The Best Deal Ever! Faithlife is sending prices through the floor...

The Bottom Line: Your church should subscribe to

https://churchdeal.faithlifesites.com

This is the best deal we have ever offered.

And if enough churches take this deal, we'll be able to offer more deals in the future.

The Background Story

Yes, it's bold of me to tell you what to do. But this is an incredible deal. This is a crazy-good deal. This may be the greatest value in biblical education ever offered. Really.

It's less than $1,000 / year for more than 7,000 segments of seminary-level biblical education, for an entire church (up to 199 people, at this price). Slice it any way you want, and it's amazing:

The average church in north America is around 100 people. $1,000 / 100 = $10 / yr = < $1 / month / person. Plus we throw in Faithlife TV Plus, with faith-friendly content for the whole family.

Don't like some of the courses? Make a list of the ones you do like that are appropriate for your church, and put links on a web page, or in an email to your congregation. If you only like 10% of the courses this is still a killer deal -- and there are more than 100 courses!

You wish we had the deal for individuals? Subscribe yourself on your church's behalf. At this price it's a great deal for one person, and only more amazing a deal with each additional person at your church who uses it.

Why? Business is a math problem. We need to price things low enough to get people to buy and high enough to cover costs and make a profit. There's an invisible price-demand curve for every product: at a lower price you make more sales, but less on each sale, and at a higher price you make more on each sale but sell fewer units. It is very hard to find the sweet spot where you maximize revenue.

At Faithlife we're not trying to maximize revenue, though. We're trying to maximize our service to the Church. We want to serve more people with Bible study tools, while making enough money to stay in business, pay our bills, and continue to grow, so we can serve even more people in the future.

Logos Mobile Ed is one of the few product lines we have that is large, built in-house, and not constrained by a licensing contract with a third-party publisher. It's the product we can try a crazy experiment with, and this is that experiment:

We spend millions to create Logos Mobile Ed. It has a limited audience, and it takes time and money to market to that audience. So we have to charge hundreds, sometimes, for one course, so that the small number of people who choose that specific course can cover the production costs. We've tried using Community Pricing in a few experiments to get per-course cost down (we got one to $43!), but we still have a problem in that not everyone would choose that course, and even at $43 not everyone would take each of the 100+ courses. (It would still be $4,300 for 100 courses...)

But if we could get hundreds... thousands... of churches to sign up, the incremental cost of delivering the video to the congregants (without the book licenses, tech support of installing Logos, etc.) would let us lower the cost dramatically. So low, that we could hopefully make the deal irresistible... And it needs to be, because the math doesn't work with dozens of churches. It only pencils out with a thousand... but if we got a thousand churches to understand this kind of deal, we could offer even better deals, and attract even more churches...

If you Google "Blue Water Line lyrics" you'll get a 1960s folk song with a crazy, hopeless idea. (If you take off 'lyrics' you'll get a recording of the Brothers Four singing it, and you'll have it stuck in your head all day...you've been warned.)

"If you can't afford a quarter, then you ought to give a dime. If everybody gave, then we could save... the Blue Water Line!"

My long-term goal for Faithlife is that we can serve the Church with a never-ending progression of 'more for less.' If 100 million Christians in the US gave 25 cents a month for Bible study tools (and those who couldn't gave a dime!) we'd have $300 million in annual revenue. We could deliver a lot of value to the whole Church with a $300 million budget!

We just need to find a way to get 100 million people signed up all at once... :-)

But in the meantime, we keep taking steps in that direction. Our Community Pricing system is an example of exposing this crazy pricing logic directly to our customers, letting you get a lower price when more people participate.

And the new Logos Mobile Ed + Faithlife TV Plus bundle we're trying this month at https://churchdeal.faithlifesites.com/ is the next step.

This is a crazy-good deal.

This puts our incredible Mobile Education program, and hundreds of hours of video for the whole family, into the hands of a congregation for less than a dollar a month per person.

I hope you agree that this is an incredible value, and that you will convince your church to subscribe. We will continue to push forward toward more win-win deals: Faithlife gets to grow while delivering more and more for less and less to the Church.

If everybody gave a quarter...

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Comments

Bruce Dunning

This is definitely worth considering. I've already emailed our pastor to share the link. Thanks for making this available for churches.

Matthew C Jones

If everybody gave a quarter...

I'd give $43 for each course I haven't bought yet. And I'll take all of them.

Mark Smith

I do like this, but the timing is unfortunate. Churches usually (mostly?) have budgets and those of us under 199 in attendance don't have a lot of extra play in the budget (can't speak for the others), esp. after 9 months have already passed in a budget year.

Doubly unfortunate is the fact that our 2017 budget has already been finalized.

On another track, I would love to give this a test run (after Christmas) just to see how many would avail themselves of it. Any chance of a one or two month sample deal to test the waters?

James Taylor

Our church would probably do this in a hot minute if there was monthly billing instead of annual. That's going to be significantly harder to get Pastor to jump for especially without a trial month

Daniel Yoder

You wish we had the deal for individuals? Subscribe yourself on your church's behalf. At this price it's a great deal for one person, and only more amazing a deal with each additional person at your church who uses it.

Does this mean that one person can sign up for the church price? The page says, "Exclusive membership for legally recognized churches only." Does an individual satisfy that requirement?

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857939#Comment_857939

Does this mean that one person can sign up for the church price?

The deal is for a church. The purchase doesn't have to be done by the church; you can purchase on its behalf. But the idea is that it's licensed to a single, real church -- you can't subscribe on your own and invite random friends (or everyone on the Internet!) to 'join your church'. Otherwise we'd only get one subscriber. :-)

Daniel Yoder

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857941#Comment_857941

Thanks for the clarification.

Richard Villanueva

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857941#Comment_857941

I'm part of a larger church (1500 member+), but I was wondering if we could sign up for a smaller number of "licenses" (unsure of the vocabulary, maybe distribution capacity?) and instead of sharing it with our entire congregation only a smaller number of members that are part of our leadership, teaching ministries, staffing, etc. would take part in this. Or is this just for a full and complete congregational distribution? I don't mean to add a million different options to a simple deal. Just trying to clarify.

One of my concerns would be to jump in at such a great deal, and then the following year have to cancel if the price jump to the "regular" price was unsustainable.

John Connell

I am a Logos user, but haven't tried Mobile Ed courses yet. My question is simple. Do the members of the subscribing church have to be Logos users to use Mobile Ed courses? I may be the only Logos user in our church but believe many would enjoy online-type courses.

-john

Daniel Yoder

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857950#Comment_857950

Do the members of the subscribing church have to be Logos users to use Mobile Ed courses? I may be the only Logos user in our church but believe many would enjoy online-type courses.

It seems like the courses are available for non-Logos users, as I understand it. Official confirmation would be helpful.

John Schwandt

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857950#Comment_857950

Do the members of the subscribing church have to be Logos users to use Mobile Ed courses?

No. The video content can be accessed any number of ways. You can view it through a device such as Roku or Apple TV or even a simple web browser through FaithlifeTV.com. Of course, the videos will also play within Logos as well.

Rick Ausdahl

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857968#Comment_857968

Do the members of the subscribing church have to be Logos users to use Mobile Ed courses?

No. The video content can be accessed any number of ways. You can view it through a device such as Roku or Apple TV or even a simple web browser through FaithlifeTV.com. Of course, the videos will also play within Logos as well.

I think it's an awesome idea and would like to present it the pastoral staff at my church. But before doing that, I'd like a better understanding of things like:

Who among those attending the church would be eligible to view the courses? Only official members? Regular attenders even if not members? Semi-regular attenders? Visitors?
What would those who are eligible have to do to view the courses?
What would the church staff have to do to ensure courses were only viewed by those who are eligible?

Again, I think it's a great idea and like to imagine it might mean lower prices for those of us who would still like to purchase courses. Just need more info before approaching pastoral staff.

John Schwandt

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857947#Comment_857947

I'm part of a larger church (1500 member+), but I was wondering if we could sign up for a smaller number of "licenses" (unsure of the vocabulary, maybe distribution capacity?) and instead of sharing it with our entire congregation only a smaller number of members that are part of our leadership, teaching ministries, staffing, etc. would take part in this. Or is this just for a full and complete congregational distribution? I don't mean to add a million different options to a simple deal. Just trying to clarify.

Thanks for the question. The short answer is no. We want to build products that serve the entire churches. That is one of the reasons why we are offering Mobile Ed and Faithlife TV+ together in this deal. This offer is a huge step forward in this direction and we are looking forward to providing more benefits to every member of the congregation as we continue to grow. We also want to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to sizing. So we are simply looking for average weekly attendance. This deal isn't available for a portion of a large church. However, the larger the church, the better the value per person. For the cost of sending just a few people to an out of town conference or training event, even the largest churches can secure all of this content (more than a year's worth of conferences) for everyone for the whole year.

One of my concerns would be to jump in at such a great deal, and then the following year have to cancel if the price jump to the "regular" price was unsustainable.

Pardon my repetition from another post, but I think it is helpful here.

I wouldn't worry about this. I think we have been conditioned by the big TV industry to expect multi-year contracts with an initial low first year followed by rising prices that are difficult to get out of. That is NOT our plan. To prove it, we are offering a fixed low price for this whole year and then we will have to earn your renewal with another competitive offer.

So is it only discounted for the first year? I can't promise the same deal to exist forever. By necessity the deal will change because we are adding more content all of the time. The library will be much bigger by this time next year. (BTW, you get access to the new content as it grows throughout this year.) This doesn't mean that we won't offer another discount to continue in the program. Our goal is to significantly increase the number of churches who can access this material over time. If we can get enough participation, I would expect your church subscription offer to become even sweeter (analogous to how Amazon Prime's offer keeps getting better.) So the bottom line for churches that decide to partner with us this month, is that you can expect your renewal offer next year to be compelling.

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857974#Comment_857974

Bob, you might get more on board if you allowed Churches to try one month at a time, and then offer a discount for a year.

PetahChristian

You wish we had the deal for individuals? Subscribe yourself on your church's behalf. At this price it's a great deal for one person, and only more amazing a deal with each additional person at your church who uses it.

I don't see the benefit of subscribing for one person.

I wouldn't merely want to watch a course video to get an introduction for a segment. I would want to complete the readings and activities that are a part of the course, for a much deeper education. That $1000 subscription is money I would put towards resources.

We've tried using Community Pricing in a few experiments to get per-course cost down (we got one to $43!), but we still have a problem in that not everyone would choose that course, and even at $43 not everyone would take each of the 100+ courses. (It would still be $4,300 for 100 courses...)

I'd buy 100 courses, if the price were $43/course, instead of currently paying $250-300 for individual courses.

Surely such a large course bundle would be similar to savings for library packages, where you could get courses at 90% off.

John Schwandt

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857974#Comment_857974

I think it's an awesome idea and would like to present it the pastoral staff at my church. But before doing that, I'd like a better understanding of things like:

Who among those attending the church would be eligible to view the courses? Only official members? Regular attenders even if not members? Semi-regular attenders? Visitors?

What would those who are eligible have to do to view the courses?

What would the church staff have to do to ensure courses were only viewed by those who are eligible?

Thanks for the great questions.

A church purchases a subscription size based on their average weekly attendance. During the purchase process the church is provided with a Faithlife group (if they don’t already have one). We also provide onboarding instructions and links for you to send to the congregation so everyone in your church can join or follow the group. Then when someone wants to watch the content on the web or setup a Faithlife channel on their Roku or Apple TV, we will know whether they are part of your Church’s Faithlife group and grant access on that basis. The church administration has control over the group and can remove people. Since the church size is based on an average, one would expect some of the semi-regular attenders to be included, presumably those more regular than not.

mike

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857978#Comment_857978

Now I felt like my subscription to Mobile Ed for $500 was a VERY BAD purchase..knowing that by subscribing to this one is a cheaper way PLUS its for the church (more people/better license deal)

Also my current subscription to Mobile Ed is a BAD DEAL because I only got limited access to the videos where as the new subscription gets ALL accesses to the mobile ed videos.

To make things worse, there not even any new video on this month of OCT.

I feel cheated with this.

PetahChristian

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857980#Comment_857980

Now I felt like my subscription to Mobile Ed for $500 was a VERY BAD purchase..knowing that by subscribing to this one is a cheaper way PLUS its for the church (more people/better license deal)

Also my current subscription to Mobile Ed is a BAD DEAL because I only got limited access to the videos where as the new subscription gets ALL accesses to the mobile ed videos.

To make things worse, there not even any new video on this month of OCT.

I feel cheated with this.

The difference at this point, is that the Mobile Ed subscription got you access to a course, but this church offering is only for the videos, not a complete course itself.

If church members want to take a course, rather than simply watch its videos, they'd have to buy the course separately.

But for anyone who only wanted to watch videos, but not do any of the actual course readings and activities, this new church subscription is the cheapest way to accomplish that.

Justin Gatlin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857980#Comment_857980

I feel cheated with this.

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Dave Moser

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857937#Comment_857937

Doubly unfortunate is the fact that our 2017 budget has already been finalized.

This.

Rick Ausdahl

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857979#Comment_857979

I think it's an awesome idea and would like to present it the pastoral staff at my church. But before doing that, I'd like a better understanding of things like:

Who among those attending the church would be eligible to view the courses? Only official members? Regular attenders even if not members? Semi-regular attenders? Visitors?

What would those who are eligible have to do to view the courses?

What would the church staff have to do to ensure courses were only viewed by those who are eligible?

Thanks for the great questions.

A church purchases a subscription size based on their average weekly attendance. During the purchase process the church is provided with a Faithlife group (if they don’t already have one). We also provide onboarding instructions and links for you to send to the congregation so everyone in your church can join or follow the group. Then when someone wants to watch the content on the web or setup a Faithlife channel on their Roku or Apple TV, we will know whether they are part of your Church’s Faithlife group and grant access on that basis. The church administration has control over the group and can remove people. Since the church size is based on an average, one would expect some of the semi-regular attenders to be included, presumably those more regular than not.

Thanks, John!

Richard Villanueva

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857975#Comment_857975

This deal isn't available for a portion of a large church.

Thanks you for the response! I understand the reasoning and somewhat figured this would be the answer, but felt it was worth it to ask. I appreciate you giving me the reasoning behind the decisions being made and I can understand it, hearing the mission and goals behind this decision. I've worked with video-curriculum before and can definitely see it's potential and training (especially in developing nations that have little or no access to biblical scholars) and here in the States as a supplemental, yet highly qualified, training tool.

I also get the rate-hike after an introductory year - seems pretty standard for the market this offer is in.

Sounds like a great idea. I'll give it some thought and bounce the idea around our pastoral staff and see what comes from it!

Mattillo

You wish we had the deal for individuals? Subscribe yourself on your church's behalf. At this price it's a great deal for one person, and only more amazing a deal with each additional person at your church who uses it.

I really like the idea of this and wish there was a way to sign up individually but asking for $960 up front from one person is a bit much for me. $80/month * 12 = $960 because it is billed annually

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/858039#Comment_858039

You wish we had the deal for individuals? Subscribe yourself on your church's behalf. At this price it's a great deal for one person, and only more amazing a deal with each additional person at your church who uses it.

I really like the idea of this and wish there was a way to sign up individually but asking for $960 up front from one person is a bit much for me. $80/month * 12 = $960 because it is billed annually

But remember, they are not trying to maximize revenue that's why monthly billing is not an option only yearly upfront payments are allowed 😜 I just poked a huge hole in that statement hehehe

DAL

Liam

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857980#Comment_857980

Now I felt like my subscription to Mobile Ed for $500 was a VERY BAD purchase..

Also my current subscription to Mobile Ed is a BAD DEAL

To make things worse, there not even any new video on this month of OCT.

I feel cheated with this.

O Mike, why always, always, the pessimism?

James Hudson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857936#Comment_857936

If everybody gave a quarter...

I'd give $43 for each course I haven't bought yet. And I'll take all of them.

Me too! [:)]

mike

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/858115#Comment_858115

Liam..

I gave you the reasons why I was disappointed.

I paid $500 for the subscription.
It is only for 1 person.
It is limited to certain videos
On this month of Oct, there's no new video.
If I could remember correctly, there's is a video/s that was part on Mobile Ed the other month that is now included in the Logos 7 base package. (Now had people known that a certain video was going to be released in a bundle together with L7, people wouldn't rushed so quick to finish their videos)

Liam, I don't know whether you're subscribed to Mobile Ed or not. But I'm sorry, for me $500 is a lot of money. A lot of money.

Now Logos comes out with another subscription that is so cheap, with only double the price that the people have paid few months ago.

Only $960
Multiple persons can watch the videos
ALL Mobile Eds can be watch. Unlimited
There could new videos every months since Mobile Ed is still in production phase.
People don't have to worry to buy Mobile Ed anymore because they (the church) can watch them together.

Do you see why me and people who are subscribed to Mobile Ed have reasons to be disappointed? I'm sorry if I am.

Tell me Liam... if you've never been disappointed and be pessimistic more than 2-3 times in your life. Good thing you're hiding behind your screen, keyboard warrior. Don't worry, I know I wouldn't throw the first stone. But you just did. Congrats on achieving to another level!

Jan Krohn

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857988#Comment_857988

Doubly unfortunate is the fact that our 2017 budget has already been finalized.

This.

Pragmatic approach: Find 100 church members who would pay $10 each out of their own pocket.

Small Heath

Does this carry the standard Faithlife 30 day satisfaction guarantee?

Thanks, Dale Heath

SineNomine

This is the best deal we have ever offered.

Yeah, I think it is. And I think it's a pretty good idea, too.

It's a bit like FORMED, which caters to Catholic parishes, unlike Logos Mobile Ed. On that note, I could see a Verbum Mobile Education offering targeted at Catholic churches being viable...

Cynthia in Florida

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/857985#Comment_857985

Just a thought but wouldn't this subscription be problematic in a theological sense?

I guess what I'm saying is that if a church purchased this for their congregation to peruse, then wouldn't it be a promotion of material that may or may not align theologically with their doctrinal statement? I know that before I am allowed to teach at any church I've ever attended or spoke at, I am asked to sit and discuss my doctrinal views before teaching, making sure I align with their doctrinal statement. and if I don't, then we discuss what will or will not be taught. For instance, I taught a community Bible study in a Methodist church several years ago. I am not Methodist. However, the Pastor and I agreed that we majored on the majors, but that I would never be allowed to teach on certain topics, and that if those topics arose in discussion, I was to direct them to their pastor.

I'm just wondering if no one else sees this as a potential problem...

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859071#Comment_859071

Cynthia ... ssssh!!! Don't wake up the elephant sitting in the middle of the room!!

I can't imagine any of the churches I went to in my lifetime, to participate, due to the obvious elephant sleeping in the Logosian livingroom. I've always advocated denominational Logos packaging, to avoid the elephant waking up ... not a pretty picture.

I once went to a church here in Sedona ... they'd invited one of the historical Jesus guys to speak. Sunday services. I was amazed. He had terrible logic. And everyone watched, like a NASCAR race. But not my call. Stick to my literalist denomination.

Todd Phillips

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859071#Comment_859071

Just a thought but wouldn't this subscription be problematic in a theological sense?

I guess what I'm saying is that if a church purchased this for their congregation to peruse, then wouldn't it be a promotion of material that may or may not align theologically with their doctrinal statement? ...

I'm just wondering if no one else sees this as a potential problem...

I would think that the church leadership would need to review the content and recommend specific courses--most likely by recommending known scholars with similar doctrinal viewpoints. The problem is the course teachers are from diverse backgrounds, so I don't know of any church that would give carte blanche approval. At the same time, the price is so good that even if only a handful of courses met with approval, it's still a good deal.

Small Heath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859086#Comment_859086

Our Elders will be discussing this, along with other issues, at tonight's meeting. It's a great offering, but there are some downsides that need to be addressed. Like any great tool, it needs to be managed.

Dale Heath

Small Heath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859125#Comment_859125

I still haven't gotten an answer back on whether or not this is covered by the 30 day guarantee. If you don't like it, cancel and get your money back.

Dale Heath

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859128#Comment_859128

I still haven't gotten an answer back on whether or not this is covered by the 30 day guarantee. If you don't like it, cancel and get your money back.

Dale Heath

Best that you call them.

Test Account

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859128#Comment_859128

I still haven't gotten an answer back on whether or not this is covered by the 30 day guarantee. If you don't like it, cancel and get your money back.

Yes- we have the 30 day guarantee.

Cynthia in Florida

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859079#Comment_859079

Cynthia ... ssssh!!! Don't wake up the elephant sitting in the middle of the room!!

I can't imagine any of the churches I went to in my lifetime, to participate, due to the obvious elephant sleeping in the Logosian livingroom. I've always advocated denominational Logos packaging, to avoid the elephant waking up ... not a pretty picture.

I once went to a church here in Sedona ... they'd invited one of the historical Jesus guys to speak. Sunday services. I was amazed. He had terrible logic. And everyone watched, like a NASCAR race. But not my call. Stick to my literalist denomination.

Denise. I need to ask you a question. I can't see where to message you. Can you email me at cynthia828us AT Yahoo DOT com?

Thanks.

Liz Roland

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/859128#Comment_859128

I still haven't gotten an answer back on whether or not this is covered by the 30 day guarantee. If you don't like it, cancel and get your money back.

Dale Heath

Yes- we offer a 30 day guarantee