Belltower FAQs

What is the Belltower store and how does it work?

Laurie Garcia avatar
Written by Laurie Garcia
Updated over a week ago

⏱ How do I get started? (Quick start guide)

You can get started in 5 minutes. Take these steps to start your first course with your family, friends, or church. 

🔑 How do I log in? 

The first time you start a course, you'll create two accounts: 

  1. A personal login with your name, email address, and password. 

  2. A Belltower account with a unique group name and web address (URL) where all your courses will be hosted privately for you to take with your group. 

See the quick start guide above for details. After setup, just log into your account to continue. Here's how to log into an account that you created previously

📚 How do I add more courses to my account?

Adding more courses is easy. Here's how to start additional courses.

🔔 What is Belltower? 

Belltower is an online library and management tool for your discipleship program. Create an account, select courses to license into your account, and offer them privately to your members. Finding new curriculum is as easy as getting a new app from the App Store.

For an overview, see our landing page at https://withbelltower.com/. You'll find the entire library of courses at https://belltower.pathwright.com/store/.

Belltower eliminates hassles of traditional curriculum by helping churches . . .

  1. Discover great curriculum. Instead of shopping multiple online and physical stores to look for decent curriculum, you can browse quality curriculum from multiple publishers that’s designed for group study all in one place: The Belltower Curriculum Store. (It’s like an App Store for great curriculum)

  2. Share it with your members instantly. Instead of having to organize, store, and pass out books, binders, inks, and files, you can share the full curriculum of a Belltower course with all your group members in less than 30 seconds. Each member has instant access to all the content on their phone or laptops – anywhere with an internet connection.

  3. Keep everyone on track. As the group leader, you can see where everyone is, send check in messages, and even schedule reminders to help keep everyone on track throughout the week. You can even personalize the curriculum with your own content and discussion questions. You’ll be notified anytime someone posts a question or submits something for you to review.

Want to learn more? See the blog at https://withbelltower.com/blog/why-belltower/ or check out this short demo video (no sound). 

💵 How much are the courses? 

Your Belltower account is free to use. Course prices are set by the individual course publishers. Prices range from entirely free to about $29/person, with the average price at about $9-$19/person. See the course descriptions for more information. 

🎁 Do you have any free courses? 

Yes! You can take the following courses for free with your group:

👪 Can I get a bulk discount? 

Individual publishers may be willing to provide a bulk discount if you purchase a large number of licenses, or "seats" (100 or more). Contact us with the situation and we can get in touch with the publisher. 

⏳ How long will I be able to access the courses? 

Some publishers limit the amount of time you'll have to take the course; others do not. Check the course description pages for details. 

🔨 Can I create my own courses? 

You're welcome to add and build your own courses from scratch for free. In order to invite learners to courses that you've made, you will need to activate your account with one of the platform's standard pricing plans

Contact us for more information.

💲 Can I resell my courses or charge learners to cover my costs? 

You're welcome to collect payment from your learners to help cover your costs, but Belltower courses cannot be resold via the platform. 

If you create your own courses and activate your account with a paid plan, you'll be able to sell your own courses with ecommerce features via the platform. 

 🙋‍♂️ Is Belltower only for groups, or also individual self-study? 

You may be able to purchase the course for individual self-study directly from the publisher. Check the publisher information on the course description page for a link to the publisher's additional offerings, when available. 

Belltower courses are designed for group study, so it is important to select or purchase all the course licenses or "seats" at once when you select a course. That's because it's not simply an individual license to an individual course experience. Within your private offering, the leader will have special administrative access and the ability to schedule the course, send messages to learners, moderate private discussions, and track learner progress (see https://withbelltower.com).

🪑Can I add more seats while the course is in-progress?

It is not currently possible to purchase more licenses, or "seats" for the course once it is in your account. We'd recommend surveying your potential members ahead of time to find out how many are able to commit to the course.

If you accidentally purchase the course with too few seats, please send a note to hello@pathwright.com and we'll either invoice you for the additional seats or help you repurchase the course with more seats.

✅ Can I get tips on teaching, managing my account, and creating courses? 

Yes, learn more by browsing the platform's Help Center here.  Some features will require activation on one of the platform's standard pricing plans.

🤔 Why Belltower?

  • Belltower is an unprecedented way for discipleship groups to learn together. It puts the power of teaching tools and trustworthy content in one place while also enabling you to teach private groups or cohorts. 

  • Belltower provides higher quality curriculum at an affordable price. The Belltower Curriculum Store includes only the highest quality digital curriculum from respected authors and teachers over a wide range of topics—all in one place. Each course is vetted for quality and designed specifically for active, group study (not passive, isolated consumption). 

  • Belltower eliminates busy work so there’s more time for teaching and discipleship. Organizing print materials, DVDs, and even digital files is time consuming and error prone. That organizational friction takes away valuable, scarce time from relational teaching and discipleship. Belltower eliminates this friction. In less than a minute, a leader can purchase and share a Belltower Course from the Curriculum Store with anyone they choose. Then members get full, instant access to everything, even on their phone. 

  • Belltower enables richer in-person teaching time. Belltower helps you flip the learning experience so in-person time can be used more productively. Each course curriculum includes video and/or written content that leaders can assign as “homework” for their members through the week. This protects valuable in-person time from passive group activities like watching a DVD or listening to one-way lectures. Additionally, leaders have easy tools for personalizing studies for their members. By scheduling reminders, sending messages, and seeing everyone’s progress, leaders help more people show up prepared and ready to discuss.

⛪ What does the name “Belltower” mean? 

In years past, nearly every small town had a bell tower that they would ring to bring their community together around things that mattered, especially in Christian churches. There’s no modern-day equivalent of this in our everyday lives. We’re busy and often not very connected to our Christian communities throughout the week. We chose the name Belltower because we see online group curriculum as a great way to stay connected with your community and be reminded to engage in learning throughout the week.

Did this answer your question?