I feel a little like the Israelites in Numbers 11:31 when they found themselves three feet deep in quails. It's not three feet deep but there is software all over my office, everything from Bible study, worship aids, and preaching aids to electronic books and games. In 1986 when I got my first IBM compatible computer, Bible software programs were hard to find. The few that were around were clunky and offered very little other than the text of the Bible. Now, nearly every Bible software package is an expandable library of books, dictionaries, commentaries, preaching aids, translation aids, and devotionals. Who would have thought that more than 800 volumes of books could be contained on 25 CDS that weigh only 1 pound?

In the last ten years, software to aid in preaching and Bible study has taken on a whole new complexion. There is so much information available within these programs that the hardest thing will be deciding which one best suits your needs, your working style and your preaching style. Had NBC had even half of the books available on any one of these CDS (including a game by Logos), they could have gotten the events and story of their "Television Epic" Biblically accurate!

There are so many resources available now that you may never have to lift another book off of the bookshelf again. Because there is so much available, you have to ask yourself a number of questions before buying software. How will I use it? Will I use it primarily for preaching or teaching? Do I need something that will help with both? Which software packages have the most bang for the buck? Which has the easiest interface to learn? Do I need help planning and orchestrating worship? Do I need help with sermon illustrations and sermon ideas? Is this package better suited for Bible study, devotional study, preaching and sermon preparation, worship preparation or fun and games?

Those are the basic questions I asked concerning each of the packages in this review. Some of the packages and programs can do everything you desire, while others are specific in their purpose. After installing and familiarizing myself with the software, I decided to evaluate each based on its usability and usefulness in preparing for preaching and worship. I asked four questions: Is it easily usable? Can this aid me in sermon and worship preparation? What features did I like? And finally, What didn't I like or what could they improve? Let's look at the programs alphabetically by publisher.

ABINGDON SOFTWARE

After years of offering very little in the way of software, Abingdon Software has definitely come into their own, offering several great tools for preaching and worship that all run on the Folio Views engine. It takes a little getting used to, like all systems, but is fairly intuitive. And once you have figured it out for one program, you can navigate through any of the Abingdon selections like a breeze. That's a real plus.

The Installer lets you choose whether or not to copy the Folio Views program to your hard drive. You can tell the program to run from the CD (which is slower but saves precious hard drive space.) The shadow files that Folio uses to hold any notes or changes you make initially only take up about 150 to 300 kb of space. Many of these titles have been long awaited by computer savvy United Methodists.