Six problems with Bible study software. It is time for something revolutionary.

Bible study software can be a great tool, but for the average believer it is not all that it could be. We have outlined six problem areas that we plan to address in future releases of Scriply. We aren’t looking to merely revise what has been done in the past.  We believe that the very way we think about Bible study software, particularly online bible study, needs to change. Why? Well…

1. It is too complicated
   Bible study software tries to do too much at the same time. Control is good, but when we start spending more time tweaking the application than we do studying, we hamper our productivity. We need to develop creative and new user interfaces that work for real people.
2. The right information is hard to find
   Bible study software has become intensely focused on a list of available books. Why? Books that you will never read don’t make the software any better, they just make it more expensive. Even if you do use the scholarly libraries, there is not a good system for bringing the information that you actually need forward. Wouldn’t it be better if you were automatically presented with the right information when you needed it?
3. Doesn’t encourage discussion
   Everyday believers gather together in households and at churches to study the Bible. This makes the Bible unique in it’s ability to coordinate fellowship amongst followers. Just as God says “As Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) Current software pays very little attention to the idea of sharing to create discussion. This is a missed opportunity for everyone. We are never more interested in sharing something than we are at the moment we learn it. This makes study software a perfect gateway for sharing and shaping community discussion.
4. Teaching others is not a part of the equation
   “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” (Colossians 1:18) The call of the Bible is for us to learn, gain wisdom, and teach what God has taught us to others. Thus, teaching is a natural by-product of regular Bible study. Modern Bible study software just doesn’t do this. Just as it enables us to learn, it should enable us to teach.
5. Fails to promote the publishing of ideas
   The Bible is well known for its ability to inspire deep thought and inspiration. It is no wonder then, that the Bible seems to put people in a mood to share and publish their ideas. A simple google search for ‘Bible blog’ returns an amazing 21,600,000 results. Second Timothy tells us to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2) Bible study software should become a platform for publishing our content and ideas with fellow believers.
6. Doesn’t encourage outreach and ministry
   “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) Christ tells us to go, and take His gospel message to all ends of the earth. In our digital age, our ability to actually reach the ends of the earth has never been greater. This is why it is so disappointing that Bible study software consistently misses this call all-together. The way we use this software is inherently ‘selfish.’ We learn for ourselves, but we are seldom presented with an opportunity to share the gospel message with others. It doesn’t have to be this way.

In Summary
Don’t get us wrong, our goal here is not to come down on current software providers. They have laid the groundwork for what we are trying to do and they were the right thing for the time. For some people, they will always be the right solution. We are seeing major changes on the web. People are sharing and learning like never before. The opportunities for online evangelism and biblical learning are huge.  We believe that the old way of thinking about Bible Study software is over. It is time for the next phase. An online platform for learning and sharing that goes everywhere you go is on the menu. The next version of Scriply and every other update from now until the Lord comes back will focus on ‘fixing’ the problems outlined in this post. We think we are laying the groundwork for a revolution of Bible study and personal online ministry.

Introducing Bauxes, visual sticky notes without all the adhesive.

Today we are officially launching our second web application to the public. Bauxes is a simple, visual, note-taking application, with a drool-worthy user interface and a heart of gold. It is focused on being a place to ‘dump’ the random tidbits of text-based information that we all run across every day. Email addresses, urls, passwords, shopping lists etc. There are literally an infinite number of uses for each baux. We provide you with 220 very handy pixels. It is your job to fill them up.

Bauxes are displayed in the order they are created with the assumption that they become ‘less important’ as time goes on. For this reason, older boxes slowly fade away – focusing attention on the newer notes.

You can delete a baux at any time with the beautiful drag-and-drop interface.

Getting our hands dirty. Ministries of Mercy.

I have taken advantage of Christianaudio.com’s free monthly audiobook for quite some time now. It is seriously, some of the best free content on the internet. This month’s book, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road (Unabridged) by Tim Keller, is no exception. I am only half way through, but so far it has been a great reminder of the vast ministry field that we have right in front of us. At Scriply we are all about the Word of God and high-tech ministry, but sometimes Christ just calls us to go and get our hands dirty with acts of mercy for our fellow man. Christ came to be our servant (Mark 10:45), and now, it’s our turn.

Through the end of this month, you can get this Audio book for free from christianaudio.com.

Once there:

1. Add the Free ‘Download’ to your cart
2. Sign in or create a new account
3. At checkout, use promo code: AUG2010

Getting to know the next version of Scriply.

At Scriply, if there is just one thing that we really love it is sharing scripture with the world. We think that the bible is the coolest and we love seeing how you use it’s Truth to minister to your social network. This is exactly why we have been spending the last few months building the next iteration of Scriply.  And, we think it is just great.

At this point, we aren’t ready to release a lot of details but I will give you a few hints.

• Ministry of the Word will become an even greater part of who we are.
• Scriply will be laser-beam focused on helping you create inspiring Biblical content.
• It will be social, but not just another social network. If you know what I mean.
• Publishing will be a very regular part of the world-o-Scriply.

What tools do you need for online ministry?

The Bible is an amazing book. No other book has inspired more thought, debate or nearly as many saved souls. It is so amazing, in fact, that people all over the world sit around their house discussing and teaching it together. We don’t see this for earth sciences or accounting do we? The Bible is unique in it’s ability to motivate people to share and become teachers. This is not a surprise, after all, Christ commanded believers to be “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17)

Online technology has only magnetized this. The barrier to entry for effective, Christ-centered, ministry is amazingly low and God’s people have certainly responded. Scriply’s top users are almost always bloggers and true fishers of men. Read for yourself ( http://2live4him.org/, http://www.deserttrinity.org/, http://www.examiner.com/x-19971-Phoenix-End-Times-Examiner, http://aloftyspot.com).

When we built Scriply Bible, we set out on a mission to encourage the sharing and discovery of God’s Word. A huge part of that has been equipping you with useful tools for ministry online. Social sharing and short urls were only a tiny part of that puzzle. There is so much more to come.

We will be launching some exciting new features and tools in the coming months (fingers crossed) and will be sneaking out details as we go, but for now we would like to get your input. What tools do you need to proclaim the Word of God online?

Scriply Bible gets a speed upgrade

Scriply Bible selects Media Temple as new hosting provider.

The fresh smell of plastic and the dull hum of server fans are still lingering in the air, and it is nothing less than the sound of our brand new server provided by the fine folks over at (mt) Media Temple. One of our very favorite Scriply fans once refereed to us as ‘Fast, sleek and Jesus.’ Well, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves and we wanted to make sure we lived up to the calling.

The hosting solution that Media Temple is able to provide is a significant improvement over our previous hosting location. In some situations, the average loading time has been cut in half. We are thrilled, and we hope you can savor some of the speedy benefits to come. Currently the main site scriplybible.com has been converted, but our Google Chrome extension is still lingering on our old server. We will be changing this over in the next few months. Let us know if you see any performance improvements. We are alway refining our code to keep the app as fast as possible.

If you are in need of speedy hosting yourselves give (mt) a try. So far so good!

Scriply Bible: New iPhone website

iPhone users, be glad, we have a launched a new version of the Scriply Bible website made specifically for the iPhone. It gives you the same great experience you are use to in a nice little package – specifically, in 320pixels. Even better, there is no url to remember. Just go to http://scriplybible.com like you always do and the iPhone version will automatically load. Enjoy, and as always, we appreciate your feedback.

Scriply Bible: Adds ESV translation

We are thrilled to announce that the English Standard Version is now available on Scriply Bible. The great folks over at Crossway Publishers have made their excellent translation available via API and the Scriply Bible is now harnessing its power. Since Scriply’s launch, the ESV has been one of the most requested features. It is an excellent translation and we are proud to have it on board.

About the ESV translation (more @ wikipedia):
The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible re-published in October 2008 by Crossway Bibles. It is a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version. The first edition was published in 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

The stated intent of the translators was to produce a readable and accurate translation that stands in the tradition of Bible translations. In their own words, they sought to follow a literal translation philosophy. To that end, they sought as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer, while taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. The result is a translation that is more literal than the popular New International Version, but more idiomatic than the New American Standard Bible.

Scriply Bible 2.0 – Discover and share the Word

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

While our preferred approach is to develop new features and launch them quickly, we felt that Scriply Bible was in need of a major overhaul and a new platform to build upon. Today, we are very happy to announce that an entirely new version of the Scriply Bible is live.

Amongst a host of improvements and goodies that I will be blogging about in the coming weeks, the major focus of this update was to make the Scriply Bible a place for true Bible study rather than just a link creation tool. We have been using Scrip.ly to read the Word for awhile, and we know that some of you have been doing this as well. We finally feel that we have a product that was made for this type of use, and we are thrilled to be sharing it with you today.

At a quick glance, a few of the new features include:

• A new design built around reading and maximizing your viewing experience.
• More touch points for sharing and discovering scriply links.
• A leader board to ‘reward’ some of our most loyal fans. You guys rock!
• Daily devotionals to encourage daily study and scripture application.
• Improved My Stream pages to better highlight your scriply activity.
• A new domain. Scrip.ly links will now direct to our new home at scriplybible.com
• A stellar new Facebook page. We need fans!

We are very excited about this launch and we promise, there is so much more to come! We wanted to get this new version to you as soon as possible so we had to leave a few things out. There will be new features coming quickly now that we have a new canvas to paint on.

So that brings me to the main question. What would you like to see? With this update we have adopted an approach of helping you discover and share the Word of God. This is a noble cause, we feel, and we are counting on you, our users, to help us reach that goal. Please leave us your feedback and suggestions. This is your version of the Bible, let us hear it!

Scriply Bible: Search Plugins

Firefox and Internet Explorer users rejoice!

The Scriply Bible has two handy search plugins available for the two most popular browsers on the market. These plugins add the Scriply Bible to your list of the search options in your browsers search toolbar.

Install plug-in for Internet Explorer

Install plug-in for Firefox