By Agencies
As people set New Year’s resolutions, the YouVersion Bible App saw an increase in Bible engagement.
Installed on over 355 million unique devices all over the world, the Bible App offers a free Bible experience for smartphones, tablets, and online at Bible.com
In fact, on 1st January this year, they had over 1 million Bible plan subscriptions.
That’s 62 per cent more than last year.
Installed on over 355 million unique devices all over the world, the Bible App offers a free Bible experience for smartphones, tablets, and online at Bible.com
Launched in 2008, YouVersion is a downloadable app for smartphones that allows users to access the Bible in an assortment of different languages and versions.
The Bible Plan subscription allows those with YouVersion to pair daily passages from the Bible with audio, video, or devotional content. These plans are available in more than 50 languages and help guide people in reading through the Bible over the course of 90 days, six months, or a year.
Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion’s founder said: “We spend a lot of time thinking about how to make it easier for our community to do what they say they want to do, which is read the Bible more.
“Over the years, we’ve added several features focused on developing a habit of reading or listening to the Bible every day, and we’re encouraged to see Bible engagement numbers continue to increase year after year.”
They report that on average, the number of daily active users in January increases by approximately 20 per cent compared to the previous month. To help people keep those resolutions, YouVersion have been developing different ways to make daily Bible engagement a habit.
YouVersion suggest that being accountable to someone regarding your Bible reading will help readers keep the habit up over the year.
John Piper, founder of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minnesota, recently put forth reasons that people should read the Bible daily in 2019, citing “motivation” as a key essential.
“If we lose motivation, we will not read the Bible. And if we don’t read the Bible, we miss everything God has for us through the Word,” wrote Piper.
“If you want faith, if you want holiness, if you want joy, they all, Jesus says, come through encountering God in His Word. That’s how we get motivated.”
“I think this is just absolutely crucial that we see how to motivate ourselves, because if we go blank when we’re reading the Bible, we quickly lose motivation.”
