How to Have a Discussion in a Faithlife Group

Faithlife discussions are a great way to ask big questions in your small group. You can discuss anything you want within the privacy of you Faithlife Group, and the conversation is easier to jump in and out of than email or group messages.

So how do they work?

Start by heading over to the discussions tab in your group:

When you start a discussion in your Faithlife Group, it begins a new thread. You’ll want the topic to be clear so that people know exactly what the discussion is about. Here’s an example from the public group, Faithlife Groups 101.

If your topic isn’t clear or it’s too broad, you might find yourself with multiple “threads” of conversation within a single discussion. A good topic should be specific enough that people can jump right into the conversation and have something relevant to say.

A lot of message boards and forums have an “initial post” that stays stuck at the top of the discussion, even after the conversation has moved past it. While that might help give you more context for how things got started, responding to the first post after there are 20 replies is annoying for everybody. It’s like a conversational speed bump. And it’s another way that you can wind up with multiple conversations happening within a single discussion.

That’s why your discussions tab was designed to operate more like a real conversation. The most recent posts appear at the top, so what you’re reading is more likely to be relevant to the conversation.

So how do you keep track of what people are replying to?

When you click “reply,” you’ll find a nifty little highlighted word below the post you’re replying to: “Quote.” Clicking this will copy the previous post into your response, with a clear indicator of who you are quoting. Then you can add what you want  to say, and the conversation can continue.

You can also quote the same post multiple times, so you can respond to multiple questions separately:

Ready to get started? Create your own group with your friends and family.

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To test out a discussion, join Faithlife Groups 101!