A challenge for ministry, particularly in the preaching, teaching, and writing duties for any pastor, is having a system for capturing and organizing ideas. A pastor reads an article in the local newspaper that he would like to save to use as an illustration for a sermon in some time in the future. He doesn’t think he can use it next Sunday, so how can he save it for easy retrieval in the future?
A pastor listens to a sermon that he would like to use in some way in the future. He’s not going to preach it as his own, but the sermon had a good illustration or two that he could see himself using. He wants to save the sermon for future devotional use in a more personal way or to serve as a springboard for his own approach to the text.
The pastor accumulates a large archive of his own sermons and exegetical notes. that form the bottom of it. How can he file them in such a way that he can retrieve them later, either to preach a sermon again in a different place or to use the exegetical notes in some other way?
The pastor has taken notes and would like a way to file them. He has scribbled down thoughts that could lay the groundwork for a future sermon or writing project.
Any pastor finds himself doing these things, observing life, reading as much as possible, and gathering ideas along the way. The challenge is to organize these ideas from various sources so that they can be retrieved later. This has been a challenge for me personally in the ministry.
The challenge of capturing and organizing
I attended seminary and experienced my first pastorate in the late 1980s, before the digital age really dawned. I started a filing system using 4’x6′ index cards, a filing cabinet, and a numbering system, which literally consisted of cutting out newspaper and magazine articles, pasting them onto a piece of 8½’x11′ paper and assigning that paper a number, at least two topic names, and a Scripture passage. A card would be started for each topic. A card would also be started for each book of the Bible.
This was a good system because it was simple and flexible. I didn’t have to change it as I collected new information to catalog. The problem was that it was time consuming and cumbersome. He wished for a better way but hadn’t found one.
I have colleagues in ministry who use Excel for cataloging and filing. I remember reading an article on Preaching that praised Excel as this type of tool, but I found limitations and did not abandon my old system. Excel has never been easy or intuitive for me. Before you could start using Excel, you first had to learn it, and that’s where the possibilities stopped.
Now I found a system for cataloging ideas and information that is simple, flexible, easily available on multiple platforms (ie any computer with Internet access, as well as a smartphone, in my case an iPhone, called Evernote).
Evernote and the online archive
Evernote is an online archiving tool. It is a set of software and services that allows users to save and categorize any number of notes or pieces of information that may be in the form of a text note, web page, excerpt from a website, voice note, photograph, post from Twitter or even a handwritten note. This information can be organized into folders and assigned labels, making it easy to find and retrieve later. A similar product included with the latest versions of Microsoft Office is called OneNote.
To quote the Evernote website, “Remember eve things Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone, or device you use.” The Evernote icon is an amalgamation of the silhouette of an elephant and a Post-it. That says everything.
The data is saved using cloud technology. The stored data can be accessed on any computer that has the software downloaded. Even if a computer doesn’t have the program installed, a person can still access the material through a web interface. Evernote works on standard operating systems. I use it with Windows; is also available for Mac.
A key to Evernote’s functionality is its availability as a smartphone app. An application for Blackberry and Android has been published. I use the iPhone version. What this means is that one can add pieces of information to an Evernote account through a smartphone, either by text, photo, voice, or web browser. After synchronization, the information is viewable and accessible across the software’s many platforms. In other words, I can add information to my Evernote account on my iPhone and seconds later access it from any computer with Internet access, including an iPad.
Another key to the software’s functionality is its ease of use with other programs. Once Evernote is installed on a PC, it integrates with the web browser. If I want to save a web page to Evernote, I can right-click on the page and the menu that appears on the screen has an option to specifically save the page to Evernote.
Evernote also coordinates with JotNot, a document scanning app for smartphones. I can take a photo of a document with my smartphone camera and JotNot will convert it to a scanned document. The JotNot program can then send the scanned document directly to my Evernote account.
Evernote also coordinates with the Associated Press smartphone mobile app. Let’s say I’m reading an AP article on my iPhone and would like to save it for later use. I can send the article directly to Evernote.
The software also coordinates with Olive Tree’s BibleReader app. This means I can take notes while listening to a sermon with BibleReader and save the notes directly to Evernote for later collation.
Perhaps the best thing about Evernote is that it’s free. There’s a premium subscription available for $45 a year, and there are some trade-offs. The free version is limited to 500 megabits per month; the free version shows ads in the bottom left corner. These are relatively unobtrusive and even contain useful information for further use of the program. A third tradeoff is a limit on the types of files that can be attached to a note. For example, Word files cannot be attached with the free version, but JPEG, PDF, WAV, MP3, and digital ink files can be attached.
How I use Evernote in Ministry
I’ve been using Evernote for just under a year. It is a powerful organization tool that is easy to use and flexible. I have about 15 laptops configured. Notebooks are how notes can be classified. Some of my notebooks are for personal use, like music I’d like to download or books that pique my interest. For ministry, I have notebooks set up for sermon illustrations, finished sermons, academics (I’m an adjunct professor at a nearby Baptist college), current events, leadership, and funerals.
Here’ is an example of how I used Evernote and associated apps recently. I had attended the funeral of a brother of one of my church members. The presiding minister shared a very simple, biblical and clear message to deal with the loss of a loved one. I liked what the preacher was saying and wanted to take some notes. If I had pulled out my smartphone it might have looked like I was texting during a funeral, not good! Instead, I wrote down the speaker’s outline with a pen and the back of the funeral home program.
Previously, you would have taken that piece of paper and put it in a file folder with unfiled material. which he would later archive using the index card/tape method. With Evernote and a smartphone, I was able to record information faster, easier, and more clearly. I took a photo of the piece of paper and used JotNot to convert it to a scanned document. I then sent this document to EverNote and specified it to go to my “Funerals” laptop. The next time I sat down at my PC, I logged into my Evernote account; Sure enough, there was the scanned document on my “Funerals” laptop. The scribbled notes were legible and in digital format for easy storage and use. I could have printed a hard copy if needed.
Another example: I was on the elliptical recently and heard a story on NPR that I thought would make a good illustration for a sermon. I used Evernote to record a voice memo and stored it in the sermon illustration notebook. Later on my PC, I retrieved the voice memo, found the story on the NRP website, and copied it into Evernote.
One more: I was reading an article in Time magazine about a salt mine under the city of Detroit. My sermon illustration radar went off. I took out my smartphone and found the article online. I was then able to clip it and send it to Evernote in the “Sermon Illustration” folder, all using the iPhone app.
Some questions remain regarding the use of Evernote for ministry. The first is whether or not to opt for the premium membership. I have not upgraded and have been very satisfied with the free version for as long as I have used the service. I’d be more open to upgrading if I started to exceed the monthly data limit; so far I haven’t come close to exceeding the 500 megabytes per month limit. I’d also look to upgrade if I see a greater need to attach a wider variety of file types to notes.
Not all apps mentioned in this article are free. JotNot Scanner Pro is a $1.99 download and it’s worth it. Olive Tree BibleReader costs $.99, with specific Bible translations costing less than $10. I would think that most pastors who have a smartphone have already downloaded BibleReader and at least one translation. AP Mobile is free and is an amazing app on its own.
Another question to explore is how Evernote compares to other online filing tools in terms of ministry use. I tried Microsoft’s OneNote program that came bundled with Office 2007. It doesn’t seem to have the ease of use that EverNote has or the simple cross-platform capability that makes Evernote so handy. AP Mobile and JotNot work specifically with Evernote, not OneNote. Using Excel would not give a person the advantages of cross-platform features.
Evernote has been a helpful discovery for me in ministry. Combined with a smartphone, it opens up amazing new ways to collect and organize ideas and information. It has helped me capture, categorize and…