The incredible Digerati team at LifeChurch.tv announced another huge step in online engagement for churches – YouVersion Live. Lots of info online and here are the hilights –

From YouVersion.com –

• Share content on mobile devices during live events and services.
• Invite interaction through polls, notes, prayers, giving, and more.
• Share results and include feedback in your communication.
• Get people actively involved in the message.

From Swerve at LifeChurch.tv -

Here are the details:

• Communicators will be able to share content on mobile devices and get live feedback during an event. Think message outlines and notes, polls, questions, prayer requests, online giving and more.
• Almost anyone with a mobile device will be able to participate and respond—any web-enabled phone will work, as well as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and any laptop or computer with an Internet connection.
• It will be easy to use. To set up your experience ahead of time, you’ll have your own simple admin area where you can drag and drop each element that you want to be a part of your event.
• It’s an extension of YouVersion.com and the Bible App. Since millions of people are already using YouVersion, you’ll have a head start on introducing this new tool to your congregation, organization, etc.
• Not only will people have an engaging way to experience your message live, but they’ll also be able to take it with them on their mobile device and refresh themselves on the the content wherever they are.
• It will be completely free.

From the YouVersion blog –

A pastor would love to be able to get his congregation more involved in his message, ask questions and get answers, survey the room with a simple poll, give them an easy and natural way to take notes on his talking points, and maybe even give them a follow-up thought with a blog post or YouTube video as they’re leaving. And, in a perfect world, they’d be able to keep all that information in a place they look every day so they can refresh themselves on what he spoke about.

When YouVersion Live launches, this pastor will be able to do all this (and a little more) by simply dragging and dropping in a super-simple dashboard on YouVersion.com. During a service, his congregation will pull out their web-enabled phones, open up YouVersion (either on the mobile website or a native application), read the Bible, take notes, ask questions, submit prayer requests, answer polls, find links to external content (event details, blog posts, videos, etc), and give online. Before they leave, they’ll be able to send all that great content to themselves (or a friend) via email for future reference.

Screenshots –

And the icing on the cake? Here’s a quick video from John Saddington over at ChurchCrunch.com talking with Tony Steward from LifeChurch about YouVersion Live and why they’re so excited about it –

I’m excited to see the full release of this. Pretty awesome to see massive changes happening in online engagement in the church – praying that God uses it for great advances in His Kingdom.