If you want a powerful Bible study tool, there is nothing better than Logos.

Years ago, if you wanted to do serious Bible study they had two options:

1. Go to the library at a seminary or Bible college.
2. Buy bookshelves and tons of physical books to build your own personal library.

The problem was that not everyone lived near a decent seminary or Bible college, and physical books are heavy and take up a lot of space. Also, unless you knew exactly where it was, searching through your library took a long time. You had to pull all the books off the shelf that might be relevant, then search through each of them yourself until you found the right page.

The dawn of electronic Bible Study software changed all of this. With a program like Logos, you can have your entire library of thousands of books on your computer, tablet, or phone. Searching your entire library to pull relevant content to your study takes seconds instead of hours.

I invested in my first copy of Logos Bible Software about 5 years ago and haven’t looked back. The reason I say “invested” is because that is exactly what a purchase of Logos is. It is an investment in yourself as a pastor, student, teacher, or even Bible study leader.

The new Logos 7 just launched, adding even more features to this powerful tool.

To be fully transparent, Logos offered me a free upgrade in exchange for writing an honest review. Since I was already a Logos user and I believe it is a helpful tool for you, I jumped at the opportunity. I do not write reviews for products or services that I do not use myself.

Video Demo

For a highlight of some of my favorite features, watch this video I made. (And sorry for the added sound effects from my 3-year-old son playing in the room)

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Powerful Study

The primary reason Logos exists is to supercharge your Bible study. This is where Logos shines.

• Want to read what every Commentary in your library says about a passage? Check.
• Want to perform a quick word study of the original language of a text? Check.
• Want to find all other passages of Scripture related to the text? Check.
• Want to learn everything there is to know about a specific Bible Character? Check.
• Want to find maps, pictures, and other visual resources relevant to a passage? Check.

Logos 7 does all of this and much more!

Quality Over Quantity

Logos is not perfect. As one of my seminary professors pointed out to me, you have to understand that Logos is only as good as the resources in your library. If you have thousands of average books, Logos will only search average books for you. Quality is more important than quantity.

The base packages are pretty good. However, if you want some of the best commentaries and resources available, you will need to purchase those separately.

So unless you are sitting on piles of cash, I suggest you begin with one of the cheaper packages and build your library selectively over time as you can afford new books.

New Sermon Editor

I use Logos most often when I am preparing a sermon. This is the tool for the second step in my book, Preaching Nuts & Bolts.

Logos used to be just a study tool, but Logos 7 introduces a powerful Sermon Editor tool. Now, instead of switching between a word document and Logos while writing a sermon, Logos offers a word processor built-in.

But the Sermon Editor is far more than a basic word processor. The Sermon Editor will automatically import the text from Scripture references. It will automatically build slides for you. There are quick options to create sermon note handouts as you go (including fill-in-the-blanks). And there is also a feature to create questions that might be used in small groups or for further reflection.

Watch the videos above for a demonstration.

If you use Proclaim (Faith Life’s Church Presentation Software), it easily exports your slides. However, there is also the option to export to PowerPoint (which could also be opened with Keynote on a Mac).

Your work is saved automatically and can be accessed easily in the “Documents” tab.

I plan to continue playing around with this new function, but it has me excited about the possibility of streamlining a lot of my sermon preparation work.

Get Training

The power of Logos is one of the major benefits, however, because of all the powerful features Logos has a steep learning curve. There are features for everyone, and far more than I know what to do with.

If you invest in Logos, you will benefit the most by learning how to use it properly. Thankfully, they offer great tutorial videos here.

Positives

• The most powerful Bible study software on the market.
• Search your entire study library of hundreds or even thousands of resources in seconds.
• The new Sermon Editor is unlike anything else on the market for sermon preparation.
• Includes mobile apps so you can take your study on the go and access your library anywhere.
• Logos resource libraries are a great starting point to get a lot of books for less than it would cost to buy them all individually.

Negatives

• It will take you some time to learn how to use Logos properly.
• Logos is only as good as your library, and the basic library resources are good, but not typically the best resources.
• Additional Logos books may cost you more than Kindle or physical books because they are specifically enhanced to work with Logos.
• Depending on the specs of your computer, Logos can slow down at times because it processes a ton of information.

Is Logos 7 right for you? I say yes if you want to build a top-notch digital research library, and are serious about studying your Bible.