How to use Kindling
You do not have to learn it all at once.
Kindling is a preacher’s shelf. You type a passage or a topic. It hands you quotes, stories, history, and object lessons that sit close to that text. You pin two or three. You preach. You file the Sunday so you do not tell the same story twice. The man in the armchair is Simpson. He sits on the menu. The first time you open Kindling each day (from the second day on), he offers one quote from the shelf — then he gets out of the way. The first time you visit, he walks you through the pages before anything else. You can skip it. He will not ask again — unless you tap Walk through the pages again, below. After your first pin he may say, once, that it is waiting on Sunday. He is only company.
It is not a sermon writer. It will not outline the message for you. It keeps kindling next to the fire you already tend.
The week
Gather → pin two or three → shape the Big Idea → archive.
- On the “Shelf” page, type a passage or a topic — “Luke 15” or “forgiveness” — and tap Gather illustrations.
- Open a card with the arrow. Pin what you will actually preach. Two or three strong ones beat a dozen maybes.
- On the “Sunday” page, write the Big Idea, then tap Save. Add an intro, points, and a conclusion if you want the pins sitting under the shape of the sermon. Name what each point is and save it. Suggestions only follow what you have saved — not what you are still typing. Reorder the pins and verses, or move them into a section. When the Sunday is ready, export it as a Word file you can keep editing.
- After the service, archive that Sunday. Kindling will warn you next time you reach for a story you already told.
The pages
Four pages in the menu. When we mention a page in these instructions, its name is in quotes so you know it is a page, not a metaphor.
- The Shelf
- Start here. Featured cards sit near the top — seasonal when Lent or Advent is close, otherwise a few worth borrowing. Type a passage, gather, pin. A checkmark on a card means you already used it on an archived Sunday; open the card to see which one. The whole collection lives on the “All illustrations” page so this one stays quick. Curators for the month sit further down the page, after the work of gathering.
- The Sunday
- This week. Date, passage, Big Idea — then the illustrations you pinned, large enough to work with, a note under each. Add sections (intro, point 1, point 2, conclusion) and say what each one is; the cards and any pinned verses can move into those sections, and suggested stories follow them. Export for Word when the Sunday is ready to take into a document. A checkmark means you already used that story on an archived Sunday; open the card to see which week. Start a series here when a run of Sundays belongs together. Archive when you have preached — that week moves to the archive, and this page opens a blank Sunday for next week.
- The Library
- Yours. Stories you wrote, caught this week, or kept from the “Shelf” page. They stay private unless you tap Recommend. Folders live here. Already preached Sundays are here too. Kindling does not train on them, and Grok does not receive the library — only a scrap you choose to send through a helper. The full promise is on the Privacy page.
- The Bible
- Look up a verse and see two kinds of neighbours: passages that quote, fulfill, or retell it (Psalm 22 under the cry from the cross), and passages that only share the neighbourhood of meaning. Pin a verse to this Sunday; the “Sunday” page will refresh its suggested stories.
Why sign in
So the work is still there on Thursday.
Unsigned, Kindling still works — on this device. Gather is five times a day without an account, then it asks you to sign in or wait until tomorrow. Sign in and Gather stays open. The “Library” page, the “Sunday” page, and the archive travel with you. Phone on Saturday, study on Monday. The same pins. The same notes. Signing in does not put your stories on the Shelf, and it does not hand them to Grok to train on.
Sign-in is also how Recommend and Suggest an edit reach the shared shelf, and how the archive can warn you about a story you already told. Without an account those things live only here, and they can vanish if you clear the browser.
Bring some in
A scrap is enough.
On the “Library” page, tap Bring some in. Add one by hand. Dump a pile of files. Catch something from this week. Fill a scrap: paste a half-remembered Chesterton line, a historical name, a quote you almost have, or a public YouTube or Facebook video. Or choose From a picture: drop a screenshot of a page or a slide. Kindling reads the words (and captions, when a public video has them), completes the wording, writes a title, and fills source, themes, scripture, and how you’d preach it when it knows them. You review the card, then save. If Grok wrote any of it, that is a draft — check the source before you preach it. It stays in your Library. It does not go on the shared “Shelf” page unless you later tap Recommend.
The shared shelf
How a piece becomes public.
Nothing you keep on the “Library” page is on the “Shelf” page unless you send it. Two doors, both checked before anyone else sees a change.
- Recommend
- On a card in the “Library” page, tap Recommend. Kindling looks the story up — quote, date, source — and decides if it belongs on the shared “Shelf” page. Published history, a named theologian, a public figure: those can go through. A story about your week stays yours. After you add a public piece to the “Library” page, Kindling will ask once whether to send it. If it is accepted, you will see a short thank-you. If it is declined, you get a reason and the piece never leaves the “Library” page.
- Request an edit
- On a card from the “Shelf” page, tap Suggest an edit and write what you think is wrong — a bad date, a misquote, a missing name. If the correction holds, the public card is rewritten and everyone gets the new wording. If it does not, the card stays as it is, and you are told why.
You will see a short wait while the source is checked. You can cancel mid-check. Sign in so the request is tied to your account.
If something’s off
Write to The Architect.
At the bottom of every page is Request a feature or a fix. Sign in, say what’s broken or what you wish were there, and attach a picture if the screen is the point. It goes to Inbox. You’ll get a note on your next visit if there’s a reply.