Strengthening the Saints grew out of a personal burden to see local churches strengthened through deeper engagement with the Word of God. I am currently studying at The Expositors Seminary in Jupiter, Florida, and one of the convictions that has shaped this project is the Lord's design for the local church. God has not merely saved isolated individuals; He has established churches, given pastors and elders to shepherd His people, and called believers to grow together under the ministry of the Word.
That conviction shaped the reason Strengthening the Saints was started. Many existing Bible apps provide excellent broad-based Bible tools, reading experiences, and large-scale Christian communities. I am thankful for those resources. However, as I looked at the current landscape, I did not see a Bible engagement platform designed specifically around the life, rhythms, shepherding, and discipleship needs of the local church.
Strengthening the Saints was created to help fill that gap. Every major feature is intended to serve local church ministry rather than replace it. The goal is to provide churches, pastors, ministry leaders, and members with a Scripture-centered tool that supports ordinary discipleship: reading the Bible, taking sermon notes, walking through devotional plans, praying together, memorizing Scripture, and encouraging one another in trusted church-based groups.
One of the first features we built was sermon note-taking. The goal was to create a better way for church members to take notes during the preaching of God's Word without having to move back and forth between a Bible app and a separate notes app. In Strengthening the Saints, users can take sermon notes while also viewing the biblical text, anchoring their notes to Scripture, and organizing them in connection with the church and pastor who are preaching. The app also includes ways to insert Scripture references into notes with proper attribution and a clean reading experience.
Another major feature is the ability for pastors and church leaders to create custom devotional reading plans and discipleship tracks for their own people. This came from personal ministry experience. In discipleship, I often find myself sitting across the table from someone with notes, Scripture passages, studies, and documents that I want to walk through with them. Strengthening the Saints is meant to make that process easier, allowing pastors and leaders to create guided plans that their members or discipleship groups can follow together.
A key part of the vision is trust. The platform is not designed as an open marketplace where anyone can publish devotional material to anyone. Instead, it is designed around verified churches and known shepherds. Members can receive Bible reading plans and discipleship content from pastors and leaders they know and trust within their own church context.
The same local-church emphasis applies to groups. Strengthening the Saints includes tools for Bible studies, fellowship groups, and discipleship cohorts that meet in homes or within the church. These groups can share messages, folders, files, reading plans, prayer requests, and cohort-specific content. Groups are invite-only and not publicly discoverable. A person cannot simply search for and join a private Bible study. Access is intentionally gated through invitation and church-based authority structures.
The app also includes Scripture memorization and prayer-list tools. These features were built with ordinary church life in mind. For example, in a Bible study or small group, members may hear many prayer requests in one evening. Strengthening the Saints gives them a simple place to record, organize, and return to those requests throughout the week.
In summary, Strengthening the Saints exists to serve the local church by providing a premium Bible reading and discipleship experience that remains connected to real pastors, real churches, and real fellowship. Our hope is that this platform will be useful to many local church bodies as they seek to shepherd their people faithfully, encourage Scripture engagement, and strengthen disciples in the Word of God.
Tyler Kiepke
Founder, Strengthening the Saints LLC