I believe God enabled technologists and engineers to develop computers, smartphones, iPads and apps to further the Gospel and advance the Kingdom, not for porn and profit. Many pastors, however, are not taking full advantage of their smart devices and apps for ministry. Hence, I wanted to share my favorite apps for ministry.
I’m not a technology expert, but my technology gadgets are a huge part of my ministry and law practice. And before I start, let me say this blog post is not an endorsement of any app, and I’m not a part of any affiliate program with any app manufacturers. So, here goes.
OneNote
Microsoft makes this note-taking app as a competitor to others namely Evernote. It allows its users to save all kinds of notes, web clippings, audio, video and much more. It’s extremely handy, and I think better than Evernote for several reasons. First, it has virtually no limits on its stacking abilities. Evernote does, only allowing one level of stacking. Additionally, OneNote syncs well with the other apps in the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and others).
1Password
I love and depend on this app a lot. It generates and saves all my passwords in one tidy place. Then I have to remember only one master password. This is a huge life saver since I have maybe a hundred accounts and passwords. It works and syncs across all my smart devices and computers. Again, I love this app, and would have a difficult time doing life without it.
Omnifocus
Whoa, this app is the best tasks management app I’ve ever used, and I’ve tried many of them. It’s very powerful although easy to use. It took only a few days to become sufficient with it. Moreover, the manufacturer offers free great telephone support. The app itself is not free, and the pro version costs a little more, but it’s well worth it in my opinion. There’s a small caveat for you PC users; this app is native to Macs, which is awesome for us longtime Mac maniacs.
OmniOutliner
The same company that makes Omnifocus also makes a great outliner app called OmniOutliner. It too is native to the Mac. I just started using it but love it. It offers many features that are useful for outlining sermons if you preach from your iPad or iPhone.
DropBox
This is an old faithful app. Keeping stuff in the cloud and having access to it everywhere is almost a necessity nowadays. No app does this better and integrates with more apps than Dropbox. The drawback for me is security. It lacks in this regard in comparison to other apps. Therefore, I use another cloud-based app (Tresorit) to store extremely confidential documents. Tresorit is a Swiss based company that offers end-to-end encryption and is far removed from the subpoena powers of the US Government.
OliveTree
This app is my favorite Bible study app. There are many other good ones, but I like it because I can add and access many different Bible translations and dictionaries to it. The biggest drawback is it can be expensive adding those other translations and dictionaries. Nevertheless, that investment has been well worth it to me. I give this app a five thumbs up.
SimpleMinds
I just started using this app a few weeks ago, but it has become a staple in my arsenal. To put it succinctly, I love this app. I use it to brainstorm and organize my thoughts outside my head. That’s important for me because I’m a very analytical thinker. That quality derives from my chemical and legal background I presume. In fact, I used this app several days ago to conduct a deposition and never missed a beat. Plus it’s free unless you upgrade, as I did, to the paid version to get more features.
I use many other apps, but these are some of my favorites for ministry. Again, I’m not endorsing these apps nor do I make any money mentioning them here. Just thought I would share my two cents.
Question: Please share with us your favorite apps for ministry?
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