My Favorite Apps for Ministry

Screenshot of my iPad.  Dropbox is on the lower left.

Screenshot of my iPad. This screenshot is my page that has my ministry Apps.

I wrote on a previous post about “How I Preach from my iPad Mini.”  In this post I want to share with you some of my favorite apps for ministry and preaching.  You likely are familiar with most of these, but it might be helpful to find out how I use them.

Bible Apps

Accordance Bible – This is my primary Bible program that I use across platforms.  I have invested in purchasing modules (materials) for it for years.  I primarily like it for what it allows me to do with original languages.  The app works well, but is only for those who are willing to spend some money and also would like to use Accordance as their Bible software on their laptop.  If you have questions about Accordance visit their website or ask me about my experience and I will share more.

Holy Bible – Lifechurch.tv – This is a very popular Bible app.  Most folks have this on their device, be it a phone or tablet.  It is a great free app that offers an incredible amount of free Bible versions as long as you have an internet connection.  I love this app for the Bible reading schedules and plans it offers.  And when you get behind, you can use the “catch me up” feature and it will reset your plan.

ESV Bible – This is a wonderful free and easy to use App.  It is the ESV version of the Bible.  It is very easy to find scripture references and it does not have to have an internet connection as the version is downloaded to your device.  Everyone should have it!

Reading Apps

I love to read on the iPad and two of my favorite Apps to use are . . .

Feedly – Feedly is a free RSS reader App.  Blogs, news services, and podcasts have a RSS.  You can typically just copy the homepage for a blog and then add it to your feedly account.  The app is free and it organizes and keeps all of your blogs that you have added in one place.  So you don’t have to go to each individual site, they are in a nice reading format.  This saves time and also makes it were you can share a post on social media, email, or send to evernote very quickly.  I must admit that I really enjoy using this app, but don’t make the time for it as much as I need to and often stay behind on blog reading.  But when I take the time to read blogs, I am always blessed and it helps my work as a preacher.

Kindle – This is the App for reading Kindle books from Amazon.  Though I still read many traditional format books, I enjoy reading Kindle books for the ease of access, the font and backlit display of the iPad, and the ability to highlight sections.  I like to highlight favorite sections or good quotes and make notes as I read.  I then will access these at the Amazon Kindle site and put them in Evernote, copy and paste into a document for a sermon or class, or just have for future use.

Productivity Apps

Evernote – I think most everyone has heard of Evernote.  I have been with them for years.  I have always used the free service.  Evernote is a cross platform, cloud based service that allows you to save pictures, PDF documents, screen shots, emails, typed documents, and other computer related things.  We have used Evernote to save personal information (like car service records), recipes, illustrations (I use it as my illustration filing tool), blog ideas, book highlights, lists, journal entries, homeschool material, and church work information.  I try to store good information I run across in Evernote and then I will search Evernote by tags or words when doing a sermon or class.  I also find it very helpful to use to remember and store information in one central location.  I use it a lot, but still should use it more!

Notability – You have to purchase this app, but I have found it worth the small price.  It works really well with a stylus for use with your personal hand writing.  I use it to type or write notes during classes or lectures.  It will open PDF documents and then allow them to be edited.  So I can open a sermon and edit it by adding highlights, handwritten notes, or typed additions.

Genius Scan – This app is a great tool for “scanning” documents.  I use it on my iPad and phone when I need to take a picture of a document and then email it to someone.  It will enhance the image and works almost as well as a traditional scanner.  For a paid fee it will sync to Evernote and Dropbox.  I use the free service and just email to myself and then do what I wish with the document.

Dropbox – This is a cloud-based storage service that allows you to save documents in the cloud.  You can access them from any device.  You can share folders with a friend so both of you can access the documents.  I save documents from my laptop into Dropbox and then open on my iPad and will typically preach or teach from this app looking at the notes.  (see the previous post I wrote for the details.)  Dropbox is a free service up to 2 gb!

Presentation Apps

Haiku Deck – I love this service.  It makes great looking presentations very quickly and easily.  The great benefit is the free access to wonderful pictures.  You can design your presentation on the iPad or online and then present from Haiku Deck or do as I do and email the presentation as a Keynote or Powerpoint file.  I then present the sermon just like I had made it on Keynote, but it looks better.  I typically use this app for presentations that I want to use only a few words on each slide and desire a strong visual effect with the pictures.  Here is a Haiku Deck I did that you may want to use as a sermon (it was not original to me).  You should be able to see others I have made.

Prezi – Another great free presentation service.  I don’t use the app very often unless I am showing someone personally my presentation.  Typically I design my presentation online at www.prezi.com and then download on the church computer to show in the auditorium.  You can do a lot of different things with Prezi.  Here is a recent prezi (you should be able to view more at the site too as all of mine are public).

Thanks for reading.  What are your favorite apps for ministry?  I know there are many more out there, that I would like to use, I just have to get them into my workflow.

**I included the link to the Apple store to get these apps.  Most all of these apps can be used with other types of devices, just search your app store for the links.

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2 comments

  1. Very informative!

    I like the following apps:
    Google Docs/Drive is similar to DropBox.
    Google Calendar.
    Google tasks for keeping track of things to do.
    PocketBible is a good Bible app.

      • Josh on September 16, 2014 at 8:55 am
        Author

      Thanks for this information too.

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