A surprising fact about people who use the YouVersion Bible app is that many of them are not Christians, said the app’s founder and CEO, Bobby Gruenewald. In an interview with ChurchLeaders, Gruenewald shared the story of a man who was about to take his own life when he downloaded the Bible app.
“We get thousands, actually tens of thousands, of stories of people who have been impacted [by the Bible app],” said Gruenewald. “One is from a guy [who] wrote in and said that he had no hope and was ready to take his life. He wasn’t a Christian but downloaded the Bible app.”
“As he read the Bible, it resonated with him. And he started to change his perspective until he decided to put God in the center of his life,” Gruenewald said. “[The man] said, ‘I went from googling ways to die to having lasting joy and peace, all because of the Bible,’ and specifically through our app.”
“So that’s an example of God’s Word literally saving someone’s life, like physical life,” said Gruenewald. “And we hear stories like that, actually, all the time.”
This year, YouVersion’s family of apps is going to achieve 1 billion downloads, reaching that milestone a mere four years after reaching their first half billion. Bobby Gruenewald joined ChurchLeaders to reflect on the Bible app’s growth since 2008, how he sees God using the app in people’s lives, and how the app can be of particular service to church leaders.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bobby Gruenewald: There’s ‘Something Supernatural That God’s Doing’ Through the Bible App
ChurchLeaders: The Bible app is going to reach a billion downloads this year. When you first had the idea for the Bible app, did you ever imagine that you would reach this milestone?
Bobby Gruenewald: That is the No. 1 question I get asked. The short answer is, no, never anticipated that this is what God was going to do. I wish that I was the type of person that had the kind of faith to believe that you could have an idea that could go in and touch that many people, but I didn’t.
I just had enough faith to take the first step, which is all that I needed. But no, I never imagined God was going to do this with it. And it’s obviously a God story and something that he’s done. And we’ve just been privileged and humbled to be a part of it.
ChurchLeaders: For people who are not familiar with your story, could you talk a little about how you got the idea for the app, the mission of the app, and how the app has developed as time has gone by?
Bobby Gruenewald: Sure. The initial idea came in the airport security line in the Chicago O’Hare Airport back in October 2006. I was standing in a long TSA security line and, for whatever reason that day, I was thinking about this question: I wonder if there’s a way to use technology to help me read the Bible more consistently?
And this idea came in the security line—not for an app, because this predated apps—but for a website. And the website idea had some novel features and things that I thought would be engaging.
