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Richard Bernard, the author of Digital Scripture Study for The Busy Latter-day Saint, has taught classes on using the Gospel Library for BYU Education Week and has also been a guest speaker in Utah, California, Arizona, and Texas. He recently taught three classes on journaling at RootsTech 2021. Richard is also the host of the Busy Latter-day Saint podcast, interviewing church members throughout the United States about their approach to studying the scriptures. In April 2021 he was called to serve an indefinite mission as a consultant in the Priesthood and Family Department, helping the Gospel Library and scripture study become more prominent in the lives of church members. In this podcast, Richard and Kurt talk about the powerful tools in the Gospel Library app and how leaders can help stimulate revelatory study experiences. 
Highlights
10:50 General Church leaders have two purposes for the Gospel Library app.
- Provide members with digital offline access to scriptures, hymns, and talks.
- Facilitate revelatory experiences and get them recorded.
12:00 The point of scripture study is revelation. If you want revelation you have to study and you have to write. Elder Scott said, “Your pen is the antenna to revelation.” 13:00 Everyone has different circumstances and time to study. God will bless you for your effort and the time that you can put in. Put in the time to get daily revelation. 14:15 How can we make our scripture study effective?
- Start with a prayer
- Come with a question
- Pay attention to words that pop out to you. Slow down your study.
- Read for understanding
17:00 The Gospel Library is a very powerful tool. All your resources are in one place. It’s a personal Liahona. 20:15 Important features in the app
- Make notes
- Tagging
- Linking
- Screens (like tabs)
- Notebooks
24:00 The importance of tagging. Tagging is a way to take a scripture and assign it to a topic. 31:00 You can link conference talks to scriptures or videos. 32:10 The app also has a notebook section to take notes and create talks. 33:40 Leaders should be using the Gospel Library and model for others. The way to get others to use it is by leading by example. 37:00 How do you help the youth use the Gospel Library? 38:15 Richard gives advice to youth leaders and ways to use the Gospel Library app in their classes. 40:45 The key with the youth is not to take the device away but to use the devices to get them more involved with the gospel and receive revelation. 55:30 Widgets for the Gospel Library app.
Links
The Busy Latter-day Saint Digital Scripture Study for The Busy Latter-day Saint Email questions or request to Richard at help@thebusylatterdaysaint.com Read the TRANSCRIPT of this podcast Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library
This was a great podcast. My favorite tools in Gospel Library are NOTES and LINKS. I testify from experience that when I enter NOTES I receive additional revelation that keeps me writing and linking to other resources in the Gospel Library.
Our son served a mission in the Armenia/Georgia Mission. A great blessing of COVID-19 for our son, was the additional time he had to explore and use Gospel Library. There are so many resources that have been added to Gospel Library. On our weekly video call, our son would share with us the new things he discovered. It was a great spiritual experience for us to learn about new Gospel Library resources and use it to study the gospel together during the video call.
Many, many years ago I was both excited and frustrated with all the new digital scripture software. They were clunky and couldn’t be moved to other software, or printed, or something else. However, when the Church got serious about creating its own Gospel Library and making huge improvements on a regular basis, I made the leap to Gospel Library as my main source for gospel study. I transcibed all my many years of personal NOTES from my hard copy scriptures to Gospel Libray and received more revelation in the process. I am amazed at what is available to us on Gospel Library and constantly amazed at the constancy of revelation every time I use it and make NOTES.
I want to know when Gospel Library for PC is going to catch up with the iOS version. It is always behind.
I have always been mystified by things digital: tags, notes, links, & tabs. Since I was baptized at 18, I have loved learning from the holy scriptures and preaching to myself inside my head. My testimony is firm and I remember how I felt when my prayers were answered, but study has always been a struggle for me so when Gospel Library arrived I was so excited but then the reality hit me that I couldn’t use the tools because I never grasped that skill or comprehended the ‘language’ of that ‘country’ and I couldn’t seem to be able to find safe place to learn it. It was as if one had to speak it fluently before one could learn it. Now I have a glimmer of hope!