A Christian journaling app for a faith journal kept with others

Ordo is a Christian journaling app for iPhone. Each day you write a short reflection on a prompt and a response to scripture, then check in on your rule of life. Entries are shared with your small group once everyone has written, and at the end of each season Ordo sends a formation letter drawn from them.

Why faith journals are hard to keep

Most Christians who have tried to keep a prayer or faith journal know the pattern. A new notebook in January, a few weeks of careful entries, then a gap, then guilt about the gap, then a notebook in a drawer. The problem is rarely a lack of things to say. It is that a journal no one else reads has no rhythm except your own willpower, and no one notices when it stops.

Ordo keeps the habit of writing but changes who it is for. Your entries are part of a shared practice with a few people you trust, so the day has a shape and a reason.

What to look for in a Christian journaling app

• Good prompts. A blank page every day is tiring. A specific question gets a specific answer.
• Scripture in the frame. A faith journal is richer when it responds to something beyond your own mood.
• Clear privacy. Know exactly who can read what you write, and how it is stored.
• A way to look back. The value of a journal shows over months, not days.
• No guilt mechanics. Streaks punish the very gaps every journal has.

How Ordo works as a faith journal

1. Choose your company. Start an invitation-only group with a few people, or keep it alone with Ordo’s solo mode.
2. Agree a rule. A short rule of life in six parts gives your journaling a frame: what you will read, how you will pray, what you will reflect on.
3. Write each day. A reflection on the prompt and a response to the day’s scripture, with a brief check-in. About ten minutes.
4. The reveal. In a group, everyone’s entries open at once when all have written, so no one writes for an audience.
5. Return to it. Your archive keeps every season with a day grid and a thread of your reflections.
6. Receive the season back. At the close of each season of the church year, a formation letter drawn from your reflections arrives.

Who it is for

People who have kept, or wanted to keep, a prayer journal or spiritual notebook. Ordo is used across traditions: Anglicans and Lutherans keeping the seasons, Reformed and Presbyterian Christians practising self-examination, Catholics familiar with the Ignatian daily examen, Orthodox Christians, and Pentecostal, Baptist and non-denominational believers who simply want to write honestly about their faith. It suits friends journaling together through a season, and small groups who want their midweek conversation to start from something already written.

If your journaling is mostly a response to scripture, see Ordo as a Bible reflection app. If you want a journal with an accountability edge, see the Christian accountability app page.

How Ordo differs

Ordo is not a general-purpose notes app, and it is not a mood tracker. It does not offer templates for every kind of journaling. It asks a few good questions each day, in the light of scripture and the season, and gives your answers to people who are answering the same questions.

It also refuses the usual engagement tools: no streaks, badges, red dots or reminders that you have been away. A companion creature keeps watch while the day still asks something of you and rests once it is kept. Ordo is in beta on iPhone; join the waitlist.