5 Essential Christian Apps

Some people might say that the app industry is fickle. Asking people to invest time, effort and potentially dollars to download your app is almost an impossible ask in an already crowded marketplace of available apps. They will barely skim your social posts, but now you want them to download something onto their phone? Good luck.

Research overwhelmingly indicates that mobile usage is on the rise, to the point of almost overtaking desktop usage. The apps that continue to have high downloads are giants like Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. The app industry has continued to grow across the board, according to a new year-end analysis from app intelligence firm App Annie. This research found that app downloads, time spent in apps and revenue grew over the course of last year. But what the app stores doesn’t do a great job of is creating the proper categories for the different apps that are in the marketplace. In fact, there is not a category for “spiritual” apps, or even something as popular as “cooking” apps. These apps are hidden in other categories like “lifestyle” or “health and fitness.” But if you do some digging, there is a surprising wide selection of faith-based Christian and ministry apps in the iTunes store.

From Bible apps to faith-focused media apps, we’ve put together a few of our favorite Christian and ministry apps that you’ll want to download today.

The Bible App by YouVersion

What’s more “Christian” than having a bible with your wherever you go? With the Bible app by YouVersion, taking the bible on the go is a reality we can live in these days. YouVersion’s app has been downloaded well over 100 million times in 900 different languages. It’s quick, free and probably the most popular Bible app in the marketplace right now.

From their website: Our purpose has been to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. In doing so, we have looked for new ways to help people connect the Bible to their daily lives. Our methods have changed over the years as we’ve incorporated various technologies and strategies. But at the core, our focus remains on relevancy as we consistently strive to demonstrate and teach people how God’s Word relates to everyone, no matter where they are in life.

Verses

Looking for an interactive way to memorize scripture? Then Verses is for you. Verses has five different mini games to choose from for memorizing Bible passages. Verses has pre-set memorization plans, and the social element of Verses allows authors, churches, professors or other organizations to contribute content for helping people memorize the Bible.There are other memory apps to choose from, but we love Verses because of its design. It’s has a visually appealing interface and easy to use navigation, which encourages you to come back again and again to memorize scripture.

From their website: Stay close to the passages your memorizing with the Verses app. Play quick memory games to advance and keep track of your progress alone & with friends.

ProPresenter

ProPresenter is a powerful presentation software for audio, video and lyrics during any event at your church. This cross-platform presentation software is built specifically to make high-quality live productions easy. Not only can you use ProPresenter on Mac and Windows and they also have two apps that make using their software easier than ever. Choose from ProPresenter Remote (for iOS and Android), which allows you to control ProPresenter from anywhere in the building or ProPresenter Stage 2 (Pro6 or higher, for iOS, Android and Apple TV) / ProPresenter Stage Display App (for Pro4 and Pro5, iOS only), which allows you to view a stage display wirelessly.

From their website: ProPresenter operators control presentations on one screen, while dynamically presenting to an audience on one or more additional outputs. This means there is no separate “edit mode” or “presentation mode”, outputs are always live, and editing of one presentation can be done while another is being viewed. Originally designed for houses of worship, ProPresenter is now the choice for media presentations across multiple industries.

RightNow Media

This app offers a vast selection of video resources for Christians: especially small group studies, kids’ media and sermons. Some have called it the “Netflix” of Christian libraries with it’s vast selection of resources for all facets of ministry. RightNow Media is even able to produce custom videos and messages specific to your church.

From their website: We believe the mission of the church matters. And we’ve seen how God can change lives through video resources. Through RightNow Media, every person in your church can access over 15,000 Bible studies. RightNow Media has studies for small groups, families, students, leadership development, and much more. Our content is sourced from from over 250 top Christian publishers and ministries.

Your Church’s App

An essential component to the health of your church is the ability to engage your audience on Sunday mornings and beyond. A church-branded mobile app is built for the church body to do just this. Through connection, communication and generosity, a church-branded app serves as the one-stop-shop for members and guests to check-in to events, join a small group, watch a sermon, chat with their small group, give and much more. Your church has the opportunity to launch an app with the same high level design, features and user interface as the apps you already love.

As you can see from these faith-based apps, there is room in the marketplace and a desire from believers to be engaged with the church in a mobile age. Apps allow us to reach people for the mission of Christ around the globe in a relevant way through the digital space.

What spiritual growth or ministry apps do you love?

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