FAQ

About GoThereFor.com

Using the resources

Memberships

Technical questions

Website Help Questions

About GoThereFor.com

Who is behind GoThereFor.com?

GoThereFor.com is brought to you by Matthias Media, an evangelical publishing ministry based in Sydney, Australia and Youngstown, Ohio. Since 1988 Matthias Media has been seeking to (1) persuade all Christians of the truth of God’s purposes in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, and (2) equip them with high-quality resources to use in ‘making disciples’. GoThereFor.com is Matthias Media’s new digital publishing initiative.

A large proportion of the resources on GoTherefor.com come from Matthias Media, but we also work with several other trusted Christian ministries. We guarantee that everything on our site is high quality, biblically faithful, and useful for disciple-making ministry. We want GoThereFor.com to become the world’s most trusted and useful online home for disciple-making ideas and resources.

We have also worked closely with a range of people outside Matthias Media to develop the ‘Ministry Manifesto’ that describes the biblical vision of this site. Some of their names are listed at the end of the Manifesto.

What is the difference between this site and other Christian video and resource stockpiles out on the internet?

There are lots of different sites that have libraries of videos and articles. Others provide courses, in the style of an online college. That’s great, and we’re not criticizing them for a second.

The difference here is that the resources on GoThereFor.com are all explicitly aimed towards facilitating disciple-making in a local context. We don’t really want you to use these studies and courses on your own—although that’s of course not a bad thing. But what we really want to happen is for Christians all over the world to open up God’s word with other Christians and grow together in Christ. The resources we provide here are aimed to help you do that, whatever stage you’re at.

Can anyone contribute ideas?

One of the things we’re most excited about with the GoThereFor.com platform is that it makes easier for us to draw in contributions from all over the world. If you have an idea or insight or experience you’d like to share, just email it to us and we’ll consider it for inclusion in the Ideas feed.

Using the resources

What can I do with the resources on GoThereFor.com?

Pretty much whatever you can think of within your group.

We aim to provide you with really excellent material, and then allow you to be creative about how you use it to disciple others. Of course for much of the material here there’s a ‘default’-use case: Bible studies are generally done with a few people in a group; the Sunday school curriculum is meant for children’s programs at church. But don’t let that restrict you—while your membership is current you can use any and all of these resources, any number of times, and in whatever creative ways you can think of.

You should also read our ‘Ten Commandments’ (our more detailed licence agreement).

What can’t I do with the resources on GoThereFor.com?

Basically you can’t distribute any of the resources here beyond the group that the membership applies to. And you can’t put the resources on a server for access there; we want people to come to our site to get them.

If your membership lapses, you will no longer be able to access the studies online, and we require you to cease using (and delete) any copies of videos, PDFs, or Word documents that you’ve downloaded.

You should also read our ‘Ten Commandments’ (our more detailed licence agreement).

Can I modify a course if it’s not quite what I need?

Within reason, yes.

We realize that often a small modification here and there can tailor a resource to fit exactly with what you need in your situation. So you might want to insert a couple of Bible studies into a booklet for a team weekend away, or add an application question that picks up the sermon from last week.

For this purpose we’ve included Microsoft Word documents for many of our resources. You can access them in the list of downloadable files at the top of each individual study.

We should note that when we say “within reason”, we do mean it. We want you to make it clear that you’ve altered the study, and if you’re changing the meaning substantially, or removing sections, or altering the flow of the logical progression, then that’s a different question. No changes are permitted that alter the theological content and integrity of the material. If in doubt, ask.

The copyright and licence information, as well as the author's name, must always be retained in any modified file.

Is there a curriculum I should follow with the courses available here?

Aside from the children’s Sunday School curricula, there are no hard and fast structures. We also have some sample year-long discipleship programs that make use of the resources on GoThereFor.com, which you can implement in your own contexts.

I clicked on a resource but not all of the studies, videos or downloads are available. What’s up?

Resources on GoThereFor.com can have up to four components:

the text of each study or session or chapter as a web page (html) that you can view, and copy-and-paste
video (if applicable) that you can stream—this video will be embedded in the web page for a particular study or session
downloadable pdfs in a range of sizes—these are available in the download box on the study page
downloadable MS Word files in US letter size—these are also available in the download box on the study page.

A majority of the resources already have at least some of these components available and in place, but it’s been a huge job to convert and upload all our resources in these different formats. We’ll be steadily adding all the relevant components for every resource on the platform. Please email us if you have any questions or special requests regarding particular resources.

How can I get hold of extra-cheap physical editions of resources?

GoThereFor members get a 15% discount when purchasing from Matthias Media physical copies of any Matthias Media resource available on GoThereFor. When you want to make a purchase, email sales@matthiasmedia.com.au (Asia and Pacific store) or usoffice@matthiasmedia.com (Americas, Africa and Europe store) to ask for the discount to be manually applied to an order.

I’ve found a mistake. How do I tell you about it?

We’d love to hear about it, not because we like having mistakes, but because we want to fix it up. So if you find typos, bad links, errors, or other oddities please do let us know.

Memberships

What kinds of memberships do you offer?

In 2015 we have changed our pricing model, simplifying things and making it easier for individuals to sign up, and have access to resources for all the disciple-making ministry they're doing.

We’re offering licences to individuals for a fixed price of $9.95 per month, for all the groups they're personally attending. A church could consider encouraging each of its Bible study leaders to purchase one, for example, or a minister could get a membership to use during his one-on-one meetings.

What about church memberships?

We are not currently adding new church memberships. Churches that have a current membership will be looked after for the life of their year-long membership. Churches that wish to have their study groups using GoThereFor.com should encourage their leaders to sign up for individual memberships.

What payment methods do you accept?

You can pay for your membership (regular monthly instalments) by credit card. We accept Mastercard, Visa and American Express. Due to the way the site works, we are not able to accept cheques or bank deposits as payment methods.

Do you have a free membership?

We provide free memberships through our partnership with Leadership Resources in order to provide assistance to under-resourced churches and ministries. We do not set up or control these memberships. If you would like to apply for one, please contact Leadership Resources.

Do you have discounts?

For tertiary student groups or campus groups we offer a 50% discount on the membership plan. For countries where economic conditions make the full rate difficult, we also offer a 50% discount. If your usage fits either of those patterns, contact us to access the discount.

What do I get for what I’m paying?

Online and download access to all the GoThereFor.com resources, along with discounts on the Matthias Media online store.

How long do I need to stay a member?

We ask that members commit to their membership for at least three months. This is for several reasons: so we can recoup enough costs to continue our service; to help to subsidise student and hardship memberships; and so you get a chance to really use what you download.

How do I cancel my membership?

After you have been a member for three months, you can cancel your membership by emailing gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com.au (Asia-Pacific customers) or gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com (Americas-Europe-Africa customers) using the email account associated with your GoThereFor membership (so we know it's really you)and letting us know you'd like to cancel. A staff member will contact you to confirm that your membership has been cancelled. Please remember that you may not use any of the materials you downloaded or printed once your membership is over.

What happens if my membership lapses?

You will no longer have access to GoThereFor.com resources, nor will any of the user member accounts linked to the leader’s account. You will be required to cease using and delete any downloaded files. If you renew your membership, your access privileges will be fully reinstated, as will those of the linked accounts.

Why aren't all the resources on GoThereFor available for download?

For commercial and licensing reasons, some resources (especially books) that are listed and described on GoThereFor are only available for purchase at this time. You'll see a 'Purchase' box in the side-bar of these resources, but no option to log in to download them.

Technical questions

Do I need to log on to the website every time I want to run a Bible study?

Only if you want to.

At the top of each individual study, you’ll see links to the whole set of studies in any particular course in various formats (PDF and Microsoft Word, generally speaking). You can download these, and email them around to your group members, or print them out and hand them around when you meet. Alternatively, people with existing church memberships can log on to the website and read through the questions there onscreen.

We’ve designed GoThereFor.com with a responsive layout, so you can use it easily on whatever size screen you have, whether it’s a phone, tablet, or laptop.

For studies that include video components, how do I play the videos to my small group?

Depending on the size of your group, you could simply tap the full-screen button and play back videos on a laptop screen or an iPad. If that’s a bit too cosy for comfort, you can stream the video to a smart TV or other connected network device, such as an Apple TV. We use standard technologies and video coding, so this should work for a wide range of systems, but the configuration details of all the various setups is beyond the scope of support that we can provide.

What if I don’t have a network connection?

If you don’t have a network connection in some or all of the contexts in which you want to use GoThereFor.com resources, primary subscribers can get hold of discounted physical editions of most of the resources, including DVDs. See above for details. For those with slow or intermittent network connections, most embedded videos have links to a download page. Local copies can be made from that video's download page. These videos are subject to the same conditions as any other downloadable resource: that you may only use them in the context of a valid GoThereFor.com membership, and delete them when the membership is no longer valid.

What are the browser requirements?

Some of the component parts of GoThereFor.com are relatively modern and complex, and we’ve built it to be a site that remains useful well into the future. For that reason, our software requirements are modern and up-to-date. If you browse the site using an older browser you may well find things to be broken, ugly, or not working at all.

Website Help

How do I log in to the site?

At the top right of the site there is a link to "Log In". Click on the link, and enter your email address and your password. If you don't have a password yet, or if you've forgotten your password, you need to click "I've forgotten my password" under the login button.

How do I reset my password?

Click on the "I've forgotten my password" link. Enter your email address in the "email" field, and click "Send Password". You will receive an email with a temporary password.

Go back to the "Log In" page, and enter your email address and this temporary password. You will be taken to a screen that asks for your old password (the one from the email), and a new password. Your new password must be at least 8 characters long, and include at least 2 numbers.

How do I unblock my account?

If you have entered the wrong password more than four times, your account will be blocked and you will have to email us at gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com.au or gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com. Please use the email account connected to your membership so that we know it's really you. Then we will unblock your account for you.

How do I update my contact details?

First, log into the site. Then, click on "account details". You can change any of the contact details on the screen, and click "save changes" to update your details.

© 2015 GoThereFor.com. All rights reserved

GoThereFor.com is a product of St Matthias Press Ltd ABN 19 067 558 365.

Contact (AU): 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042 | P: +61 2 9233 4627 | gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com.au

Contact (US): 97 Karago Ave, Suite 5, Youngstown OH 44512 | +1 330 953 1702 | gotherefor@matthiasmedia.com