The 5-Day Christmas Story Plan

A Reading Plan is a great tool to help you easily connect with the truths in God’s Word in a focused, straightforward way. Reading just a little each day on a simple schedule that’s already been laid out for you, you can dig deeper into the stories and ideas shared in the Bible. As we enter this Christmas week, we wanted to let you know about one Reading Plan in particular, a very special one we recently added for you to the Bible App and to our website:

The Christmas Story Reading Plan
, available now, takes you through the biblical accounts of the events surrounding the birth of Christ. You can read directly from the source about the humble beginnings of a Savior the world had been anticipating for centuries: Emmanuel, “God with us.” Look for The Christmas Story Reading Plan in the Bible App (or on the website) on your mobile device under Reading Plans.

As close as your phone or computer, start today or tomorrow, and you’ll easily finish this beautiful story of God’s love for us, unique in all the universe, just in time to celebrate Christmas on Saturday. And be sure to let your friends know about this reading plan too, so they can share in the joy of the season with you.

Don’t already have the Bible App on your phone or mobile device? Get it here now. It’s 100% free. No gimmicks, no advertising, our gift to you. All you’ll need to start your Reading Plan is a free account.

And once you’ve completed the Christmas Story Reading Plan, you don’t have to stop there. Select another Reading Plan from more than 50 (and growing), and join us as together we plan to read 1 billion minutes in the Bible App during the month of January! More details are coming in just a few days…

YouVersion in the UK Media

As the Bible App from YouVersion continues to break records with downloads (more than 12 million unique device installs, listed in iTunes’ 2010 Top Ten Reference Apps) and usage (more than 4 billion minutes read so far), we’ve been receiving positive press in all sorts of venues. We shared some others with you just a few weeks ago. Most recently, YouVersion was listed in some media outlets in the UK:

  • MSN Tech. How your mobile can save Christmas. 16 Christmas survival apps that will help you get through the big day. Featured App #10: YouVersion Bible App. “The world’s best selling book… over 20 languages… downloaded every 2.8 seconds… bookmark your favourite pages.”
  • theSheepDip.co.uk. Get the Bible on your mobile – for FREE! SheepDip offers resources for church communications, and they recently featured a free article for churches to use that focuses on the Bible App. “…attracted the attention of celebs, including Destiny’s Child and Strictly Come Dancing’s Michelle Williams, who’s a big fan who tweets about the app.”
We’re thrilled that people all around the world are experiencing and sharing what the Bible App has to offer. We love the Bible, and for us, that’s what it’s all about. God is reaching out to people everywhere, and we feel honored and humbled at YouVersion that we get to play a role in His plan to share the story of His love with them.

Zombies! Robots! Code! The Bible!

Now that we have the attention of the right people everywhere…

The Bible App™ is getting downloaded onto nearly 1 million mobile devices every month. That means two things:

  1. We’re getting close to helping people read the Bible on 12 million mobile devices!
    Also…
  2. We could sure use some help

We’re looking for three amazing people to add to the YouVersion team:

Web Developer

YouVersion is looking for a PHP web developer that loves Jesus, the Bible, and MVC. View details.

Symbian Engineer

Phenomenal Symbian engineer with deep experience, ingenuity, and patience. This is Symbian, after all. (Must love puzzles.) View details.

User Support Coordinator

YouVersion is looking for an empathetic, technologically savvy leader to head-up our global support team. This team will be taking care of millions of Bible App users as they engage Scripture in new and exciting ways. View details.

Share the love. Whether you’re looking for yourself, or you know someone who you think would be great, keep checking our Jobs page. 2011 is going to be a huge year for YouVersion, and we’ll be adding more team members as we break new ground. Please tell your friends! Let people know we’re hiring! Thanks!

Join us for Global Share the Bible Day

Hopefully by now, you know that we love the Bible at YouVersion. We want to make the Bible as visible as possible this Christmas to remind the world of its true meaning: the gift of God’s only Son. We’re declaring all day Saturday, December 25, “Global Share the Bible Day.” We’d love for you to join us!

Spread the word. Please start letting your friends and acquaintances know now what we’ll be up to together. Invite as many people to join us December 25 as you can. Use word of mouth and online conversation. But first, let’s sweeten the deal: As a little “extra” incentive to get the word out, we’re excited to be able to offer a few lucky winners who post it online their choice between an iPad, an iPhone 4, or a Nexus S! (Check here for details.)

Set some reminders. All day on December 25, take every opportunity to share anything you love about the Bible. Tweet. Update your Facebook status. Change your blog or website home page. Visit with someone you meet. Just share! Here are a few ideas for things you could share:

  • Your faith. What has God done in your life?
  • Your favorite verse. Why? What does it mean to you?
  • The Christmas story. What’s your favorite part?
  • The Bible App. Tell people how they can get the Bible for free. (Hint: Send them to youversion.com/download.)

But these are only suggestions. Don’t stop there. Wherever you are on December 25, whatever you’re doing, share what’s special to you about the Bible. If you share online (especially Twitter), please include the hash tag #Bible. The Bible App makes it really easy to share. But remember: This isn’t about the Bible App. It’s all about the Bible.

On December 25, let’s draw as much attention as we can to the Bible—the story of God’s love for us.

Vote for YouVersion in Mashable Awards

YouVersion, and the Bible, has a great opportunity to gain some mainstream visibility through the 2010 Mashable Awards. Thanks to all of your votes already we’ve made it to the top five finalists in the Best Mobile User Experience category. Now, with only 14 hours left to vote, we want to finish strong with a solid showing of YouVersion’s massive fan base.

So, if you have about 30 seconds today, go to the Mashable Awards page and vote for YouVersion in the category of Best Mobile User Experience. Just choose “Best Mobile User Experience” from the left dropdown menu and “@YouVersion” from the right dropdown menu. It should look like this:

And to all of you that have already voted multiple times over the past several weeks, thank you! We hope that the increased visibility will result in more people finding God’s Word on their phone.