Sermon Maker is an app to build sermons and devotionals and it has the ability to save the projects into iCloud’s private and public databases synchronizing with all your devices using CoreData & iCloudKit.

The app is compatible with English, Spanish, German, Italian, French & Portuguese languages. Works with DarkMode and LightMode within the app. It allows the user to change the font colors in the different sections of the app including in sermons and devotionals projects. It has wordcount for each section and total words, and many other features.

The main reason you would want to use this app is to unify the way one build sermons and devotionals, that is why this app was intentionally designed to do that. Also, if you are interested in sharing some or all of your sermons or devotionals with all of Sermon Maker’s community, the app has an optional activation of a public database.

At his point, Sermon Maker does not have a feature to be able to print the projects by itself. So you will need to have an iPad or a Mac in the pulpit.

Sermon Maker is developed in Swift using mainly SWIFTUI 5.0 Frameworks (Swift 6.0 with Xcode 16.1).

This app was designed and developed by Ronald Steinvorth Berrocal, a Vineyard’s movement pastor from Costa Rica. Pastor of Viña Oeste la Guácima.

Sermon Maker v7.7.43 latest update: November 11, 2024:

Some of the new features in the latest builds:

  • Now Sermon Maker v7.7.x is only compatible with iOS 15.xiPad OS 15.x and macOS 12.x Monterey or newer. it is also full compatible with new betasiOS 18iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia (Compatible with Intel Chips using Mac Catalyst & Rosetta).
  • New! Fully compatible with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. (v7.7.43)
  • New! Added translation capabilities to all texts on iPhones and iPads only. (v7.7.43)
  • New! Fixed a bug in the sermons and devotionals Type Picker. (v7.7.43)
  • New! Bug fixes, stability, and performance improvements. (v7.7.43)
  • Fixed a bug that was happening occasionally while typing, in some cases, that moved the cursor, without the user intention, to the end of the text.(v7.7.18)
  • Removed the Highlight text option. (v7.7.18)
  • Fixed a bug in the word counter introduced in v7.7.11. (v7.7.12)
  • Fixed some bugs in the settings menus using iPhones. (v7.7.12)
  • Fixed some speed typing problems using the new “Flexible” option for making sermons. (v7.7.12)
  • “Flexible” option for making sermons. For now these sermons have some limitations. You will only be able to export them to *.txt. (7.7.0)
  • Added a new option to change the background color of the sidebar and sermon’s & devotional’s page. (Only for iPads & Macs) (v7.6.20)
  • Now the app saves all the changes even if the app is suddenly closed without going back to the list of sermons/devotionals. Before this fix, the users could lose all the changes made in the working document if they did not returned to the list of sermons/devotionals before closing the app. (v7.6.15)
  • Changed how the app navigates into the private projects. Now is much faster. (v7.6.3)
  • Fixed some GUI bugs and optimized the typing speed. (v7.6.3)
  • Fixed the word count in devotionals. (v7.6.0)
  • Fixed the change of sizes of Attributed Texts. (v7.5.43)
  • Changed the position of the “New” project’s button. (v7.5.39)
  • Fixed the BOLD & ITALICS in the Attributed Texts. (v7.5.38)
  • Added the option to be able to delete “iCloud Public Projects”. For this to work you will need to have the same password used (stored in your Settings, Database Options) when the project was uploaded to the Public Database. (v7.5.31)
  • Changed the “About the App” location in the app. (v7.5.29)
  • Changed the app’s defaults to start with Attributed Texts ON. User can TURN them OFF. (v7.5.29)
  • Fixed a bug that was making the app to use the color of the texts in black without any format Sorry for this one! . (v7.5.28)
  • Fixed a bug that was not loading exported & public sermons correctly. (v7.5.21)
  • Attributed Texts Feature! For iPads: underline, highlight and changeable colors in the same paragraphs. For macs: underline, highlight and changeable colors in the same paragraphs. You will need to “Enable” this feature in “Settings”, “Advanced Texts”. These features will only work on new projects. You need to start a new project with this feature enabled to be able to use it. Once Enabled, you can’t remove the option from the specific project. (v7.5.18)
  • IMPORTANT: If you copy and paste from other places you will need yo use “Paste and Match Style” into Sermon Maker if you don’t want the attributes texts from the copy source. (v7.5.18)
  • Big update with increased speed & performance. You will be very happy with this latest updates. (v7.5.11)
  • Added deleted projects “trash” to protect more your projects. (v7.5.11)
  • Changed the way the user send the projects to a backup and to other Databases. Just swipe to the right or left in the project’s list to see the new options. (v7.5.10)
  • I’m beginning to implement new features that are now available with the new SWIFTUI 4.0 frameworks. (v7.5.0)
  • Sermon Maker is also fully compatible with iOS 16.x and iPadOS 16.x and macOS Ventura 13.x.
  • This update started to add new features that will just work for iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12.0 Monterey or newer. This and all future updates will stop supporting iOS 14.x, iPadOS 14.x & macOS 11.x. (v7.4.97)
  • Fixed a bug that crashes the app if you are using titles that have more than one line. I changed back to use a “TextField” instead of a “TextEditor” for the title to avoid problems. (v7.4.97)
  • Added the option change the position of the MainVerses before or after the introduction. (v7.4.95) – Feedback from jbel30.

Some other features:

1. CoreData/iCloudKit private and public databases to store and synchronize user’s projects in all devices (iPads, iPhones and Macs). To be able to activate and use the public database you’ll need to accept the sharing terms and conditions that includes that everyone can freely use all the public info that is voluntarily shared in there.

2. Filter search for projects saved in the private & public databases (CoreData/iCloudKit). These features makes much easier to search for a project into the databases.

3. English, Spanish, German, French & Italian languages switch for the user interfase inside de app. If anyone wants to help me translate to add other languages, just send me an email.

4. Wordcount for all texts (deactivated by default), because this needs to have a faster device. You can activate/deactivate anytime this feature in the app’s settings.

5. DarkMode/LightMode switch inside de app, without needing to change your device’s settings.

6. Ability to change the fonts colors and sizes of the different sections of the project.

7. Portrait and Landscape mode compatible in all the app’s interface. This is specially useful in the iPads and Macs that are the platforms which are better to use this kind of apps to write sermons.

8. Tutorials and a picture of an example project to see how the app works. You can use this in app’s Settings. Also you can access the public database to load and see examples projects from other users of the app that wanted to share them.

9. Links to BibleGateway, YouVersion’s Bible and BibleHub websites inside the app. Note: Sermon maker don’t have any affiliation with those sites which are free to use to everyone.

10. An “import button” & a “share button” to be able to send or receive sermons projects files you “Exported/Imported” easier to or from other users. You can use AirDrop, Email, iMessage and any other options that Apple offers in their sharing features. When you receive the “exported/imported file” just save & replace the existing file in your Sermon Maker’s directory in “On My Device” in the Files app. (Added in Sermon Maker v5.8.2).

11. “Export & Import Files” to external storage in JSON format. The exported files can be shared, accessing the device “Documents Directory” using the “Files app” and choosing “On My Device” where you will find a new “Sermon Maker directory”. You can send to anyone this exported file to share a sermon or a group of them. Or simply, you can use this file to make an external backup of the sermons you choose to include. If you want to import files just save and replace that file in your device. This will NOT affect your CoreData/iCloudKit files & synchronization.

12. You are able to make public (only the projects you want) with all Sermon Maker’s users using iCloudKit’s public database. For security reasons, only the app ADMIN can delete projects from the public database. This feature make Sermon Maker not only valuable by its functionalities, but also for its contents. When more and more people decide to feed the public database everyone will benefit from other’s sermons & devotionals. Let’s all start sharing for the Kingdom of God to expand!

There is now a new release of Sermon Maker 7.7.x available!

Sermon Maker version 7.4.x was the latest release of the app that was be compatible in older iOS 14.x, iPadOS 14.x and macOS 11.x.

Since Sermon Maker v7.5.x is only compatible with the new iOS 15.x, iPadOS 15.x and macOS 12.x. and newer.

Sermon Maker v7.5.17 introduced “Attributed Texts”. This means: underline, highlight and changeable colors in the same paragraphs.

New Sermon Maker v7.7.x added a new flexible way to make sermons.

Future development

I’m working hard trying to find ways to implement new features like:

  1. Implement a way to be able print the sermons & devotionals inside the app. Status: You can now print your projects to one page PDF (not with multipage yet). At least you can share it with others in one big PDF page.
    Meanwhile, also you can export/save your projects to .TXT format and open them in Pages, Word, etc. So doing that, you can print and save the exported files to PDF with minor effort & changes.