2 Billion Minutes + Norwegian: YouVersion News

This June was the biggest month in YouVersion’s history, which pushed us forward to an exciting milestone. YouVersion users have spent two billion minutes engaging with Scripture using YouVersion! I’m excited to see what could happen as more and more people spend more and more time in God’s Word. We’d love to celebrate with you and hear how you’re using YouVersion.

And, more and more people are adding the Bible to their phones. In just the last four weeks, the Bible App was installed on more than 650,000 new mobile devices! That’s approximately one new user every four seconds, and in that same four second period of time, 17 other people open up their Bible App and use it.

We’re committed to making the Bible available to people around the globe, and we just took an additional step in that direction. 
Today we introduced the first native translation of YouVersion.com with the rollout of a Norwegian language version. This means the entire interface of the site is available in Norwegian. Next up: Spanish!

And have I mentioned that we’re hiring? To keep up with all the great things God is doing through YouVersion, we’re adding five people to the team. Should we hire you?

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The New LifeChurch.tv

Some of you may have already noticed the new LifeChurch.tv website we recently rolled out. Thanks for the kind words and helpful feedback some of you have sent our way. I wanted to share some thoughts about our approach to overhauling the site.

• We’ve kept the launch fairly low-profile to give ourselves some margin as we iron out any issues that have popped up. We don’t wait to go live until things are perfect–that’s just asking for indefinite delays. Now that it’s out there, it’s easier to see what’s working and what’s not, and we have a stronger sense of urgency to get those things updated.
• We designed for mobile first. Knowing that mobile devices are going to dominate the usage of the web in the future, we didn’t want our mobile site to be an afterthought. It drove our development and forced us to include only essential content. We killed many pages, streamlined the design, tightened up copy, and were very intentional about the interface.
• We shifted our focus to people who are new to LifeChurch.tv. I’ve posted already about the way we offloaded some online functionality to Facebook, and that shift allowed us to change our focus for this site. Instead of trying to create a site where people would hang out (now our users are doing that on Facebook), we were able to narrow the audience and gear our content toward visitors and people who are trying to learn about us. Of course, plenty of areas (giving, resources, etc.) still offer helpful content for regular attenders, but our overall strategy is to reach out to new people.
• We added more storytelling. I’m a firm believer in looking back to recognize all the things God has done within the life of our church. Our new site incorporates some of the work we’re doing to document, share, and celebrate what we get to be a part of.

We’re excited to get this launched and have a site that better represents who we are. What are some of your favorite church websites?

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YouVersion is Hiring

YouVersion is on the brink of some exciting developments, and I’m really looking forward to telling you about those next week. But did you know we’re looking for people to join the YouVersion team? We need a few talented individuals who are passionate about getting millions of people around the world engaged in God’s word:

• YouVersion iOS (iPhone/iPad) Engineer
• YouVersion Blackberry Engineer
• YouVersion Symbian Engineer
• LifeChurch.tv Digerati UX Web Designer/Developer
• YouVersion Partnership Development

Even if you don’t fit these descriptions, you can help by telling people you know about these positions. Thanks for everything you do to help YouVersion break new barriers in Scripture engagement!

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Response to Flooding in OKC

Last week, several areas in and around Oklahoma City experienced flooding after record amounts of rainfall. Some of the neighborhoods near our locations saw water levels as high as 4-5 feet, which destroyed nearly everything in their homes. Flooding of this nature is very unusual for these areas, so most of these families did not have flood insurance.

Since Tuesday we’ve been working with the people in those neighborhoods to offer help clearing and cleaning their houses, food, water, prayer, and other assistance. Here are a few of the pieces from local media that have been covering the response:

Helping Flood Victims

Volunteers clean up flooded neighborhoods

We’ve been overwhelmed by the people, organizations, and businesses in the community who have jumped at the chance to help. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has been giving their time and resources so generously. It’s great to see the church being the church!

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Swerve Favorites: Think Ahead

[Repost from July 29, 2008]

Successful people are often great at anticipating.

• If you want to be promoted as an assistant, anticipate how you can better serve your boss.
• If you want to be successful in business, anticipate what the market will do.
• If you want to be successful in church, prayerfully anticipate. What new thing is God going to bless?

I try to think ahead by asking questions like these:

• How are people relating differently? What will relationships and community look like in two years?
• How are people going to communicate in the future?
• What future technology/innovation can help spread the gospel?
• What trends (business, entertainment, philanthropy, etc.) will affect the church?

Think ahead.

I’d love to hear your theories or ideas about what is coming in the church.

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Swerve Favorites: Strategic Disruptions - Disrupt Your Rhythms

[Repost from May 19, 2008]

The longer you do ministry, the easier it becomes to minister from memory. You tend to do what you used to do. It is safe, comfortable, and convenient.

To stay spiritually and creatively fresh, I suggest “strategic disruptions.” Today we’ll talk about disrupting life’s rhythms.

Because people can be creatures of habits, life often looks relatively similar from day to day, week to week, and year to year.

I suggest defining your rhythms—then disrupting them.

• If you drive the same way to work, take a different road.
• If you study the Bible the same way, try a different approach.
• If you listen to the same type of music, tune into something entirely different.
• If you read the same books, stretch yourself. Read out of your comfort zone.
• If you order the same thing off the menu, venture out and try something you’ve never had.

By disrupting your rhythms, you may experience just enough to change your perspective slightly. Suddenly, you could be more sensitive to hear something new from God.

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A Change of Pace

It’s summer in North America, and that means life looks a little different for many of us. Your team might be traveling for mission trips. Your youth might be busy with camps and events. Your kids might be out of school. Families in your church might be taking vacations. I hope you’re also breaking from your normal routine and finding time to relax and recharge.

You might have noticed we’re doing some of that here on Swerve too as we change our normal posting schedule. While we won’t be blogging as frequently this summer, we’ll still be around to share what we’re learning. In the meantime, we’ll be featuring some of our favorite posts from the past.

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We’re Hiring

If you’ve attended any of our experiences or watched any of our videos, then you’ve seen the work of our Media Design team. These talented individuals create videos, graphics, print pieces, and more that capture attention, remove obstacles, and communicate truth in new and different ways.

We’re looking to add a few special people to the team…people who understand that the bottom line isn’t about how things look, but how they can help others become fully devoted followers of Christ. Specifically, we’re hiring the following:

• Design Manager
• Video Producer
• Graphic Designer

Interested? Visit our jobs page to learn more about these positions and several others.

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