Get with YouVersion Today!

Hopefully, you’ve heard of this great website by now. I’ve blogged about it before but feel it’s worth bringing up again. www.youversion.com is a free website that offers a myriad of tools to help you and your congregation integrate the Word of God into daily life.

It’s not just a Bible Website! It’s much, much more. It’s a place for people to gather to talk about Scripture – and what it means to them. It’s a place for accountability and encouragement. It’s a place to journal & remember what you are learning.  YouVersion is fast becoming the primary means by which this generation interfaces with God’s Word.

FOR YOUR CHURCH
First, let me give you some examples of how this website can serve your church. With a little focused attention on your part and regular attention each week, you may discover that your congregation reads the Bible more than ever! Let me show you how:

• Read a Bible plan together.YouVersion has over 150 different reading plans. Some are devotional plans from well known leaders like Rick Warren. Most are Bible reading plans that range from 7 day plans to year long plans. Some of the plans are even topical in nature and would go perfectly with a sermon series. Individual’s can subscribe to plans via many different methods. We encouraged our congregation to join the “New Thru 30” plan last year when we did a series on the New Testament. Check out the Bible Reading plans here.

• Create a Group & Live Events
  You can create a group just for your church and encourage your congregation to join. Once your group has been created, it can be used for encouragement and unified activities. As an example, click on THIS LINK to see a Live Event I created for a group I created for my blog readers. Note: This Live Event is simply one example of what you might consider doing with your congregation. 

• Encourage Accountability
  YouVersion recently released a new feature that allows individual users to pick another YouVersion user as an accountability partner with a Bible Reading Plan. YouVersion will send email updates to the accountability partner on the individual’s progress in the plan, including whether or not they are getting behind in their reading. You might consider challenging your congregation, Sunday School classes or small groups to partner together.

• Advertise YouVersion RegularlyThis website is free to everyone, compliments of the people at lifechurch.tv. Your congregation can only benefit from it’s use. Find ways to regularly advertise the website to your church. Put links on your website, make announcements, place ads in your bulletin, maybe even add a link to the site on your email signature.