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Note: This feature is available in all subscription tiers.
When preparing a sermon on a Bible passage, you probably have books and tools you always want access to in a layout that works for you. The Get Started Tool provides exactly this to get you into your sermon prep quickly and easily. It offers a consistent way to explore the biblical text, access reference material, and write your sermon. All you need to do is select Write a Sermon in the Get Started Wizard on your Dashboard and enter a Bible reference.
The panel on the top left is your preferred Bible open to the passage you'll be preaching on. An original language Bible is open in the tab next to it providing easy access to the underlying original language text as required. The Insights pane to the right of the Bible provides quick access to study Bibles, commentaries, and related passages to help you as you explore the text.
To the right of your preferred Bible and the original language Bible is another panel for the Sermon Builder ready with an Untitled Sermon where you can write the text of your sermon. The Notes tool is open in the tab next to it for taking or accessing any notes not included in your sermon text.
The panel on the bottom left contains a commentary that goes into a lot more detail about the passage and will be really useful in exploring what others have found and said about the passage you are studying. You can easily switch between commentaries by using the parallel resources button to the left of the Bible reference.
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Note: The Bibles and Commentary are in a link set, so they will track each other when moving to a different biblical passage.
To the right of the commentary on the bottom is another panel for the Study Assistant where you can do research on your passage with conversational questions. The Factbook tool in the tab next to it is open to the article on the passage you're studying and set to provide access to a range of biblical background information - such as people or places that are referenced in the passage, the events taking place around it, who is speaking within the passage, and much more.
All of these combined can provide the starting point for your sermon preparation as you read and reflect on the passage and start to think about what it is saying to you and your congregation.
On the right you'll find the help file open to an entry on your particular layout. When you're done reading it, close the panel to increase the screen real estate available for the layout's tools.