CREEDE HINSHAW: App takes the weight out of Bible study

One of the heaviest books I ever owned was a reference book containing eight versions of the Bible side by side on each page. Designed to be helpful, the oversize volume was unwieldy at best, with print almost too miniscule to read.

I remembered that book this week as I explored the options on my smart phone Bible app. The YouVersion app offers the Bible in an astonishing 1,085 different languages while the app itself is offered in 49 languages.

One-thousand eighty-four of those languages I’ll never read, but wow! On this single app the Bible can be read by over 1,000 people groups.

The YouVersion app also has more videos of the Bible than I could count. These videos are provided by the Jesus Film Project, the Lumo Project, the Bible Project and the LightWorkers Media Group. I had no idea these impressive and helpful videos were on my app.. There are very well done videos introducing all 66 books of the Bible, each a 7-8 minute overview of the book complete with tasteful, interesting animation. There are videos that dramatize practically every scene in the Bible. I watched Jesus walking across the water and David slaying Goliath.

The YouVersion app has an events section that allows a local church to insert its own teaching notes, church bulletins and church news. My congregation is not plugged into this app, but I suspect quite a few churches are. This could be a very good way for a congregation to relate people to the life of the local church.

Having trouble figuring out how to approach reading the Bible? The YouVersion app offers countless plans for children, youth, men, and women. You can also engage in Bible study via topics as varied as worship, leadership, work, addiction, divorce, dating, faith, prayer or depression. Dozens of plans will help a person read through the Bible in one year, read through a single book of your choice or read through the Bible in 3 years. I was attracted to a 4 day approach to Bible reading based on the thoughts of CS Lewis.

I mainly use my app for plain Bible reading although I also employ the verse of the day option. When I travel I no longer pack a “real” Bible because it’s on my phone. Having long ago established my own devotional habits, I am not using any of the other resources of the YouVersion, but if I were a young adult this is probably where I’d start.

The YouVersion is available in your App Store (free) or you can learn about it online. My app store indicates it is the most popular Bible app available, even though it is only No. 153 on the list of most popular apps. (See last week’s column). The YouVersion app adds approximately one new user per second. At the time of this writing, there were 274,823,784 installs.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].