When you walk into church this weekend, consider what it would be like without an administrator making sure everything works behind the scenes.
Who would make sure coffee was ready? Would the church building be clean? Would the bulletins be accurate?
Your church needs people gifted in administration, yet their work is easy to overlook. With that in mind, here are a few simple ways to encourage church admins as they faithfully serve the church: (more…)
Every year, Bellingham participates in Bike to Work Day. Last Friday, hundreds of people throughout the city celebrated alternative transportation together and bonded over snacks when they arrive at one of the 24 stations set up for anyone who biked, walked, carpooled, or took the bus to work. The event is open to anyone, whether you bike to work every day, or you’re just getting your rusty wheels out of the shed.
The annual community event is hosted by Whatcom Smart Trips—a partnership between local government, public agencies, employers, and schools to promote alternative transportation.
Local businesses rally together and set up stations throughout the city to encourage those who participate with treats and applause.
Glenn Gervais, a developer at Faithlife, has participated in Bike to Work Day since 2006. He usually bikes to work two or three times a week during the summer. Glenn races year round—from triathlons to cyclocross to mountain biking, there’s always something to do with a bike in Bellingham.
“I love that within a 5–10 minute ride from the core downtown area you can be on some world class trails at Galbraith, or on a county road with light traffic,” Glenn says.
Faithlife goes the extra mile to encourage healthy activities like biking. Glenn says, “I love how supportive Faithlife is of the biking community with our bike shop, indoor parking—it’s out of the rain and there’s no need to carry a lock—and gift cards for people who participate in Bike to Work Day.”
Jon Deviny, a Faithlife designer, participated in the official Bike to Work Day for the first time this year, though he usually bikes to work once or twice a week.
“It’s a fun way to redeem my commute for a little exercise and it’s fun to slow down and see things I normally pass by in a car,” he says.
Living in Bellingham, if you don’t bike regularly yourself, there’s always someone you know who does. Jon says, “Bellingham has the most active bike community I’ve ever experienced. There are bikes everywhere!”
Two brothers, Taylor and Jeromy Blomquist, rode the farthest of any Faithlife employees. The duo made a 12.6 mile trip together from Ferndale.
Jeromy says, “Every time we rode by a Bike to Work station, everyone got really excited and cheered. A guy even ran out and handed us a granola bar while we rode.”
Altogether, 40 Faithlife employees participated, and they rode over 60 miles in total.
The final stop for Faithlife employees was Faithlife’s freshly established food truck patio. The station was cohosted by the Pickford Film Center, Kulshan Cycles, and Faithlife.
Starting this week, this new space is reserved for local food trucks to serve up an assortment of delicious foods.
Want to be here for the next Bike to Work Day? Faithlife is hiring!
Growth is one of Faithlife’s company values; it’s even a job requirement to be growing personally. Here are some ways we grew as an organization in 2014:
In March, we created specialized base packages for Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Charismatic, Reformed, and SDA churches to provide more useful tools for everyone.
In September, we changed our company name to Faithlife. Our mission hasn’t changed: to serve the church—and Logos Bible Software is a huge part of how we do that. But with so many offerings—Faithlife Groups, Biblia.com, Bible Study Magazine, Lexham Press, and more—it was time to separate the name of our primary product from the name of the company.
In October, we released Logos 6. We introduced brand-new tools like the Ancient Literature tool and our powerful visual tools.
In November, we released the Noet desktop app, making the technology behind Logos Bible Software available for use in studying the humanities.
In December, Glassdoor named Faithlife one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work. (The award was based on anonymous employee ratings and reviews). Faithlife employees love their jobs! Faithlife has received this honor two years in a row now.
On Christmas Eve, we sent a coupon to anyone who had ever purchased anything from Faithlife—even a free book—with a limited-time $20 promotional code to spend on any Logos resource before the new year. You make it possible for us to create new things, improve what we have, explore different directions, and win awards. This $20 gift was one of the many ways we wanted to say thank you to the people we love and serve.
We serve the church, and we love building Bible study tools and resources to help you study and teach the Word.
We look forward to serving you well in 2015!
When you need a break from work, there’s plenty to do around the Faithlife campus—foosball, spikeball, Super Smash Bros., and a whole lot more. For me, one particular activity rises above the rest—ping pong.
When I was hired as an intern a little over a year ago I spent many hours getting to know our flagship product, our company values, and the awesome people who make working at Faithlife so great.
It wasn’t until my internship was almost over that Art Pinney and Eric Vaniman invited me to play a game of ping pong.
One game quickly turned into two, and eventually ping pong became a daily occurrence. A fierce competition formed between us.
Over time our group of three was joined by several others and we started having regular tournaments.
Ping pong is not just popular among our group of six. It’s a big deal across campus—it’s not unusual to make the journey to building 3 only to find the table occupied.
Every department has a number of people who are skilled with the paddle, including development, design, marketing, customer service, sales, and others.
The sport is popular enough at Faithlife to justify reserving the table ahead of time, especially during the company wide tournament—the C.O.P.P.T.R (Corporate Ping Pong Tournament).
The C.O.P.P.T.R. is open to anyone at Faithlife—whether you’re a brand-new intern, or someone who’s been here over 20 years. Even Executive Vice President Dan Pritchett is on the ladder.
It’s no laughing matter. C.O.P.P.T.R. is governed by a lengthy set of rules similar to those listed on pongworld.com (with a couple of our “house rules”).
So many stellar players make the competition difficult. Pritchett himself is currently listed as the number two seat in the tournament.
From personal experience, I can tell you that Dan’s pong abilities rarely meet their match. In our first meeting, he kept me below 10 points in two out of three matches to 21.
We’ve played several times since then, and it wasn’t until the week before Faithlife launched Logos 6 that I finally beat him.
Ping pong is just a game. It has nothing to do with our companies products. But there are three traits shown through this simple game that reveal who we are and showcase what makes working at Faithlife so great:
Growth is one of our core values. We strive to do and be the best we can at everything we participate in. Naturally, this flows into a friendly game of ping-pong. It’s something we enjoy, so we practice and get better together. Just like the jobs we do every day.
While we enjoy good competition, we still value and respect our coworkers. The games always remain friendly and they end with a handshake or high-five followed by “good game.” Our company values are summed up by the four words, “Honor God. Love others.” This overflows into everything we do—whether it’s building the world’s best Bible software, or playing some ping pong.
Challenges present the opportunity to persevere. Perseverance is the goal of competition. When we compete and lose, it fuels our fire to perform better in the future.
These qualities transfer to our work. We work hard, and when we make a mistake we admit it. These experiences fuel our passion for creating better products and providing better service. We search for our faults, correct them and aim to perform better in the future. It’s part of who we are.
Want to be around for the next C.O.P.P.T.R.? We’re hiring! Apply today at Faithlife.com/careers.
Every December, Faithlife has a Christmas decorating contest. What’s at stake? Free lunch and bragging rights. Teams and departments duke it out to prove once and for all who has the most holiday spirit, creativity, and determination.
This is serious business.
Bob Pritchett, CEO of Faithlife, has always insisted on using an outside judge—someone impartial. This year, we brought in Anne-Marie Faiola. You might remember her from our women in leadership speaking series. She brought her husband and two kids to help (cookie-bribes may have been involved).
There were skits, elves, toy trains, Santa himself, hipsters singing carols, dressed-up dogs, and more. It was quite a sight.
In the next display, you may notice that there are more than a few snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. That’s thanks to Jani Snell. She’d been planning for this contest since last December. “Last year, the competition was rigged,” said Jani. “My team cut out hundreds of snowflakes and created the most beautiful winter wonderland, and we lost. I’ve been part of a winning decorating team in the past, so to have a loss associated with my name was unacceptable.”
So what’d she do? She saved all those snowflakes she cut out during Netflix marathons and hung them up again this year, with a new theme and a new team.
And she wasn’t the only one who planned ahead. “In early November, Glenn Airoldi popped into my office one morning and said, ‘Christmas decorating contest. You in?’ Uh, duh! To work with a group that was set on winning made the work that much easier.”
Being in the large department category this year meant that Jani had about 15 people volunteer their time to help out, including a core group of six who put in at least four hours to pull off “Gingerbread Lane.”
“I expected to win based on the amount of sweat and paper cuts that went into the project,” Jani says. “I mean, my coworker electrocuted herself twice making sure that all the lights were perfect. The night before judging, a group of us stayed from 5:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. to make sure everything was perfect.”
Like I said, this contest is a big deal.
“I think the only thing that kept us going was the drive to win,” Jani says.
Take a trip down “Gingerbread Lane”:
Next came the holiday hipster exhibit.
The fine print says, “Please don’t feed the hipsters gluten or dairy products. (Or meat, GMO’s, MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors or flavors of any kind). Permitted foods include: kale chips, gulps of air, and GF cardboard.”
No trees were harmed in the decorating of this space.
This year, for the first time, design joined in on the decorating fun. Branson Anderson rallied the troops and transformed “DSGNHVN” into a modern winter wonderland.
“We can’t help but work on Christmas decorations like a design project,” Branson said. “We had a brainstorming meeting, made moodboards, created a design document detailing our plan. We had to visualize everything.”
“We got pretty serious about how we hung letter snowflakes,” Branson says. “Are we modulating height in a compelling way? Is our distribution right? Like I said, we can’t help but design it.”
It may have been serious, but it was far from boring.
“We had a huge turnout. It was a really great time. We were blasting Christmas music, eating food, and enjoying each other’s company.”
When it was all said and done, our judges selected a winner for small and large departments, and then Bob announced the winners at our company Christmas party at Semiahmoo Resort.
“Gingerbread Lane” in marketing won the award for best-decorated large department, and our facilities team sealed the win for small departments with “All Wrapped Up.”
“As Faithlife grows, so does the Christmas decorating competition,” said Kensey Burdick, who helped decorate “Gingerbread Lane. “After hours of painting peppermints, wrapping boxes, and hanging snowflakes, it felt great to win! Not only does the winning team get a free lunch from Faithlife, they get an entire year of bragging rights!”
But it’s not all about winning. “It’s fun to see coworkers get so creative and excited about Christmas,” Kensey said. “It’s not every day you get to see your manager wearing a Santa suit! We don’t just work hard at Faithlife—we play hard, too.”
So how much time did they put into this? “Too much!” Jani said. “I think I put in about 16 hours. This is definitely the most work I’ve put into the decorating contest, and I don’t think I have the energy to repeat that next year.”
Next December is a long ways away, but something tells me Jani will still have her stash of snowflakes next year.
Want to see the rest of the pictures from the decorating contest? Like us on Facebook to see “Lego Land,” “Pirate Christmas,” and more!
Last Saturday, Faithlife took a trip up to the Semiahmoo resort, near Canada, for our annual Christmas party. The dress code was “as nice as you like,” and the evening was a festive mix of classy and casual.
Over the last four years, Faithlife has doubled in size. With that kind of growth our list of possible venues near Bellingham grows smaller each year. Last year, we had a little over 300 employees, and we gathered in one central room with our guests. This year, the Faithlife Christmas party sprawled across four separate sections of the Semiahmoo Resort with a different selection of food and entertainment in each area.
At 5:30 p.m. the doors opened to the Protea String Quartet, and the stream of people never stopped.
A half hour later, our friends from Oh Snap! Photo Booth and The Upfront Theater set up shop, so people could get pictures with friends or have some laughs between bites to eat.
Beckie Rosillio from the video team scoured the resort for Kodak moments like these:
Beckie has been taking photos at our employee Christmas party every year since she got here, and by the end of the night there was a line of people waiting for her to take their annual Christmas photo.
In the main ballroom, stand up comedian Jeff Allen took the stage and had people literally throwing back their heads in laughter:
Throughout the night, everyone was free to roam between rooms, so there was never a dull moment.
The Upfront Theater crew took a break and then returned for a final show. This time, the improvised comedy somehow led to a soap opera wedding (don’t ask me to explain how it got there):
After the entertainment wrapped up for the evening, it was time for Bob’s annual speech about how much he loves working with us, why we do what we do, and of course, Faithlife’s famous raffle.
As always, when it comes to thanking his employees, Bob went big. Thousands of dollars in gift cards were given away, brand-new tablets were handed out, and there was even a Playstation 4 and an Xbox One thrown in the mix.
When the raffle was over, only one thing remained: Christmas carols. Max Morin and Josh Warren from design led the company in a couple of carols, and the evening came to a close.
Want to be at the next Faithlife Christmas party? Check out our available careers!
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To see the rest of our Christmas party photos, like us on Facebook!
For the second year in a row, Faithlife was named one of Glassdoor’s top ten small to medium sized businesses to work for in the country.
It’s no secret that Faithlife has always been a little different. We have no HR department. We give employees unlimited vacation. Our company manual is one page.
To some, that may sound like a recipe for disaster. It’s unconventional. But you should know: Glassdoor selects from thousands of companies all across the United States based on employee surveys. We like it here. So we said so.
“We offer our employees more autonomy, less bureaucracy, and more reason to be personally invested in the company,” said Bob Pritchett, Faithlife president and CEO. And it’s true. Every couple of months, Bob hosts an “Ask Anything” meeting that’s open to all employees, where anyone is welcome to ask Bob . . . anything! From sales goals and what comes next, to company mistakes and what we’re learning, Bob models the openness and honesty he desires in our company culture. Everyone has a voice and the opportunity to make their voice heard.
Faithlife began in 1992 with a handful of people and an idea: help people study the Bible. Today, Faithlife is serving the church with more than Bible software. We provide church presentation software, a Christian ebook app, beautiful Bible art, a better way to reference Scripture, a church communication tool, the world’s smartest humanities software, and much more.
With so many directions to go in, it’s easy for employees to find a career path they can be passionate about. Even with over 400 of us, every person has a place, a purpose, and room to grow.
Part of what’s made Faithlife such a great place to work are the very things that make Faithlife so unconventional. Our company manual is short and sweet because our mission is simple: “to serve the church.” The values that help us carry out our mission can be summarized in four words: “Honor God. Love others.” Our company values encompass the way we treat each other, our customers, and our work. We balance the productivity that makes us successful with an emphasis on people that helps us care about our relationships to others.
Every summer we bring interns—about 50 of them—to experience what it’s like to work at Faithlife. Unlike many intern environments, our interns are treated like employees. We pay them, and we give them challenging jobs that help them grow into valuable employees, not leftover tasks that make them feel like the bottom rung of a corporate ladder. Every intern gets a mentor—an employee they work alongside who can walk them through their job and help them adjust to day to day life here. If they’re still enjoying their work at the end of the internship, we often keep them! (That’s actually how I got started here about a year and a half ago.)
We celebrate success and the awesome people who make it happen. We nominate each other for awards to recognize when someone is growing or goes above and beyond. We advocate on behalf of each other, so even in a company this size, no one is left to fend for themselves. We work in teams, and those teams have fun together outside of work (and even during work).
It’s official: Faithlife is one of the best places to work in the U.S. Check out our careers, or apply for one of our internships (marketing or software development), and you too could find yourself saying, “I love my job.”
This Christmas season, explore the importance of the word light in the Scriptures. From the beginning:
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” —Genesis 1:3
To the coming king:
“After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped
To the Savior himself:
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” —John 8:12
This Christmas, share this video with your friends and loved ones as a reminder of what the season is all about—the light of the world:
And as a thank you for Proclaim users, this video is now available in your Proclaim media library to share with your congregation. If you have Proclaim and a Pro Media subscription (or purchase one before Dec. 23), you’ll also receive a matching welcome video customized with your church’s name.
From all of us at Faithlife, merry Christmas!
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Continue exploring Scripture with the resources featured in the Logos Christmas sale. While you’re there, enter to win a MacBook Pro along with Logos 6 Collector’s Edition (a digital library worth $10,000.00).
We’ve shown you how beautiful the Pacific Northwest is, but have you seen Faithlife’s hometown in Bellingham, Washington? It’s a pretty spectacular place.
This fall, Dr. Jeannine Brown and her husband Tim came to Bellingham to work with Faithlife’s Mobile Ed program. Their time here was a delightful mix of business and pleasure.
While Dr. Brown was busy with Mobile Ed, Tim got to know the town we call home.
Bellingham is full of all kinds of musicians. Accordions, beat-boxing, you name it. But if you were in Bellingham this fall, you might have got a special treat: Tim Brown. He’s been a musician for over 30 years, and while his wife was working with us, Tim took to the streets.
Tim says, “I bring a guitar with me on every trip. While in Bellingham, I did some busking and lots of walking. I enjoyed the old buildings and spent time learning about the town’s railroad history.”
In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he wrote a poem about it.
He says, “The poem reflects a moment in time. It’s a snapshot. A freeze-frame exploration of a beautiful fall morning.”
After he and Dr. Brown left Bellingham, Tim offered us the poem as a tribute to our home.
It’s called “One Way Holly.” Check it out:
One Way Holly
Four way crossing on one way Holly
Trees are turning
Leaves are falling
People walking and cars motor awayAutumn morning clouds are forming
People moving
Without hurrying
Bless the sneezing girl along her wayRoomy sidewalk stop and standing
Golden sunlight
Day expanding
Blue skies peeking through the grayIn Bellingham on one way Holly
There’s turn taking
Four way crossing
Morning’s sliding smooth into midday
After leaving us with his poem, Tim had this to say of Bellingham:
“Bellingham is a wonderful conglomeration of beauty, history, weather, and interesting people. I also like that it’s a college town. Young people bring energy to the city. The extensive railroad boom (1890s) architecture was as impressive to me as the city’s obvious natural beauty.”
To Tim, the town and the moment are memories he will cherish. “The poem reminds me to be thankful for life’s perfect moments and everything in between. It will always remind me of our late September trip to Bellingham.”
If you’re ever in the neighborhood, stop by and see what we’re up to! Faithlife is always giving tours of our campus in downtown Bellingham. You can even tour our historic building, affectionately known as the Flatiron.
Logos 6 has been more than 20 years in the making. Behind the curtain, October 27 was a day of celebration—of people, of technology, and of hard work.
Walking through the doors of Faithlife on Monday was unlike any other day since I’ve been here. Balloons filled corners, desks, stairwells, and more. There was even a giant balloon archway next to our receptionist and the famous Faithlife sign:
Every desk was adorned with Logos 6 goodies and launch day treats—including these sweet Logos 6 mugs full of candy and cupcakes that were about 40 percent frosting.
Some parts of the Faithlife campus felt like walking through a campsite. In the Partnerships and Advertising team’s office, a projector was playing The Office in the background, and Nate Smoyer was cozied up in a blanket with his laptop. Down in DSGNHAVN, a hammock was stretched between two pillars—the perfect spot to take a quick nap before getting back in the action.
Some offices were empty, where just hours ago teams of people had been frantically working to make sure everything was ready for the big day.
For many, “launch day” began Sunday night and ran into the wee hours of the morning. There were web pages and servers to be tested and retested, links and messaging to be double checked and triple checked, and festivities to prepare.
Moments after I arrived, developers and marketers gathered around a single laptop, and the magic moment—the launch of Logos 6—was captured on a phone. Chris Dumond had the honor of pushing the button.
Shortly after the button was pushed and the sites were live, executive assistant Brittany Hackett caught the Bellingham sunrise peeking through her window, and a beautiful day of celebration began:
Blazers and blouses were replaced with Logos 6 launch T-shirts, and company wide, we rallied to bring out the best in each other throughout the day. From the beginning, we knew the launch would put a lot of stress on our customer service and sales people, so we assigned teams to care for and support them.
One of the people supporting the sales team was Annemarie VanBeek. Annemarie doesn’t even work in the same building as sales, but she was available to help. So what’d she do? She moved in.
Annemarie said, “At first I just had my laptop in here. Then I moved my monitors over, and eventually my whole desktop and everything.” She was in the middle of the action, ready to help out at a moment’s notice. Sometimes it meant acting as a go-between and making sure our sales people had the most up-to-date information about Logos 6. Other times it meant making sure everyone had the food and caffeine they needed to keep going.
“If we aren’t answering questions, we’re feeding them,” she said. “Sometimes, you’ll just hear a door open, and someone will run out and grab a bite to eat before they get back on the phone.”
Rumor has it that one salesman, John Groce, didn’t even put the phone down long enough to sneak out and grab a bite. He took calls for more than 12 hours straight and never left his office. That’s how much he enjoyed our customers and the excitement of Logos 6.
When I spoke to Annemarie, it was a little after 1:00 p.m. By that time, she’d made three separate trips to Woods Coffee with everyone’s drink orders. All this week, Faithlife has food trucks parked between our buildings (with free food for Faithlife employees!) so our support teams brought hot food right to the hungry mouths that asked for them.
Those of us that had time hopped in line and enjoyed tasty BBQ, Philly cheesesteaks, gourmet pizza, burritos, and more!
Annemarie was just one of many employees who went above and beyond to serve those who were working with our customers. She was also one of many people to relocate their work station just for the launch.
Developers and marketers worked side by side to ensure that when pages needed to be built and new issues were discovered, they could be addressed as quickly as possible.
Erik was one of the developers that relocated for the launch. He said, “Recently, I’d been heavily involved with the marketing technology team and their code, so it made sense for me to sit with them. Everyone in marketing knew where to find me when they had questions. It was helpful to just turn around and talk instead of using instant messaging.”
One member of the marketing technology team told me Erik was like a launch-day superhero, working right alongside his team. Erik said, “I don’t normally work 25 hours in a 28-hour period . . . that was a first.”
Sounds like he could have really used the hammock downstairs.
Kaleb Cuevas said, “Monday was really different because there was so much anticipation and excitement, and we worked all night to make it possible.”
The most exciting moment for Kaleb was “the moment we heard cheers erupt when the site went live, and seeing the praise from customers that followed.”
Our customer service and sales teams were on the phones nonstop until midnight to keep things moving. The phone lines were loaded to maximum capacity—people were chomping at the bit to begin using and learning about Logos 6.
When people are this passionate about a product, it’s contagious. And when our customers are excited, we are too. Monday, October 27 represented years of work, months of preparation, and hundreds of people who helped Logos 6 come together.
Join the celebration, and see what people are so excited about. Get Logos 6 today.