deeply encouraged to see how having a Logos library has helped men and women serve their churches, ministries, and communities. Since I know that a lot of people don't often go back and read comments on old posts, I thought I'd share a couple that really impressed and inspired me.

Mark said, "In the fall of 2005, I deployed to Iraq as a chaplain with my bible and Logos on my laptop. I was able to do full exegesis and exposition in my sermons thanks to Logos."

Mike shared that his epiphany came "while teaching a new group of believers the Bible in the remote villages of southern Siberia."

Caroline, who serves in a ministry to senior citizens, said, "Having my Logos Library ready to answer questions is wonderful. It is difficult for a senior citizen to always have an immediate answer but my Logos gives a rapid response."

David is experiencing the difference in travel now that he has Logos. "Traveling between the US and India during the early 1990's to teach in a theological college for a few month meant carrying half of my luggage allowance in books. So about 70 pounds of books went with me. Currently I'm in India again; I brought a few books that are not in Libronix data, but much of what I need is on this notebook computer."

Eric, a missionary currently traveling around the country, said, "There is no way I could carry my "other" library around the country while I raise my support."

Sam said, "I realized this when I spent last summer helping plant a church in Northern China. I never could have carried enough books to do good study for preaching and teaching every week with me. Libronix made it possible for me to do a lot of study without luggage overcharges or lack of space in the apartment. And also saved me so much time giving me more to use teaching instead of studying."

Comments and stories like these remind me why Logos is such a special company and product. Logos is helping people to do in-depth study of the Bible and share its message around the world.

QUICK NOTE - Speaking of around the world, Dan just pointed me to a post from about 2 1/2 years ago that shows the shipping costs to send the print equivalent of a Logos library overseas. The crazy thing to note is that the shipping costs in the 2006 post were as much as $6,650. Since then, the USPS has increased international shipping costs by 13.8% in 2007 and plans to increase it another 8.4% in 2009. At those prices, shipping books overseas does not make sense. For that kind of money you could double or triple your Logos library!

Now, you don't have to be in a foreign country to appreciate Logos. Maybe you're like Caroline and ministering in your community, or like me and just doing Bible study on a bus. No matter what you do or where you are, having (and growing) a Logos library simply makes in-depth Bible study easier and more convenient.

Pastor and Logos user Mark Barnes blogs about his process for preparing a sermon. His five steps are nicely alliterated:

1. Divide
2. Dissect
3. Discover
4. Digest
5. Disseminate

In his very helpful post, he shows how he makes use of Logos both in the dissecting and discovering steps. He uses the sentence diagramming tool to dissect the passage.

He also uses Logos to discover the meaning of the passage. In two very helpful videos (Logos Workspace [5:00] and Logos Workspace Options [4:59]), he shows you his workspace and how he puts it to use. I'd strongly encourage you to take the time to watch them both. They are full of excellent tips and tricks.

Not only does he lay out his process, but he also walks you through it with his sermon on Amos 2:4-16 and shares the final product in both PDF and audio. Be sure to check it out.

Very nice work, Mark. Thanks for sharing!

If you use Logos in your sermon prep and would like to share your process or workspace, drop a note in the comments. We'd love to see it.