November 21, 2010 | 8:45 pm

The new pocket Bible? Smart phones

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow JewishJournal.com on

It’s cliche—actually, it was a marketing slogan—but there really are apps for just about everything on the iPhone. For mapping Israeli settlements. For attacking BibleThumpers. For communicating with God. Even for evangelizing.

Personally, my most-used apps aren’t religiously themed. They are iFitness, Facebook, Words With Friends, ESPN Scorecenter and Home Run Battle. (If you are up to the challenge, my user name is “bradberg” on Words and “musclys” on Home Run Battle.) But I do have a Bible app. And I’m far from the only one.

From the CNN religion blog:

Can your cell bring you closer to God?

Oklahoma based LifeChurch.tv thinks so. Tuesday the church announced more than ten million smartphone users worldwide have downloaded its free Bible application. LifeChurch hopes by having a copy handy, people will be more likely to read scripture.

The app, which is based on the church-funded website, YouVersion.com, launched in July of 2008. Since then, users have spent 3.5 billion minutes trolling through Bible passages. Yes- that was billion.

During a webcast on YouVersion.com, pastor Bobby Gruenewald announced what he called a “revolution” taking place.

I don’t know about a revolution. After all, the revolution isn’t going to be televised, and I don’t think it will be on your iPhone either—unless we’re talking about the Iranian revolution. But SmartPhones certainly are becoming more and more a part of the church-going experience.