Sermon Notes

Today I want to share about my newest way to create. It is summer heat friendly and portable for traveling!

I spent the last two weeks of June on the computer for about 8-10 hours a day. Not the fun computer stuff like blogs and twitter, but hard-on-the-eyballs computering. Though a few minutes a day were spent on fun side projects, it was mostly one monstrous project and I promised myself that upon finishing, I would take a few days off from the computer.

So Sunday morning I found myself up early and ready to dive into summer. I've been inspired a lot lately by illustrated faith. I decide to listen to one of my favorite sermon podcasts. I've been trying to find in on a tangible way to process what is being preached and reflect on what hits home for me and this is what I came up with. I wanted a place where they would all be together and this Piccadilly Journal is something I've only used a few times over the last 5 years (entry one is from Dec. 2, 2010). I think good notes should be something you want to look back at later.

Enough words, picture time!
Sermon #1

I took notes! Only I took them in a way that was visually stimulating and in some cases reflect the meaning or message. I love that the sermon series we just started is called "off the chain" because it was really very freeing to just draw, write, listen, and see the words form.

I loved the mental challenge of mixing it up but making it cohesive. I loved the moment of flexibility when I realized I was almost out of room and there were 2 more points to be made!

Sermon #2:

I've been playing with color and different typeface, figuring out what makes the most sense in the moment. Admittedly more than once on this page I had to pause the podcast to finish a detailed section. Not practical for realtime note taking, but I'll work on that.

The most important part to me is how this helps me internalize what I heard. I am a visual learner and by drawing out my notes I can recall the info more easily. For some people this is not an organized way of taking notes and depending on the situation, I too am all for indents and bullet point. But for me, I remember drawing the swirly arrow to symbolize deployment and that "rock the mic you got" is a reminder to live out your calling confidently. When someone mentioned wanting to hear my story I referenced my notes saying "I wrote something about the importance of story in purple near the center binding going vertically." When I pulled about the book, there it was:

there's incredible power in your story

I will certainly still doodle in my journaling bible, but for now i'm also enjoying the large blank space to freely write and document!