Every now and then I find something that’s worth talking about. That something normally ends up on this blog in some way or another.
www.youversion.com
This time its a website called youversion.com. A simple but effective, and good looking, online bible reader that houses numerous versions of the bible in various languages. I found youversion while I was looking for a good iPhone Bible application. The application Holy Bible proved to be very popular and offered me everything I was looking for in a Bible application.
Contributing to the growth of others
What intrigued me was the ‘contributions’ section of the application. This caused me to do some online research and I found the web version of the iPhone application. The contributions section to youversion is what makes the concept so unique. Users of the bible reader are able to make contributions to the website content. This is a great way to share what God is saying to you about His word. It is also nice to read different points of views on a particular passage of scripture.
It works a bit like twitter where you can follow contributers that you like and others can follow you. For example you can click here to see my profile on youversion and then follow me to stay up to date with any new contributions I may add.
The contributions are added in the form of text, links, images and videos. It looks like they are adding podcast and webcam support in the near future.
I like the idea of being able to share information on the bible like this. It provides a strong platform to promote christian websites and material that is online.
Theological Strength?
Here’s where the debate could go on forever. If anyone can contribute information, how can we be assured of the contents theological foundation and scriptural consistency? The answer is we can’t!
A website like this is about sharing thoughts and ideas and needs to be seen as ‘just that’. A creative and fluid environment of thoughts and ideas that surround God’s word at any given time. A concept like youversion has its value in the testimony and thoughts of others and not in an academic grounding. Although content can be flagged as inappropriate by users it still does not provide enough accreditation that a persons views are completely theologically correct. A website like this should be seen as an incubator as christians work out their faith with each other by sharing their thoughts and opinions. It could never replace the need and value of commentaries, theological study notes and the counsel of wise men and women.
I now use the website to share devotional material from my website www.onthingsabove.co.za and I will certianly use it to promote my podcast when it opens up the podcast support. You see, if God tells you something you should tell everyone you can so that they can benefit from what God told you and showed you. That way we all grow more in God. That is the ultimate aim… is it not?
Well Done YOUVERSION!!
