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Introducing Sermonary

Sermonary Home Page
sermonary.co website

Every now and then a new tool becomes available for pastors we think you should know about. This month we are eager to introduce you to sermonary.co. Sermonary is a new resource designed by preaching pastors for preaching pastors. It is a space built to help you capture ideas, craft your sermons, polish the sermons, and store them for future use. Here are a few of our favorite features:

Sermon Writing in Blocks:

All sermons work in a series of “moves” to use David Buttrick’s label. A “move” could also be called a “chunk” of sermon material. In a point based sermon a move might be the explanation of the point. Or it could be the story told to illuminate the point. Or it could be a description of implications for that point in our lives. Each of these moves or chunks can have it’s own block in sermonary.

Blocks Pic

Personally, I love the ability to write the blocks then move them around. If you ever wrote sermons on old school notecards you will know what this can do for you. Simply shuffle the notecards any way you like and you have a fresh feel for the sermon. In Sermonary you write the sermon in movable blocks like movable notecards on the screen. You can use their standard blocks (point, illustration, story, application) or you can create your own custom block (metaphor, image, video, testimony set-up etc).

Sermon Forms in Templates:

Sermonary gives you the ability to write sermons in predetermined but customizable sermon forms. In the middle of writing a sermon, have you ever asked how does this all come together?  A glance through the sermons forms they have created for you, or custom forms you have designed over time might help you answer that question more quickly. Set up sermon forms in standard templates you can use again and again.  Then when you get “stuck” you can go to your forms.

Point Based Sermon Blocks Pic

Custom Templates

One of the best parts of sermonary is that once you have created the custom blocks you like for one sermon, you can turn it into your own custom template for sermons in the future. Every preacher has some go to “plays” in their sermon playbook. Now you do not have to reinvent the wheel each time.

To begin creating your Template, press the ‘Write New’ blue button on the ‘Your Sermons’ page, then select the Sermonary Editor option. You just have to fill in the blanks, then begin formatting your sermon layout. Once you have set up how you would like your Template to be in set custom blocks, scroll to the top and press the gear icon. Select the “save template” option on the right hand part of the screen, fill in the blanks and hit the blue Save Template button once more. Voila! The template will now be saved to your Templates page. You just created your own sermon form you can use again and again.

Custom Template

Change Your Sermon to Podium Mode

Podium Mode is one of the best  features about Sermonary. While preaching, you may not want to see every block you included in your sermon writing process. You might want a simpler outline or manuscript. You may also want to eliminate 5 minutes at the last second. Hiding blocks only takes a few clicks. We would describe how to do that here, but they have an easy article in the help section of the website that will help you do that.

The site is for the most part intuitive and easy to navigate. If you get stuck there is a help section with an automated pop-up for the designers to answer any of your questions. The few times I have used it, they were marked as “away” but returned an email more quickly than I would have thought.

Usually, I simply read the help articles and found my answer. For example, I could not figure out how to make custom templates for sermons. It turns out there was a pre-written article explaining how I just did not see. They got back to me quickly via email.

Dialogue Box

Free Trial

Best of all, since this site is new and trying to build it’s customer base you can try it out for two months for free. WesleyanSermons is not affiliated in any way with Sermonary. We get no financial consideration for reviewing this feature, nor do we guarantee its content in the future. We do think this is a resource every pastor should try out. Play with it for a while, write a sermon there. Create a sermon form you love to use. Let us know how you like it.


Dave Ward