Posted on 01/10/2025 9:02:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The YouVersion Bible App saw 798,000 installations on Jan. 5, the largest single day of installs for the phone app in its history.
Bobby Gruenewald, founder of YouVersion and a pastor at Life.Church, told The Christian Post on Thursday that the app “saw 18.2 million people engage in the Bible and more than 798,000 installs” on Sunday.
This broke the record previously set on the first Sunday of last year, while New Year’s Day was the third-highest single-day number of installs in the history of YouVersion, Gruenewald added.
“We tend to see a seasonal uptick in Bible engagement at the beginning of the year as people start new habits and are interested in reading the Bible for the first time,” Gruenewald told CP.
“What’s interesting to us is that this year’s increase is even higher than this same time last year, and it’s a trend we’re seeing globally.”
Although YouVersion witnessed increases in app installs and engagement worldwide, the app reported its largest increases in installs in nations in Africa and throughout Asia and the Middle East.
This included a 198% increase in activity in Ethiopia, a 94% increase in Egypt, a 74% increase in Turkey, a 65% increase in Ghana, and a 48% increase in Pakistan. Overall, Northern Africa saw a 297% increase in activity, while the Middle East saw a 166% increase.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the app and help people do what they tell us they want to do, which is read the Bible more consistently,” Gruenewald said.
“Because we know people are interested in creating new rhythms, we put a lot of work into designing features to help them make Bible engagement a daily practice that is sustained throughout the year.”
According to Gruenewald, one of the app’s most popular features is Bible Plans, which, according to the YouVersion website, are centered on providing “daily devotional content rooted in Scripture” and help users “study, understand, meditate on, and apply biblical truths to their lives.”
“Every week, we add new plans in multiple languages to help people continue to engage in the Bible every day,” explained Gruenewald. “This year, we will be making it easier for people to find meaningful Bible Plan content that’s specific to where they are in their faith journey.”
“Additionally, the Plans with Friends feature allows people to study Scripture together because we know someone is more likely to be consistent when they have the support of their community.”
Gruenewald told CP that he and the others at YouVersion are “amazed that we get to be a part of how God chooses to do that on a daily basis.”
“Every time someone opens the Bible is an opportunity for the power of God’s Word to change their life,” he added.
Launched in July 2008 by Life.Church, the YouVersion family of apps boasts of having been installed in over 850 million devices globally, and is offered in 2,100 languages.
At the end of last year, YouVersion reported that the app had, on average, 11.2 million new device installs each month in 2024 and approximately 14 million people engaging in the Bible each day.
Life.Church is not my favorite church, but the work that they have accomplished with YouVersion is just amazing.
God uses those that he chooses to use.
Even us.
Plus, their marketing is maddening.
They provide nearly every option in translation/transliterations available, some of them horrific (The Message.) So, the downside is that it's a minefield to the unwary.
I use Olive Tree which has several translations available. There are a lot of commentaries available also for a fee.
Our small church has made RightNow media available to all members. It is superb! Lots of video lessons on various topics designed for discussion in small group settings. Our men’s group has done a few of the six week sessions. Great stuff.
Also loads of videos for the little ones.
https://www.rightnowmedia.org/home-2
We used to train our society like that, so any average educated person for read and translate from the Greek. But I agree with fwdude that a traditional paper Bible is still the best.
Gerald Warre Cornish (GWC) was born in 1874 at Eton, the son Francis Warre Cornish, the Vice-Provost of Eton College. He worked as a lecturer in Ancient Greek at Manchester University. When the First World War started he joined the British Army and achieved the rank of Major in the 6th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. Gerald was killed in action on September 16, 1916, aged 41 at Flers. On his body was found a small mud-strained copybook containing his translation of St Paul's Epistles, which included the two epistles to the Corinthians and the unfinished first four chapters of Ephesians.
Gerals Warre-Cornish is buried at Thiepval at the Somme in France. His work was first published in 1937 as “St Paul from the Trenches” and it was reprinted several times upto 1948. In the preface John Sidney Brathwaite wrote that “No-one after reading this will be disposed to doubt the amount of thought and care that went to this very original rendering of the three Epistles.”
Digital Edition
These Trench Epistles were digitised with the help of MissionAssist in 2014. This digitised version of St Paul from the Trenches was translated in 1916 and first published in 1937, and is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS).
Interesting...
Thanks
I use BibleGateway which is good.
RE: YouVersion is handy, but I still don’t think it is a substitute for a good translation (very few of these) of a physical bound paper Bible.
The YouVersion smartphone App is so versatile that it allows the user to choose which Bible Translation he wants to read.
My App alone has 75 English translations, from the traditional KJV to the NKJV to NIV to RSV to ESV to the Roman Catholic Translations, etc.
bkmk
My app is a KJV on paper. Works fine, every time.
I’m happy with AndBible and its free add-ins for my phone and tablet. For the laptops I use e-Sword - lots of free material there.
I’ve come to believe that we rely on technology too much. I’ve noticed that when a company’s internet goes down, they can’t operate AT ALL. No communication, no accounting, phones don’t work, etc.
If we ever have an EMP attack, you’ll still have your bound paper Bible when all other lights go out.
OT has a lot to like, such as one-tap Strong’s lookup, customizable shortcuts, and great highlighting/underlining. The second iPhone version was so good I didn’t upgrade my phone iOS for over 5 years so I could keep using it. Alas, I was finally forced to upgrade the the inferior version that was designed for Android and ported to the iPhone.
Now the list of Bibles is no longer retentive, so I have to scroll when I get want to switch to a Bible beyond the first 8 or so. Likewise with tags, which defaults to the top level, meaning categorizing tags in folders requires an extra tap and search every-single-time. Bookmarks and Ribbons are retentive, so from a programming perspective the code for retention already exists and could be easily reused. I write them about this every few years and get nice replies but no action. It’s a disincentive to purchase more translations.
Why would I load an app that talks to its home base each time I look up a reference?
Why would they want to track the users?
I have several app son my phone, including KJV Bible, Literal Word (I recommend if you enjoy looking at original Greek), Dwell, NASB offline, Logos, and in December the YouVersion app. The youngest is at Regent and they did their own Advent plan in youversion, so I signed up for that and enjoyed it. Our pastor recommended Everyday Gospel by Tripp for a Bible/devo plan this year, and to my delight, found his plan available on the youversion app :) Yes, I bought the book too, but was also able to invite friends and family to participate in the plan free! I invited 5 new users. It is a little glitchy as to hosting a plan so far, but I have another 355 to figure it out, LOL. For paper people, I’ve got that covered too, I love paper!!!
Same here. I like to underline and mark it up so I can go back and find verses. I can’t do anything on an app. Can’t stand them. :)
The Amplified Bible is available on the Blue Bible App I like it a lot.
I use Bible Gateway. Many good English translations. I’m reading one called “21st Century King James” this year - it seems to be King James with some of the obsolete words replaced with current words. It’s easier to read than King James.
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