Product News: Faithlife Is Exiting Church Management

Vik Rajagopal
Vik Rajagopal Member, Logos Employee Posts: 17
edited November 2024 in English Forum

As you may have already seen, Faithlife is exiting the church management space in order to double down on Bible study tools, content delivery, and digital discipleship.

While this will be hard news for many of our customers, we believe it is the right decision for our company, and one that best positions us to continue serving the church. If you are a current Faithlife Equip, Live Stream, or Sites customer, you should have an email from us in your inbox outlining which of your subscriptions are impacted by these changes.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may pose to you and your ministry, and we are committed to making the transition process to other providers as painless as possible. Please read more about this decision on our blog.

As I note in the blog post, our vision is to improve biblical literacy and accessibility for every Christian around the world. We are excited to focus on this as we continue to build great new tools and solutions to serve our users and the church. Our next step in that journey will be announced the morning of October 10, so please stay tuned.

Vik

Comments

  • Kevin A
    Kevin A Member Posts: 1,060 ✭✭✭

    Good [Y]

  • Nathan Parker
    Nathan Parker Member Posts: 814 ✭✭✭

    Doesn’t surprise me. I knew Faithlife was beginning to spread itself too thin a while back and needs to re-focus its strategy moving forward.

    Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Faithlife and Logos Bible Software eventually split into two separate companies: Logos Bible Software becomes once again a company focused on Bible software and Faithlife becomes a company focused on church services. Instead of one company trying to do it all, two companies can serve their respected customers effectively.

    Dr. Nathan Parker

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,952

    Thanks for letting us know. Given your limited programming staff, I am glad to see them focused on Logos/Verbum and look forward to using a more polished product. Best of luck on 10/10.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 3,086 ✭✭✭

    Well, that's not good. Churning businesses again, putting all the eggs in one basket, and a basket that's leaking demographics. Sounds like a management problem.

    Of course, as a Logosian, I'm only concerned with myself ... library surviving ... not those churches that ....

  • Bill Coley
    Bill Coley Member Posts: 214 ✭✭

    It's not clear to me whether -- and if so, how -- Faithlife's decision to "exit the church management space" will affect ServantKeeper, the church management application our church has used since 1998, and which Faithlife acquired in late 2020. Could someone from the Faithlife workforce please comment? Thanks. 

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,272 ✭✭✭

    Faithlife is exiting the church management

    As per the FAQs page, Faithlife is continuing Ministry Tracker for the time being!! Now I'm extra glad we never migrated from MT to Equip.

    Making Disciples! Logos Ecosystem = LogosMax on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone & iPad mini, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet).

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,272 ✭✭✭

    It's not clear to me whether -- and if so, how -- Faithlife's decision to "exit the church management space" will affect ServantKeeper, the church management application our church has used since 1998, and which Faithlife acquired in late 2020. Could someone from the Faithlife workforce please comment? Thanks. 

    IF you go to the bottom of the FAQs page, under the Ministry Tracker answer) it states the same thing about SK as is true of MT

    Making Disciples! Logos Ecosystem = LogosMax on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone & iPad mini, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet).

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Seems like a sensible decision, albeit difficult for some to take.

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Bill Coley
    Bill Coley Member Posts: 214 ✭✭

    F you go to the bottom of the FAQs page, under the Ministry Tracker answer) it states the same thing about SK as is true of MT

    Thanks for your reply, David.

    Now, could you provide me a link to the FAQs page from which you copied the image you pasted into your post? I'm not feeling particularly patient at the moment, so I've reached my limit of searching for it. Thanks!

  • Vik Rajagopal
    Vik Rajagopal Member, Logos Employee Posts: 17

    Now, could you provide me a link to the FAQs page from which you copied the image you pasted into your post? I'm not feeling particularly patient at the moment, so I've reached my limit of searching for it. Thanks!

    Bill, you can find it here. This won't impact Servant Keeper customers.

  • Bill Coley
    Bill Coley Member Posts: 214 ✭✭

    Bill, you can find it here. This won't impact Servant Keeper customers.

    Thank you, Vik. 

    My prayers join those of others as you and your Faithlife team chart an amended course forward.

  • EastTN
    EastTN Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭

    Many times it can make sense for a business to regroup and refocus on its core strengths. I hope this new strategy is successful for FaithLife.

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,523

    Is the FL website and social media getting the axe as  well?

    macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
    Choose Truth Over Tribe | Become a Joyful Outsider!

  • Kiyah
    Kiyah Member Posts: 2,838 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks to Vik and team for keeping us up to date. I think it's wise for Faithlife to refocus on its core competencies and mission. I know how hard it must be to undo decisions previously made, and to be the messenger. I pray that Faithlife continues to make decisions that will keep it a viable going concern for decades to come.

  • Nathan Parker
    Nathan Parker Member Posts: 814 ✭✭✭

    My guess is they’ll eventually spin off MT and SK into a standalone company (or sell the solutions to someone else), but I could be wrong.

    To reply to JT, the FL social media website is staying, but the standalone mobile apps are getting the ax. I wonder if the functionality will be more tightly integrated into the Logos mobile apps?

    One thing Faithlife could also do is ax the FL eBooks and FLSB apps, and just have people download the Logos apps to read the books (this is what I do now). Eventually, FL eBooks could be merged with Logos.com (since the two search results already display) and just offer stronger sections on the website that distinguish between an eBook and a Logos Research Edition when buying the book.

    Dr. Nathan Parker

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,523

    macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
    Choose Truth Over Tribe | Become a Joyful Outsider!

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    the FL social media website is staying

    Source?

    https://faithlife.com/transition-faq

    Search for "Faithlife groups".

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭

    the FL social media website is staying

    Source?

    Vik's announcement mentions "it became abundantly clear we needed to double down where we are uniquely positioned to serve the church—and that’s Bible study tools, content delivery, and digital discipleship." Digital discipleship is the space where FL social media fits in, so I'm guessing they intend for that to stay, though I have seen no mention of it in any place related to this new change of direction.

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,523

    macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
    Choose Truth Over Tribe | Become a Joyful Outsider!

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Thanks SineNomine and Rosie! Smile

    You're welcome JT! [:)]

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Levi Durfey
    Levi Durfey Member Posts: 2,218 ✭✭✭

    to double down on Bible study tools, content delivery, and digital discipleship.

    I am happy to see this...praying that this tighter focus will yield great fruit in those areas!

  • Doc B
    Doc B Member Posts: 3,658 ✭✭✭

    MJ. Smith said:

    Given your limited programming staff, I am glad to see them focused on Logos/Verbum

    Unfortunately, what usually happens is, they don't shift personnel, they lay them off. Perhaps some of these were included in the round of layoffs a few weeks ago, or perhaps there will be more.

    If anyone can verify a personnel shift, I'd feel a lot better about this, not only for the software but for the personnel. Some of us are still troubled by the previous personnel dump.

    Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 3,086 ✭✭✭

    Doc B said:

    Some of us are still troubled by the previous personnel dump.

    Agree.  Obviously I don't know what goes on, when the sun goes down (a bit of country), but in between non-standard UI's, churning customers and unloading employees, 'serving the church' isn't going to work well for them.

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,952

    Doc B said:

    Unfortunately, what usually happens is, they don't shift personnel, they lay them off.

    Our experience, in my case second-hand, on what happens when a company refocuses on its core products differs. I assumed that since the decisions was in the works, any layoffs would have already occurred rather than risking a morale crushing second round of layoffs.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • EastTN
    EastTN Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭

    MJ. Smith said:

    ...I assumed that since the decisions was in the works, any layoffs would have already occurred rather than risking a morale crushing second round of layoffs.

    That would be my expectation as well.