Tips for Using the Search Function

The search box on the top right hand corner of the page is the best way to search through the thousands of resources on this site.

1. Be as specific as possible

Don’t type in a generic word or phrase like worship service as you will get too many results. See the following tips to help you narrow your search results.

2. Use quotes to search for an exact phrase

You will get more helpful results if you search for “Lord’s Supper” with quotes rather than Lord’s Supper without. With the quotes you will get results for both words when used together without the quote you will get results for every use of the word Lord’s.

3. Use an asterisk within quotes to specify unknown or variable words

If you use an * in place of a word in a phrase it will search for all variations i.e. “* Habits” if you can’t remember the first word of the phrase is “Vertical” will help you find the results for “Vertical Habits”.

4. Use the minus sign to eliminate results containing certain words

You’ll want to eliminate results with certain words if you’re trying to search for a term that’s generating a lot of results that aren’t of interest to you. Figure out what terms you’re not interested in and re-run the search. For example if your search on “* habits” resulted in too many references to “worship habits” re-run the search as “* habits -worship”.

5. Use OR to search for multiple terms at once.

Don’t know if you should search for Lord’s Supper or Eucharist? If you type Lord’s Supper OR Eucharist in the search box you will get results for both.

6. Use arabic numbers and don’t shorten books of the bible.

Searching for 2 Corinthians will produce more results then II Cor, better yet use tip #5 and search for both using OR.