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Morris Proctor, a pastor at Las Cassas Church in Tennessee, had amassed a substantial collection of print books over two decades of ministry. Then, about five years ago, a friend gave Proctor some software—the Logos Library System.

"I love print books, and I really was not that familiar with computers, so I just set it on the shelf," he says.

But soon he decided to see what the program could do. A friend loaned him a computer and loaded the software. He spent five hours a night for two weeks just reading the manual and practicing with the software.

"When I realized what I could do, it was amazing. I'm a good student and previously spent 35 hours a week in sermon preparation. With Logos, even as a novice, I cut my sermon preparation time in half," he says.

Proctor began training his pastor friends on Logos. And then, with the help of Logos Research, he developed a two-day training seminar called Camp Logos. Now he conducts these seminars across the country using a 50-laptop computer lab.

Though not everyone may be as zealous as Morris Proctor, Bible reference software can be a huge help to busy pastors. "Using Bible software is going to save time—valuable time that can be used for other kinds of ministries," says Jim Wilson, senior pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Seaside, California, and online editor of www.freshministry.org, which offers free access to Bible study materials.

Even researchers are impressed by the possibilities of the latest Bible software. "Programmers have designed new search engines for the personal computer that far outstrip anything that could be done with a hard-copy English or original language concordance," says Ralph W. Klein, dean and professor of Old Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. "[Users can look] for specific verbs or noun forms or even phrases or clauses, lexically or grammatically. These entries can be sought in the original languages or in multiple English and European translations, with texts displayed interleaved by verse or in parallel by passage. All this can be accomplished in seconds or tenths of seconds, and the customized results can be printed out on a high-quality laser printer."

Bible software libraries come in cd-rom and DVD form (disks), and/or they can be accessed via the Web. Travelers can even upload Bibles and study material on handheld computers.

The software companies featured below offer study tools on disk, representing the new era of Bible research.

Hermeneutika Bible Software.
BibleWorks 4.0, a $299, two-cd-rom program from Hermeneutika, is designed to help serious scholars study, interpret, and research the Bible. Its core is the original Greek and Hebrew texts, but the software also contains 100 Bibles and biblical reference works in 19 modern languages. Mark Rice, Hermeneutika director, says, "Printed copies of the BibleWorks Bibles and works would cost at least $2,000."

Competency in Greek or Hebrew is not required to use the program—you can study modern Bible translations in parallel with the original languages. In fact, Professor Klein urges potential users not to be daunted. "I find BibleWorks to be very user-friendly," he says.

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