Last week my Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) class ended for the year. If you are not familiar with BSF, it is an interdenominational group that offers weekly, in-depth Bible studies to men, women and children throughout the world. They have a four-fold philosophy where you first read and study the passage on your own, then you discuss it in a group, then you hear a lecture on it and finally you get explanatory notes on the passage. You are not supposed to consult reference material such as commentaries or dictionaries until you have gone through all four stages of study. It is a very organized way to study the Bible and I really like that they focus on the Bible text rather than taking a topical approach.
I have been participating in BSF for nearly 10 years and I find that my use of technology in studying the Bible has changed over the years. While I am still the only one in my discussion group that uses a phone instead of a printed Bible, I find myself using my phone in different ways now than I did at first. In the beginning, I was using my phone (actually it was a PDA way back when) for everything. I refused to carry a printed Bible. Perhaps there may have been a small desire on my part to convert the masses, I am the chief marketer for Laridian after all. But I also felt like PocketBible should do everything for me since I had loaded as many Bibles and reference books as my device could hold.
This year was different though. Maybe it was the fact that we were going through the book of Isaiah or maybe I’m not so rigid anymore, but towards the end of the year I dusted off my print Bible and started using it both in answering my lessons and in class, along with my phone. I really liked having the whole passage open for review. That is the one thing missing on my phone (although an iPad could help with that).
My secret weapon though is still my iPhone. While we can’t consult commentaries and reference material, I have a variety of translations installed on my iPhone. When the NIV leaves me wondering, I can quickly review a verse or passage in the Amplified, NLT or Message and I’m not cheating one bit. I also do that when I’m working on my lesson at home for the following week. And it is still much more convenient to look up related passages using my phone than to flip around the Bible.
The marketing side of me hopes that some day everyone in my BSF group is using their phone loaded with PocketBible at the meeting. The practical side of me realizes there may always be a place for the print and the electronic.
How about you? Are you still using your print Bible? If so, do you use the print and electronic together or for different times and purposes?
Michelle,
Not only have I moved away from using my print Bible, I’ve also started to use my iPad for taking sermon and lecture notes, as well as completing my BSF lessons. I use another Bible app that I won’t reference on here in addition to a note taking app that allows me to import my BSF lesson as PDF. From there, I can write (using finger, stylus, or type) my answers directly on the lesson. It gives me much greater freedom on when/where I work on my lesson. It also helps me be more organized.
I think there were 2 other men in my BSF group in Reno that also used an iPad last year (one of which I influenced his purchase after seeing how I was using it). I would expect a couple more this year.
Enjoy your study on The Acts of The Apostles this year!
Rick, those are some great ideas for doing BSF lessons this year. It sounds like there are some great possibilities with the iPad which I will have to investigate.
Thanks,
Michelle
So nice to see that I was not the only one using electronic means to do their BSF work. Back in the day, I’d scan and OCR the questions, and then use Word to answer the questions, with one of the PC based computer programs… won’t mention which one!
When I first got Laridian’s program back on the original Pilot, or something close to it… my world changed. I upgraded my Palm numerous times, and became more than a little frustrated with persistent on-off switch problems. I had a Sony Palm OS device that was the best… then we got our first iPod Touch. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my purchased Bibles would work on the new platform.
Now, I’ve got an iPad, and with it my use of paper Bibles has all but been eliminated. There is so much more flexibility, and convenience. Parallel Bibles are thick volumes, yet my iPad holds 17 translations, many commentaries, devotionals, and reading plans, with room to spare.
In a sense I’m carrying around the contents of many bookshelves in a device the size and weight of a novel.
In case you haven’t figured it out… I’m sold on the device as an effective tool for Bible study, as well as public use, whether behind the pulpit or in front of it!
I’ve stopped using my printed Bibles since early days of Laridian on the Compaq PDA with handwriting capabilities. My only problem is that while the power of Laridian can really be fantastic, I absolutely miss the word underlining or highlighting because a word contains so much when God speaks. The old PDA was perfect in notes taking, word highlighting and verse highlighting.