Leading technologists are creating apps that will impact the Kingdom, and you can be part of it.
Previously we told you about the top winners of the Code for the Kingdom Hackathon on March 21-23, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. Here are 10 more great innovations from that weekend that we believe could greatly empower your ministry and impact the Kingdom.
1. The award for the Runner-Up New Code went to an app called MinMap (or Ministry Mapping). Imagine Yelp or FourSquare for ministry—this is an application which maps what is happening in the city so ministries can see where services remain unfulfilled, find others to partner with, and to inform other organizations of the work they are doing.
Watch their presentation here:
2. Church administration concerns were not left out by the participants either. Church Admin Portal took home the award for Runner-Up for Best Existing Code. The portal was designed to increase retention by making your visitor outreach and follow-up programs more effective. It allows church staff to make announcements, track visitors and members, take attendance, manage sermon archives, schedule events and mail newsletters.
Watch Church Admin Portal’s presentation here:
3. The winner for Best Use of Digital Bible Platform was Speak The Word. You speak a word or phrase into this app and using speech recognition, the app searches in your language the Faith Comes By Hearing Digital Bible Platform to identify Bible verses that relate to that word or phrase. Then, the app suggests to you one or more related verses from the Bible.
You can play those verses, save them, memorize them, or even forward them to a family member or friend to encourage them with the Word. So imagine, as you drive, your spouse or friend calls you and tells you how tired she/he is. Once you hang up, you go into Speak The Word, say the word “tired” and the apps suggests several passages that you can then forward to them for encouragement.
Here’s their presentation:
4. The award for the Best Use of the Logos API went to LightWeave. LightWeave creates a visual interactive interface for engaging with deep theological concepts, relationships and connections in the Bible, previously only accessible through intensive study.
For example, imagine studying the theme of resurrection in the Old Testament. LightWeave allows you to connect the dots between evading a decree of death, as in Esther’s case with King Xerxes, life coming from a barren womb, emerging from wilderness to the promise land or passing through water onto dry land as in the case of Noah, or Moses and the Israelites crossing the Jordan. While none of these use the word resurrection, they help to understand resurrection in the New Testament.
Other Projects
5. Habit Hacker is a platform for social and personal change through education, inspiration and accountability to disrupt the production, consumption, and promotion of pornography online.
6. GospelFunder™ is a crowd funding and advocacy platform that helps people build awareness and funding for their Christ-centered projects. GospelFunder™ exists to help connect these three: people with a God-given mission; innovative ministries/Christians; and people who want to fund Gospel-projects.
7. DailyGroupWalk is a platform that provides a private forum for a small group of Christian friends to interact privately to support and encourage each other in their daily walk with the Lord.
8. Genesis is a visual Bible sourced by original works of art from our modern creative culture in response to Scripture.
9. Men of Courage is a platform to share testimonies of God. Users share the mission and the vision statements they want for their lives, creating support and accountability for each other, while providing a space to discuss God’s Word with a focus on finding Truth in the challenges we face today.
Boone Bergsma, the single participant who created this project, describes it as “a platform to share testimonies of the creator our Father which art in heaven, and praises to His Son the King Glory. Members create profiles to share the mission and vision statements they want for their lives, to create support and accountability for each other. A place to start campfire topics to discuss God’s Word with a focus on finding Truth in the topics our generation faces today.”
10. I was touched in particular by the Pillar team: four young men and one young woman, who out of their own experiences decided to tackle the 6th largest cause of death among children globally: suicide. This group of friends, who have been directly affected by suicide attempts, created a suicide prevention app keeping track of the mood of an individual. As the person experiences emotions and signs that could lead to a suicide attempt, the app automates different channels of encouragement including contact with friends and suicide prevention hotlines, as well as scripture delivery.
Sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors who made it possible to bring these creative minds together to dream and create.
A special thanks to our platinum sponsor:
In 38 months of existence, the Faith Comes By Hearing Digital Bible Platform has helped 164 million people listen to the Gospel. They also use technology to reach deaf people, the 4th largest unreached people group, of whom its written “. . . In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book . . .” (Isaiah 29:18a).
In the spirit of releasing the creativity of this ecosystem, Faith Comes By Hearing is making all of its technologies available for free to participants of Code for the Kingdom and beyond, so that all can accelerate bringing the Gospel to every single human being in the planet.
And these other great sponsors:
Washington Technology Industry Association
We also want to say a special thanks to those who serve as mentors for the week. Their valuable insights and advices tremendously blessed all of the participants.
Learn More
What will be created next? How can you participate? How can you connect to this growing movement?
As pastors, make sure you don’t miss out on the next set of technologies that are coming to help churches and congregations. Try attending the next Code for the Kingdom hackathon, happening on May 30th to June 1st, in Redwood City, CA. Encourage those in your congregation to attend so that they can learn from leaders, connect with tech believers and build their dreams for your church and the Kingdom.
Register now for the next hackathon.
Learn more about the Code for the Kingdom Hackathon series.
