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Check Your Newsfeed!

In your Faithlife Study Bible app, you may have noticed the “News” area. It’s constantly updated with relevant information: the Verse of the Day, FSB content updates, and other important events in the Faithlife realm. Every day—often several times a day—you’ll find information that matters.

How the newsfeed can help your Bible study

News feed

Everything posted in the newsfeed helps you do better Bible study. You’ll find:

  1. Verse of the Day
  2. Links to FSB rich media—videos, infographics, and more
  3. Updates on new FSB material
  4. Updates on new Faithlife features
  5. FSB tutorials
  6. And so much more!

You’ll keep up to date on all of the FSB’s features and new content. You’ll become more familiar with your passages through the FSB’s rich media. And you’ll learn what biblical scholars are saying about the text with the FSB’s ever-growing new material.

Resource updates

One of your newsfeed’s most useful features is the “resource update notification”—whenever a resource of yours has an available update, you’ll learn about it in the newsfeed. And there are lots of updates—after all, the Faithlife Study Bible is constantly growing. (The most recent update added over 66,000 words!)

Don’t have the world’s largest study Bible yet? Get it FREE through March 2014!

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Make Faithlife Yours

With Faithlife’s new customizable sidebars, your profile has never been more personal. You can add your daily reading schedule, your Community Notes, your favorite blog’s RSS feed, and more to your sidebar, both for your personal profile and for your group pages.

Add the Widgets You Want

Adding widgets to your Faithlife page or your group’s page is simple. To add them to your personal profile, click your name at the top left of the page, and then navigate to “Edit profile” on the right. To update a group’s settings, click the group in the left sidebar, and then select “Group settings” on the right. In the “Account Settings” or “Group Settings” page—depending on if you’re updating your personal profile or a group’s—click the far-right-hand tab labeled “Sidebar.” Drag and drop the widgets you want from the left to the right. Rearrange them however you want them displayed, and see a preview to the far right.

Customize your Pages

Add Multiple

Faithlife offers some very useful widgets. Community Notes let group members add in-text notes that everyone can see—insights into passages, questions about tough verses, inspirational quotes, and more. The Verse of the Day pulls a hand-selected, applicable daily verse from Biblia.com. You can also display Twitter handles, RSS feeds, and more.

My Faithlife

These terrific features are built right into the Faithlife Study Bible app, too. You can add Community Notes, tweet a passage, and stay up to date on your readings. You can even access your full Faithlife account—just expand the “My Faithlife” window on the app home screen.

Don’t have the Faithlife Study Bible yet? Unlock it FREE through March 2014!

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Create Amazing Events with the Faithlife Calendar!

Your online Christian community will take a huge step forward with Faithlife’s latest update. The addition of events and calendars lets you organize all your group outings, celebrations, and services in one place.

Create an Event

I just set up a tournament at church for the game Apples to Apples. I simply clicked the “New event” button (example) to get started and then picked a name for the event (example). When it comes to choosing an event type, there’s a dropdown menu with 19 choices, like birthday party, class, confirmation, and more.

Once I named and scheduled the event, I added the pertinent information (example). Then I just needed to send out invites. You can invite individuals or entire groups (example).

Create Events for Specific Groups

Want to create an event for just one of your groups?

  1. Go to that Faithlife group
  2. Click the Calendar tab (example)
  3. Create a new calendar event (you can even set recurring events, such as church services, small groups, and Bible studies) (example)
  4. View your events either as a list or in calendar view (example)

This is the perfect time to start your Faithlife community. Sign in using your Logos account, or sign up for a free account!

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Behind the Lexham English Bible

The Lexham English Bible is a translation dedicated to transparency, which makes it both an ideal second Bible and a go-to translation for comparing the original languages.

To achieve this transparency, a team of top scholars was assembled and given strict parameters: to hold fast to the flow of the original text while adding (and italicizing) English words only as needed to preserve meaning and clarity. The greatest challenge was not the translation work itself—in fact, the starting point was original language work Logos had previously commissioned—but keeping the end product clear and suitable for teaching, preaching, and Bible study. The Lexham English Bible proves it is possible to create a translation that is highly loyal to the original languages’ most likely meaning and intention while still being readable.

The most difficult issues in translating a project this size stem from creating consistency among translators’ methods and phrasing: it is obviously preferable for repeated phrases to be translated the same way wherever they appear. The Lexham English Bible is a well-documented project. The translators’ decisions are apparent because the translators annotated idioms, textual issues, and major translational issues throughout.

The LEB’s Old Testament needed special attention. If Greek flows easily into English, Hebrew and Aramaic trickle. Editorial work on the final translations ensured the text was clear.

Now complete, the Lexham English Bible is free and comes automatically with the Faithlife Study Bible. You can also download it separately at Logos.com.


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Find a Predefined Reading Plan That Fits Your Faithlife Groups!

Faithlife is your online tool to connect around the Word. On Faithlife, you can share reading plans with all your Christian groups, study Scripture, tackle difficult passages, and share notes. From custom reading plans to preexisting reading plans, there are options to fit all your needs.

The Power of Predefined Reading Plans

Predefined reading plans give you a different approach to reading in community. They let you focus on a single biblical theme and discover where that theme comes up in Scripture. Defined reading plans are built into your Logos software, Faithlife account, and the Faithlife Study Bible. They’re terrific ways to study specific topics like faith, worship, baptism, discipleship, love, and much more. Each plan is tied to a specific theme and an allotted amount of time—you can take a seven-day journey on forgiveness, or experience 10 psalms on thanksgiving, or take two months to dig deeply into the Gospel of Luke. There are reading plans for just about anything. And now you can read anywhere with the Faithlife Study Bible—get it FREE through March 2014!

How Do I Use Predefined Reading Plans?

Now you can share these predefined reading plans with any of your Faithlife groups. Here’s how to set up a predefined reading plan just right for you and your groups:

1. Select the group you want to read with in Faithlife.

2. In the sidebar, click the “Add” option in the Today’s Readings widget.

3. In the dropdown window, choose from the long list of predefined reading plans.

4. Members in the group can then “connect” and start the group reading plan.

It’s as simple as that. This powerful tool allows you to delve deeper into the faith and share your journey with others. You can create reading plans for any of your Faithlife groups, or form a group around any of the 20,000-plus resources available through Logos. Get your groups ready, and start reading today!

*Don’t have a Faithlife account yet? Sign in using your Logos account, or sign up for a free account today!

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Bible Study Made Easier with Faithlife’s Group Reading Plans

The Faithlife Community is bringing Christians together around the Word. It allows you to create and join groups, share announcements and events, share your Logos resources within those groups, and even share notes on Bible verses and Logos resources through the Faithlife Study Bible. And with Faithlife’s newest feature, you can create custom reading plans in Logos and share them with your Faithlife groups!

For any of your Logos resources, you can create dynamic group reading plans for your Faithlife groups—plans that fit your schedule. You could choose to read the new Free Book of the Month, The Christian Doctrine of Prayer, over the course of a year, six months, or just a couple of weeks.

For this month’s free book, we’ve created a Faithlife group and a corresponding reading plan so that we can read the book together. This is a wonderful way to try out group reading plans and interact through the text. Plus, you get a free book out of the deal!

Entering into this group reading plan is easy. Here’s how to do it:

1. Download The Christian Doctrine of Prayer from the Free Book of the Month page on Logos.com. (You must own a resource to participate in a group reading plan.)

2. Go to the Christian Doctrine of Prayer group in Faithlife.*

3. On the Christian Doctrine of Prayer group page, click “Join” at the top right.

 

4. Once you join, you’ll be prompted by the “Today’s Readings” widget in the sidebar to “Connect” with, or “Ignore,” the group reading plan. Click “Connect” to begin the reading plan.

Now you’re ready to start reading! You can participate in the group reading plan through the free Faithlife Study Bible app, Biblia.com, or your Logos Bible Software. Click the link in “Today’s Readings” to view the text in Biblia, or find it in your current reading plans to the right of the search bar in your Logos software or the Faithlife Study Bible app. Faithlife will update you on how you’re progressing through the text with reminders in “Today’s Readings.”

Get The Christian Doctrine of Prayer  (for free!), join the Faithlife group, and start reading in community today!

*Don’t have a Faithlife account yet? Sign in using your Logos account, or sign up for a free account today!

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Create Custom Reading Plans to Share with Your Faithlife Groups!

Building a custom reading plan is an easy way to connect with your Faithlife groups. Whether it’s for your church, your small group, or your Christian book club, Faithlife allows you to create a plan around your schedule and needs. Maybe you already have a Faithlife group you want to transition into a reading group, or maybe you want to form a group around a certain text. Creating a group is easy.

Once you have the group you want, it’s time to select the text. In order for everyone to participate in your group reading plan, everyone MUST own the resource you want to read. Just like in a face-to-face book club, you can’t read if you don’t own the text! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up your custom reading plan:

1. Open your Logos Bible Software

2. Under File, select Reading Plan

3. Select the text you want, how often you read, when you start, when you want to finish reading, and what group you want to share with.

4. Click “Generate”

Now you’re ready to read with your group. A reading schedule will automatically appear in Faithlife’s “Today’s Readings” widget to keep you on track. You’ll be able to talk about the text, share your insight, and so much more from within your group on Faithlife. Get started today!

*Don’t have a Faithlife account yet? Sign in using your Logos account, or sign up for a free account today.

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The Faithlife Study Bible Gets New Content!

The Faithlife Study Bible is one of the most comprehensive study Bibles available, but that doesn’t mean we’re content to stop there. We’ve recently added tons of all-new material to the FSB.

These brand-new additions include updated FSB sidebars by reliable and prominent contributors, including:

In addition to the sidebar notes, more than 20,000 words have been added in notes on Genesis, Ephesians, and Philippians. We’ve even revised and updated other notes throughout the FSB.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (bundled free with the FSB) has also been enhanced. We’ve added new articles totaling more than 66,000 words! These articles address subjects like:

  • Baptism
  • Joseph
  • Early Christian worship
  • Trinity
  • Rhetorical criticism
  • And much more

You want a study Bible that will grow with you, and the Faithlife Study Bible is adding new study notes, maps, media, and articles constantly.

Download the Faithlife Study Bible free through March 2014 and you’ll get:

  • Three layers of study notes—go deeper into the meaning of the text.
  • The Lexham Bible Dictionary—learn from more than 2,800 articles.
  • Rich media—augment your study with tons of photos, videos, and infographics.
  • Community Notes—share favorite verses, thoughts, and questions with your church, small group, etc.
  • Reading plans—read through the Bible with groups.
  • Devotions—reflect on the Faithlife Study Bible’s daily devotionals.
  • Smart searches—find what you’re looking for when you need it.
  • Highlighting—customize your notes with more than 80 colors and symbols.
  • Document sharing—share notes, lesson plans, outlines, and more with your groups.
  • The freedom to study anywhere—use the FSB in Logos 4 or on your mobile device.

If you haven’t downloaded the Faithlife Study Bible, why wait any longer? Get it free today!

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The Making of Lexham Bible Dictionary

“Lexham Bible Dictionary is an unbound product—it has no back cover.” This statement drove all discussion and decisions about creating this resource.

Could an enormous pool of content and information—not just the articles but the articles’ status and other project-management details—be maintained in one place? Multiple systems would snuff, or at least greatly hinder, a project of this magnitude. The solution involved some technological “secret sauce” Logos had used almost exclusively for internal work.

Once the platform was ported over, the focus turned to prioritizing articles. LBD deployed much of the data that works under the hood of Logos 4 to generate—and disambiguate—every possible topic before the extensive work of curating began. Rather than one article on Zechariah with multiple entries, there are articles for each Zechariah (more than 30 entries in total). Once the initial scope was established, writers were recruited from within the building and around the globe.

The editorial push began after it was decided that all content would be academic in nature yet readable by most anyone. Editors eliminated theological jargon and focused on crafting succinct, well-structured articles. Relevance dictated organization: essential information before details.

True to its inspiration, Lexham Bible Dictionary has shipped, but it is by no means finished. LBD is the most current Bible dictionary in the world, and it will continue growing to answer more questions, address current issues, and share new discoveries.

Lexham Bible Dictionary will complement any Bible study efforts, and it works even more effectively when used in conjunction with the Faithlife Study Bible, which includes the LBD and over 3,000 links to its articles in the layered notes.

Get your free copy of the Lexham Bible Dictionary today.

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Faithlife Adds Important New Features

Your Christian community happens online at Faithlife.com.  And with visible reading plans, group associations, and the ability to share documents—connecting with your community online just got a little easier.

You could already:

  • Create and join groups of friends, family, coworkers, and classmates.
  • Share your Logos resource notes with groups.
  • Share announcements, news, and events with your church groups.
  • Create study groups for your seminary classes.
  • Share notes on Bible verses through the Faithlife Study Bible.

But Faithlife’s new features make connecting with your groups even easier!

Group Associations

If you’ve created a group for your worship team, small group, etc., you can go into your settings and connect it with other groups.

When people visit your page, they can see other entities and ministries your group is affiliated with.

As a church, you can add all the groups associated with you, too. As you can see, when you go to CrossPoint Church’s page, you can access the Worship Team page in the group tab.

Shared Documents

When your church is connected through Faithlife, all the groups you’re part of can communicate seamlessly. I can go to one location online and leave a message for the worship team, find out when I have nursery duty, encourage my men’s group, and find out about the next week’s upcoming BBQ.

Faithlife’s latest update makes sharing documents a snap.

I was able to upload the lead sheet to “A Mighty Fortress Is My God” for my worship team. Not only can we as a team stay up-to-date with practices and gatherings, they can upload songs, spread sheets, or anything we need to stay connected.

Faithlife is always improving with updates and new features. Do you know a way to make it better? Do you want to talk to other Faithlife users? Why not get involved on the Faithlife forum?