Pastor Bobby Gruenewald of Life Church says the project began as a way to help him read the Bible more consistently. When he built a web page with a digital Bible and some simple tools in 2007 – around the same time Steve Jobs created the App Store – he says God's timing was perfect.
"The app made it into the App Store on the very first day that it launched back in 2008," Gruenewald shares. "We were blown away when we saw it … make it into the App Store [and] also saw 83,000 people install it the very first weekend."
YouVersion has been off and running ever since. People download it all year long, but the first week in January seems to be particularly popular.
"A lot of people start the year off wanting to put the Bible first," the pastor notes. "There's New Year's resolutions – lots of factors that play into it. Church attendance also tends to climb in January."
And while many of January's good intentions become memories by February, YouVersion continues to set records.
"This particular year, we did see … an exceptional increase," Gruenewald tells AFN. "Almost 800,000 people in a single day install[ed] it."
YouVersion creates biblically centered, culturally relevant experiences that encourage and challenge people to seek God throughout each day – opportunities fit for anyone's daily routine to ultimately help them form a spiritually-rich rhythm of seeking God intimately.
Gruenewald says the app, which is currently available in more than 2,100 languages, is popular around the entire globe, as "there's an interest and a hunger for scripture … and what's real and what's true."
He simply wants the app to transform lives through daily intimacy with God.
