Today’s guest post is by Luke Gilkerson, the educational resource manager at Covenant Eyes. Luke is the author of multiple books on biblical sexuality and he blogs at CovenantEyes.com.
He came to me a few days ago and told me his nagging secret. From a young age, he had been hooked on Internet porn. The shame and guilt were constant burdens for him. He had tried everything to stop—everything, of course, except getting real help from real people.
Margin notes are great, but Community Notes are better!
Create a Faithlife Group, and start using Community Notes today.
There are a lot of ways Faithlife Groups can improve your Bible study or small group.
One of them is the revolutionary Bible study tool, Community Notes.
When you reread your favorite passages of Scripture or your favorite books, your margin notes remind you of insights, revelations, or interpretations you’ve encountered in the text. With Community Notes, you can effortlessly share those same insights with your family, your small group, or your ministry team.
Every time you create a Community Note, select which Faithlife Group you want to share it with. Whenever you open your Faithlife Study Bible, Vyrso App, or Logos Bible Software, you can toggle which groups’ Community Notes you want to see as you read along. That means you can see the Community Notes of your entire Christian community, or you can isolate it to your small group, your family, or your ministry team.
Here are five ways you can use Community Notes to get more from your Bible study:
When your Faithlife Group studies a passage together, Community Notes let you pose questions to the group, right from your Bible, directly into theirs. You can even comment on a Community Note, so you can point someone to related Scripture, or even a relevant book in your library. You can also use a particular passage as a spring board for deeper questions, and encourage your whole group to respond.
Your pastor is one of the greatest resources you have in your church. But think about how exhausting it would be for your pastor to personally invest time to study with every individual member of the congregation.
Your pastor already spends a lot of time in personal Bible study. As a member of the congregation, you are indirectly learning from your pastor’s Bible study all the time through their teaching and counsel. Creating a Faithlife Group for your pastor means you get to learn directly from their personal study as well. Every note your pastor writes on a passage can become an opportunity for your church to grow.
Encourage your pastor to help you grow, using the studies they’re already doing!
Community Notes are a great way to show each other that you are reading and wrestling with Scripture. If you’re setting reading goals with your friends or family, sometimes it’s hard to know if everyone is on track—especially with young kids or people who don’t like to read. Setting goals that incorporate Community Notes provides a tangible way to hold each other accountable.
Depending on the group, you could set a goal like one Community Note per chapter, or one per paragraph. Setting goals with Community Notes asks people to not just read Scripture, but to process it.
And encouraging someone to process Scripture is like asking them to chew their food.
If you’re a small group leader, Community Notes can help you prepare for your next meeting. If your group actively uses Community Notes to point to the verses or passages they struggle with, then you can prepare to spend your time on those areas, and assemble any necessary materials before you meet.
Without Community Notes, you could prepare a great lesson or discussion on a verse or passage no one had questions about. Community Notes help you invest in the areas your group needs the most help processing.
Faithlife Groups aren’t limited to small groups. Thousands of churches across the globe have Faithlife Groups that are open to their entire church.
Your church is full of wise, intelligent people that you can learn and grow with.
Community Notes help you tap into your church’s collective wisdom.
Start small, and invite church members you know, or go big, and approach your congregation or leadership team. When you share your wisdom with others you help build up the body of Christ.
Start using Community Notes today! Learn more here.
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If your small group isn’t using a Faithlife Group yet, you’re missing out on prayer lists, shared reading plans, Community Notes, and more. Faithlife Groups are the ultimate church communication tool. The best part is, they’re absolutely free.
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ools like Faithlife.com, a digital home for your faith community, and the Faithlife Study Bible harness technology to grow your faith. But for every edifying use of technology, a sinister one can also be found. This guest post by Luke Gilkerson, general editor of Covenant Eyes’ Breaking Free Blog, addresses some of the keys to Internet purity. Gilkerson is also the author of several books on Internet purity.
Somewhere in the world right now, a mother is discovering that her 14-year-old son has been looking at porn online for three years, and she was totally unaware up until now.
Somewhere else a man sits quietly in his home, engaging in a three-hour porn binge while his family is sleeping.
In another place, a single 25-year-old woman is clicking back and forth between porn videos and anonymous erotic chat sessions.
Next door, a pastor is sitting up late with his laptop, with his mouse arrow hovering over the words “I am at least 18 years old,” praying to God he will have the strength to resist the urge.
These are the kinds of stories I hear every day where I work at Covenant Eyes. Men and women call us day in and day out asking the same question: how can I resist temptation online?