Bobby Gruenewald is Founder of the YouVersion Bible App and Pastor of Innovation, LifeChurch.TV, Tulsa, OK. His app has been downloaded about 170,000,000 times!
Bobby is a great example of a Christian entrepreneurial leader. He personifies the interplay of skills in innovation and creative thinking which can be applied in both non-profit and commercial contexts. He has moved between business and the church, deftly applying his abilities in both contexts. He has used his innovation skills to take the Gospel to the far corners of the world.
He has the rare title of “Pastor of Innovation.” If it hasn’t been done before—let’s try it. Like any entrepreneurial person, he is focused on the goal—in this case, spreading the Christian message. He is very flexible on how to get there.
Bobby is the keynote speaker for the annual Entrepreneurial Leaders Conference to be held in Toronto, Canada on Nov 18th. The You Version Bible App, a free Bible for a phone, tablet, or computer. YouVersion that is a simple, ad-free Bible that brings God's Word into your daily life.
Just seven years after its launch, the YouVersion Bible App has been has been downloaded and used (as noted above, approximately 170 million times) on nearly every smartphone and tablet in every single country on the earth. There are 1,092 versions available and 780 languages supported
Gruenewald is one of the leading voices in the global church on innovation and the use of technology. He frequently writes and speaks on the topic, and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, TechCrunch, CNN, CBS, Stanford Business Magazine, and more. He was also named to Fast Company’s list of the Most Creative People in Business.
Prior to joining the LifeChurch.tv team in 2001, Bobby started and sold two technology companies and consulted with startups and venture capital funds. These entrepreneurial endeavors began while he was studying Finance at Southern Nazarene University as he worked with several alumni to launch a web hosting company.
Bobby Gruenewald explained to me that the YouVersion Bible app started as a website. He had to change direction when the website wasn’t generating much attention. He switched to developing an app.
Bobby explained to Phil Cooke, in on online interview for Charisma News, some of the background to how it started (Source: http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/41819-how-bobby-gruenewald-is-leading-change-sharing-christ-in-a-digital-cutlure)
It was born out of the question, Could today's technology transform how our generation and future generations engage in the Bible? Could we be at a Gutenberg moment? But the reason no one knows it was a website is because hardly anyone used it—so much so that we were about ready to shut it down. We just weren't seeing the ROI [return on investment] to make it worthwhile. As a last-ditch effort, we decided to make a few changes to the site so we could view it on our phones.
And something changed. We noticed we were engaging in the Bible more because it was on our phone that we had with us everywhere we went. We naturally began to read and engage in the Bible so much more. Right around that same time, Apple opened up apps to developers and introduced a whole new concept of an app store. We wondered if we could turn the engagement we saw on our mobile devices into one of the very first apps. That's exactly what happened in July 2008. The App Store launched, and we introduced the Bible app in the first group of apps.
Within three short days of launching the Bible app in 2008, we saw 83,000 people install the app on their iPhone. Our jaws dropped at that number. We had hoped for something like that within our first year, not our first few days. We never would have been able to conceive what was coming.
While Bobby's story is unique and his success is not easily dupliated, the skills and attitude he deployed can be emulated in both ministry and for-profit contexts. Since change is a given, there will always be opportunities for individuals who see the opportunities in new situations.