Faithlife Blog

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Why Faithlife Employees Can Take Unlimited Vacation

Faithlife has a pretty unusual vacation policy: there isn’t one.

A couple of Faithlife’s company values are honesty and openness.

Things like “unlimited time off” emerge out of the mutual trust these values help foster.

When you’ve had other jobs, it’s a strange transition from carefully documented days off to absolute freedom.

At first, I often found myself counting how many days off I’d taken, and balancing that against an imaginary idea of what I believed was a reasonable amount of time off.

Life happens

Several Faithlife employees got married this summer. One of them was Ray Deck.

Ray says, “I took three weeks off during the summer, and I didn’t have to ask anyone. I just decided what I wanted to do and did it. But we’re choosing not to travel over the holidays because we did that.”

Thanks to Faithlife’s flexibility, Ray didn’t have to plan his wedding around his work schedule.

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Taylor and his wife, Nikki, went on a mission trip to Mexico.

Taylor Blomquist says, “I just put down the days I’ll be gone and tell my team lead what’s going on. I try to make sure my stuff is done ahead of time or else get my projects covered by coworkers. . . .”

When people take vacation here, we don’t just abandon the work we’re doing. We believe it matters, so we make sure it’s going to get done—whether we’re here or not.

For me, there were several big life events that I needed time off for this summer. I got married and took a honeymoon. I led a team of high school volunteers at a Young Life camp for a month. A couple weeks after I got back, I took a group of middle school students to that same camp for five days.

Each of those were things that mattered to me, and none of them were a problem to take time off for.

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Sherri Huleatt and her husband, Kyle, in Munich, Germany.

Sherri Huleatt says, “The vacation policy and flexible hours were a big draw for me to work at Faithlife. At my last job, I was always on the clock and pretty much never took vacation—I was even scared to schedule dentist appointments! The fact that the company I work for trusts me enough to manage my time and get my work done makes me feel more personally invested in the company.”

Josh Billings, a manager here at Faithlife, had this to say:

“The vacation policy at Faithlife has a huge impact on the corporate attitude of the company. It proves we take ‘awesomeness’ seriously. We recruit and hire awesome people, and we trust them to do the jobs we hire them to do. The unlimited vacation policy communicates a ‘we’re all adults here’ mentality that people respond to very well. In my experience, people end up taking about the same amount of time off every year that they would at any other company.”

Join us, and you can take unlimited vacations too!

Faithlife is always looking for talented, awesome employees. Here are some of the perks of working for Faithlife:

Check out our available careers, and find the one that fits you.

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Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to see more of the awesome things we’re doing!

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Faithlife Corporation Competes at Bellingham Traverse

On Saturday I joined a group of Faithlife employees set out to repeat last year’s victory in the Bellingham Traverse, a multi-sport relay race.

Competing as Logos Bible Software a year ago, our 3:17:00 time was good enough for 1st place in the corporate division. So we entered this year with high hopes.

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Not many people know, I ran last year with a diamond ring in my pocket.

My portion of the race—a 3 mile scamper through the trails south of town—started just a few blocks from the jeweler who was designing an engagement ring for me to give to my then girlfriend (now wife). I jogged over during my warm-up in an effort to surprise her, bought the ring, and ran with it through the race course. I’m still not sure if that helped or hurt our time.

This year we had a beautiful September day for racing with enough wind on the bay to convince the race official to shorten the paddle portion of the race by a mile. We improved on last year’s winning time by 4 minutes. But the field was much more competitive, and our 3:13:00 made us the fourth corporate team to cross the finish line.

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Isn’t our team shirt this year particularly nice? The technical fabric performed great, and we got lots of compliments as we walked around town. So many in fact, we thought that you might like to have one too. It is the first piece of apparel we’ve created since Logos became Faithlife, and we went all out—technical fabric, athletic cut, and variations for men and women. This is an awesome shirt.

You can pre-order the Faithlife Multi-Sport Athletic Shirt with free shipping right now on Logos.com, and you don’t even have to run a race to get it.

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Where Faith and Life Connect

faithlife_logo_cmyk_hToday’s interview is with Mark Prim, the Southeast Michigan Coalition for Men’s Discipleship area director for Man in the Mirror ministries. Prim helps pastors and leaders establish an intentional strategy to reach and disciple men.

How does your family use Faithlife together?

My two older sons started reading the Bible when they were six and seven. They began by reading small portions of the New Testament at a time. Three years later, they’ve read through the New Testament twice and Psalms once.

About two years ago, they both bought Kindles with money they saved from Christmas. The first app I installed was Faithlife. I created a family reading plan so we could all read the Bible at the same pace, and so my wife and I could help answer questions the boys have. With the reading plan, we can be sure we’re familiar with the passages they read so we’re ready to talk about them.

We have recently begun using Faithlife for family devotions, reading the book Experiencing God at Home Day by Day. The boys read a portion of their Bible using Faithlife, then we read the devotional, and they finish with some quiet time of reading and praying.

Why do Faithlife groups work so well for Bible studies and small groups? What features does your group use together?

Faithlife works well for small groups and Bible studies because all members are able to read the same passages and follow along the same reading plan. Not only this, but when members have questions while reading, they can post the question to the group or specifically to the leader, without waiting until the next meeting. The ability to load documents for the group to read is also a great tool when there are additional resources or information for further study. The reading plan and documents tab are the two tools we use the most.

Using Faithlife for a small group can be a little tricky at first. Since not everyone has a smartphone or tablet, it can become a divider when we try to use it as our main tool. The second challenge is that we must use the first session or two just to familiarize everyone with the functionality and power of this free study tool. Not everyone learns at the same pace, so this can become a point of stress, and it takes a little more work when someone new joins our group. However, we can overcome both of these challenges. In my experience, it’s worth it to use Faithlife for small group studies.

When individuals take the time to learn and use Faithlife, studying the Bible together truly becomes a community effort. When people have questions, thoughts, or concerns, there’s no need to wait until the next weekly or monthly meeting. If the people in your small group want to study God’s Word, and they are open to doing it from a digital source, Faithlife is a free resource that’s worth using.

What’s your favorite feature in Faithlife?

I like Faithlife as a whole. It’s a great tool for the kingdom of God! That being said, I think my favorite feature is the reading plan because it reaches across all platforms. If all the features were available across all platforms, I think Faithlife would be more widely accepted and used by churches and small groups.

Many parents are afraid to let their kids create social-media accounts. What makes Faithlife different, and why do you let your sons use it?

Faithlife doesn’t have all the foul language and advertisements. It also doesn’t have the “freedom” that other social media outlets have—the parameters of use are much more controllable. I set up and maintain my kids’ accounts.

One reason I let my sons use Faithlife is because they can study the Bible together. And we are a closed group, so no one else can join unless my wife and I approve them. Another reason is because it makes a great tool for discipleship. I can create specific reading plans based on subjects we need to discuss, and then they read not just for devotional time, but also to gain knowledge and understanding. As they get older, I will teach them more and more about how to use Faithlife.

What does Faithlife do for you that other communication tools don’t?

Faithlife provides a way for us to interact with God’s Word together. Other communication tools allow you to post different verses back and forth, but with Faithlife we can highlight verses and make community notes that our whole family can see.

Why do you think churches should use Faithlife together?

Like I said before, it makes a great tool for discipleship. With our fast-paced world and our ever-increasing reliance on technology and all things digital, this is a perfect tool to study God’s Word together. If used the right way, Faithlife can also help someone quickly catch up if they miss a small group session.

To learn more about Prim’s ministry, you can head to ManintheMirror.org.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to join Faithlife, download the free Faithlife Study Bible, and start studying Scripture in community today.

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Logos helps you dig deeper into the Bible. But to take advantage of Logos’ powerful datasets and study tools, you’ll need a Logos 5 base package. And right now, you can get a custom upgrade discount during the Logos 5 upgrade sale—get yours now!

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Help Others Discover the Faithlife Study Bible

Blog Image 620x175 Faithlife

The Faithlife Study Bible app has been downloaded by more than a quarter million people. Every day, it helps thousands connect with God by unlocking the truths of Scripture with a modern English translation, layers of study notes, rich multimedia, and several included devotionals.

Read more…

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Understanding Prayer Lists in Faithlife Groups

Prayer lists add unique functionality to Faithlife Groups. Here’s a quick primer on what they can do, and how to get the most out of them.

Setting user permissions

Faithlife Groups offer five levels of access, and empowers you to set privacy settings that suite your group’s unique needs. In the group settings panel, determine which members will be permitted to connect to group prayer lists, create and share new prayer lists, and remove requests.

Regarding prayer lists, you have three decisions to make:

  1. Connect to prayer lists—That is, follow prayer lists. Anyone connected to a prayer list will be able to add requests of their own, see details on other added requests, and receive notifications about prayer requests inside their Faithlife Study Bible app.
  2. Create/Share new prayer lists—New prayer lists are created from inside Logos 5 (more on that later), and shared to a Faithlife group, but you may wish to limit access to only certain people, like administrators or moderators.
  3. Remove prayer lists—Prayer lists can be deleted easily, so guard this permission a little more cautiously to prevent inadvertent deletion.

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For a more detailed explanation of all privacy controls and user permissions on Faithlife.com, check out the post “Understanding the Privacy Settings on Faithlife.com.”

Creating new prayer lists in Logos 5

It’s easy. Select “Prayer lists” from the documents menu, give your list a title and start adding requests right away. You can set frequency and duration for each request and add tags so that your prayer requests so you can find them again later.

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Then, visit Documents.Logos.com to share it with a group. The “Collaborate” option will give a group ownership of your prayer list, so that members can add their own requests to it.

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You could, for example, create a prayer list about a missions trip that your small group plans to make together. You would create the list in Logos 5, seeding it with some general requests like “financial support” and “safe travels.” After announcing the trip, you could share the list with your group at Documents.Logos.com, and then members could connect to it and add their own more specific prayer requests.

Add a prayer list to the group’s sidebar

Though a prayer list may belong to a group, it may still not appear on the group’s page. A group administrator or moderator can add group lists to the sidebar for all to see. Tab over to the “Sidebar” section of the group settings menu, and drag a prayer-list widget to make shared prayer requests visible to all group members.

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Faithlife Groups are the digital home for your faith community. It’s free to join and invite others. Tools like prayer lists, reading plans, Community Notes, and a group newsletter make it easier than ever to communicate, collaborate, and fellowship around the Word of God. Join today at Faithlife.com.

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4 Faithlife Features You Forgot About

Faithlife communityFaithlife.com is a superb home for your digital faith community. We’ve been adding lots of new bells and whistles over the last few months. Some of the most useful features, though, have been around for a while.

Here are four features you might have forgotten about:

Custom URLs

Set your group’s URL so it’s easy for everyone to find. By default, the address will be your group’s name. But change it to Faithlife.com/Whatever-You-Want in group settings.

Fine-grained privacy controls

You have a lot of control over your Faithlife group’s privacy settings. You can set the overall level of visibility for your group, choosing between open, closed, and secret. And you can set permissions for each member, defining the amount of access available at each level. There are a lot of choices to make here, so I made some recommendations about privacy settings in a previous post.

Expiring groups

Limited-time groups are common in church life. Small groups often meet weekly through the fall, disband over the holidays, and then reform after the dust settles in January. New groups start up all the time. When you form a seasonal group, you can also set an expiration date for it, saving you the trouble of deactivating it later.

Duplicate this group

If you need to create a new group much like one of your existing groups, use the “duplicate this group” button to save time. You can then change the name and group photo. Think about all the time you’ll save when you don’t have to create brand-new groups for each new Bible study series or small group that pops up.

What are your favorite Faithlife.com features? Tell us in the comments.

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Faithlife.com is the digital home for your faith community. It’s free to join and invite others. Tools like prayer lists, reading plans, Community Notes, and group newsletters make it easier than ever to communicate, collaborate, and fellowship around the Word of God. Join today at Faithlife.com.

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The FSB Recognized for Excellence in Design

qed-logoWe’re proud to announce that last month, the Faithlife Study Bible became the first Bible to receive the QED seal of approval.

Digital Book World, a leader in the digital publishing industry, recognizes apps and ebooks that meet high standards of quality with the QED seal of approval. Standing for quality, excellence, and design, a QED seal denotes exceptional readability across multiple devices and in multiple formats. These awards are given sparingly, after an app or ebook undergoes a meticulous 13-point review by an independent panel of respected industry professionals.

Recognition like this only confirms that we’re doing the right work—building and always improving the world’s most advanced study Bible. We’re most proud of the way our app is helping believers and seekers connect with God’s Word and understand it more clearly. If you don’t yet have the FSB on your smartphone or tablet, you can download it for free from your app store of choice. It comes loaded with a modern English translation, three layers of study notes, rich multimedia, 55 done-for-you reading plans, and a number of hand-picked daily devotionals. To customize your app (and make it even more powerful), you can add on additional resources from Logos.com.

Download the QED-approved Faithlife Study Bible today!

 

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A Brief History of the ESV

ESV-logoThe English Standard Version Bible (ESV) is the revised and edited version of the Revised Standard Version, which many consider to be the twentieth century’s best translation. Led by Dr. Lane T. Dennis in the early 1990s, hundreds of people assisted in translating the ESV, with oversight from the National Council of Churches.

The ESV combines the specific wording of the original text with current English grammar, syntax, and idiom, allowing you to more easily relate to the text while maintaining the fullest accuracy. Using a word-for-word translation approach instead of a thought-for-thought method, the ESV is an “essentially literal” translation that captures both the precise wording of the text and the personal style of each Bible writer (ESVBible.org).

The ESV retains several classic theological terms—including “sanctification,” “justification,” “redemption,” “regeneration,” “propitiation,” and “reconciliation”—that, due to their importance in Christian doctrine, cannot be eliminated without loss of meaning. The version includes section headings, called pericopes, which guide you toward important themes.

The ESV translators worked with a high degree of scholarly integrity, which resulted in as close to perfect work as anyone could expect.

We know that no Bible translation is perfect or final; but we also know that God uses imperfect and inadequate things to his honor and praise. So to our triune God and to his people we offer what we have done, with our prayers that it may prove useful, with gratitude for much help given, and with ongoing wonder that our God should ever have entrusted to us so momentous a task.
—ESVBible.org

A number of today’s leading Christian authors and pastors recognize the excellence and clarity of the English Standard Version.

Join some of the most prominent Christian leaders in enriching your understanding of God’s Word: download the Faithlife Study Bible and receive a free copy of the ESV. Get it now!

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Hope vs. Optimism

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“You’re a pessimist.”

“No, I’m a realist.”

I’ve heard my dad, a pastor with several decades of ministry experience, respond to that criticism several hundred times. About half of them were leveled, with a smirk, by my mother. I’m clearly my father’s son, because last week someone said the same thing about me. I bet you can guess how I responded.

My father and I aren’t particularly optimistic, but we’re both quite hopeful. While our culture has blurred the lines between these two terms, they’re different things—and the distinction matters.

Optimism, a vaguely positive sentiment, gets spread indiscriminately over hardship. Optimism ignores the facts, and tries to feel good anyway. Optimism says, “Cheer up.” A mind-over-matter affair, optimism defies common sense.

Hope surveys all the facts, acknowledges them, and chooses to look past the circumstances to something larger. Hope hears the hardest questions, and believes there must be an answer even if it happens to be elusive at the moment. Hope doesn’t try to feel good; in fact, sometimes hope is painful. But hope can be confident where optimism wavers. Hope is hard-earned; you can’t get it if you keep your head in the sand. (Click to tweet) Hope is available only to those willing to wrestle with pain, injustice, and other difficult realities.

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Discover Scripture’s promises of hope, like Psalm 91. While you’re there, create an account to join our digital faith community and share your hope with others.

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Can I Throw Away My Bible?

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God’s plan of redemption stands at the center of Scripture, so if you’re already engaged in a relationship with God, you can ignore the Bible—right?

Wrong.

Here are three reasons why:

  1. Relationship

    God values relationship so highly that he made it the only ticket to genuine joy, peace, and eternity. Communication is vital to relationship. In order to deepen our relationship with God, we must communicate with him, and that means listening to his heart as recorded in Scripture.

    Lack of communication limits the growth of any relationship, and a lack of consistent Bible reading limits growth in our relationship with God. To throw away the Bible after salvation is like getting married and then refusing to speak to your spouse—absurd.

  2. Refreshment

    The Word of God refreshes us as we read it. After all, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Remaining in God’s Word keeps us healthy.

    On every page, it refreshes us with grace, love, humility, courage, and more. Without these reminders, life would seem meaningless; with them, it’s an invitation into God’s ultimate story.

  3. Learning

    The Bible enables a lifetime of learning about God. We’ll never fully understand his magnitude, power, and character, but that’s no reason to stop trying.

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Serious Bible study is easier with serious Bible study software. The Faithlife Study Bible is a great place to start, but if you’d like to study in greater detail, Logos 5 is for you. Its powerful, intuitive tools and vast libraries are the perfect way to expand your understanding of Scripture. Visit Logos.com/Logos5 to learn more.