Recently we had the privilege to talk with veteran minister David Padfield. Here is what he told us:
The only way most people would recognize me is with a Nikon camera in my hand. Over the past 20 years, I have shot more than 50,000 photos in the lands of the Bible and in archaeological museums around the world. These photos not only help my audience to understand the lands of the Bible better, but they have been used in many college textbooks as well.
I preach at Church of Christ in Zion, Illinois and use Accordance every single day. While preaching I use Apple Keynote for my presentations, but in Bible classes, I always have Accordance on the screen (black background, huge type).
Right now about 25% of our members own Accordance, though most of them use it on their iPads. The ability to switch to different translations on the fly has impressed them.
Of course, I keep telling them this is not even the tip of the iceberg of what Accordance can do!
Many years ago I found an Accordance desktop background that I use on the pulpit computer. You probably haven’t seen this before since it is very old. Then again, my class gets to see it every time before we begin.
I use a backlit projector and a rather large screen above my head during Bible classes and sermons. Since I turn off the lights directly above the pulpit, the area can be rather dark, so I bought a full-size Logitech Illuminated Keyboard for the Mac Mini. You can still see those keys even in total darkness. I also built a hinged platform that goes over the normal pulpit. When open, it allows me easy access to the keyboard.
Accordance is used in every Bible class. When the keyboard cover is open you can see my “cheat sheet”—a list of the ten versions of the Bible I frequently use in class. For example, when I hit Control + 2, the Accordance screen changes to the HCSB. I have Accordance configured with a black background, white text, 48 point text, and yellow verse references.
I prefer to teach verse-by-verse. While several of our members are conversant in Koine Greek, most are not. So, instead of dwelling on the meaning of a particular Greek word in class, I just show how that word is translated in different versions of the Bible, which accomplishes the same thing.
Five years ago I had over 5,000 books in my library. Now? I have only about 20 and they are just for decoration. The books I could replace with Accordance were given away to friends. The rest of my books were cut up and scanned into searchable PDF files. I wrote on article about my process about a year before I completed the project. You can read it here.