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Do you use Accordance for iPhone on Sundays?


William Cross

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How do you use it? Do you find it effective?

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I use Accordance on an iPad as my primary Bible on Sundays. On occasions I've used an iPhone instead. Both work just fine, though the iPhone screen limits how much context you can see at a time.

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I haven't brought a paper bible to church in a long time. I always use the iPad or iPhone, and am easily able to keep up with any scripture references, plus checking the original languages or commentaries. If I'm in a proper bible study, I often want a laptop instead for the better functionality, but I've found that the simplicity of the iOS device in the church service is great.

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Not long after the iOS version came out, I stopped bringing a paper Bible anywhere at all. I normally use the iPad if I'm leading any part of the service/discussion on weekdays or Sundays. Otherwise I use my iPhone instead.

 

It's a huge convenience for me to have my notes right there alongside the texts we're studying. I've been told a few times that the use of images (from Accordance resources) displayed on the iPad have been really helpful for folks as part of the discussion/service.

 

I remember at first, though, I got teased a lot about bringing electronics to our studies and services. Now they're encouraging me to use my iPad. ;)

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Since we got our first iPads in 2011, neither of us has taken a Bible to church or prayer meeting. I occasionally use Accordance on my iPhone, but, like Jonathan, I find the small screen limits its usefulness. I have only a few of my Accordance resources on it.

 

We teach high school/college Sunday school, and often we both take our MacBook Pros.

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I bring my iPod Touch sometimes to church on Sundays. I find it good to do a search for the main passage that the pastor is using for the sermon and I can use the verse chooser to look up other verses that might be mentioned and allow me to quickly go back.

 

David

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No to the iPhone but yes to the iPad.

 

I have the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer and three of the main hymnals of the Episcopal Church on my iPad. Of course I also have Accordance. I do the entire service using my iPad.

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I am enjoying hearing your replies. I own an iPhone only so that is my usage context. I always have my phone and so I always have the Bible to read from.

The ability to adjust the point size of the text without needing a huge bible is a great benefit to me as well as being able to quickly check cross references.

 

Screen space is super important and I would always want more bible text on it for context sake.

 

Note taking during a sermon is important for me. Coming back at a later time and thinking through the text a bit more, but I find that very difficult/clunky with the current set up. Just too many steps to get from the text to the note, type in a thought and then get back into the text during a sermon without getting behind.

 

I have been doing this for about three years on the iPhone, but have been unable to do it effectively in my favorite Accordance app.

 

How do you take sermon notes?

Edited by William Cross
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I take my iPad to church and use Accordance as my main Bible.

 

Although I do considerable typing on my iPad (just directly on the glass) during the week, I tend not to do as much on Sunday. For this reason, I think an iPad mini might be a better option for church use both for myself and a lot of people. And it might be a better option than an iPhone (which I realize was part of the original question of this thread).

 

However, if I were to get an iPad mini, I think I'd rather wait a year or so and get one with a retina display. That may be just the device to get once it's available.

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I use the iPhone during services to follow scripture readings, and I use Evernote for taking sermon notes.

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i do love Accordance and use my MacBook Air in my Sunday School class to play videos and show Accordance on a monitor but . . . Call me old-fashioned . . . I still love taking my print Bible(s) and paper notebook to church. There is something special about reading God's Word from a quality Bible. Writing the notes helps me to concentrate on the sermon. I am afraid if I used a computer or iOS device there would be a temptation to get distracted. I know that sounds like blasphemy but I work at a library so I have to like books! :D

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I've become distracted in church all my life. The best thing about getting distracted now is Accordance. The split screen allows me to keep the biblical text on the left, but the right side of the screen often ends up wherever my distraction leads. But I feel no guilt over that.

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Alex, I agree that the mini would be great for congrational use, but not to preach from. I think the mini, with it's smaller size would be really convenient for easy note taking, without bumping elbows to thos next to you. Just waiting for someone to offer me one :rolleyes:

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I use my iPad solely on Sunday mornings to follow along and take notes, and have used it to preach and teach from. I love it because I used to carry either my Greek or Hebrew reader but always felt too geeky when people noticed. I also use a Twelve South BookBook, which people sometimes confuse as a book or portfolio so it cuts down on the attention factor.

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Because of the difficulty with the sermon note taking process in Accordance on the iPhone, I have been using another simple Bible program that does this very well. It allows me to easily (with one tap) switch to notes to write and then, with one tap, get right back into the text. The notes I take are also grouped by sermon series and do not have to be tied to one particular verse. I love the ease and efficiency, but always find myself conflicted that I can't do that in the program I use, enjoy and have invested in for everything else, Accordance!

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I also use a Twelve South BookBook, which people sometimes confuse as a book or portfolio so it cuts down on the attention factor.

 

There are an increasing number of people at my church using electronic bibles, so nobody is really bothered by it.

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Like Ryan G. I use Accordance for my Bible at church and anywhere else I go and Evernote for note taking (free, and just updated) on my iPhone 4S.

 

The copy function (especially now that you can copy multiple verses) helps with pasting the main verse or two into Evernote. The highlights allow me to mark verses for further study as well as for verses I need to meditate on or memorize. the ability to access all of my study bibles and commentaries have helped me to dig in a little deeper quickly when the preacher says something that shocks me or Is questionable right out of the gate. I also like the ability to compare translations.

 

My wife does have a 1st generation iPad, and the one of the kids will sometimes use that during service. I find it easier to take notes & read from my iPhone as I can do it with one hand, allowing me to have the other arm around my wife :).

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I am going to be honest, I use primarily my Olivetree reader, but that might be because i have used it for so many years and am more comfortable with it… I haven't used a paper Bible on a Sunday since 2002 (even before that my little NIV franklin was used quite a bit). Accordance is a good app, but it;s lack of integrated footnotes on the NRSV means it likely would never be my Sunday morning APP. That being said it is a very useful APP and i use it a whole lot.

 

-Dan

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I am going to be honest, I use primarily my Olivetree reader, but that might be because i have used it for so many years and am more comfortable with it… I haven't used a paper Bible on a Sunday since 2002 (even before that my little NIV franklin was used quite a bit). Accordance is a good app, but it;s lack of integrated footnotes on the NRSV means it likely would never be my Sunday morning APP. That being said it is a very useful APP and i use it a whole lot.

 

-Dan

 

So to be clear, this has nothing to do with the app per se, but the NRSV text that we have, right?

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So to be clear, this has nothing to do with the app per se, but the NRSV text that we have, right?

 

Yes and know… Accordance is fast, but i find OT contextual menus quicker (possibly since I have been using their software for going on 9 years), Highlighting allows me to select text more naturally than Accordances method, OT allows me to create a favourites list to rapidly access resources (accordance has it's recent list but sometimes you do want to access to an item from a list you have set up, may not use an item every day, but i have so many items in particular in accordance it is can be a bit much to wade through and even sometimes remember the proper category of tool). When dealing with strings embedded texts, i would say OT makes it easier for me, although that being said since the bulk of my lexical works are in accordance it does lead me there eventually. It is mostly with me the "texts" and not just the somewhat superior NRSV (with you I have strings there) but there is also quick resources like the HarperCcollins study Bible, the New Interpreter's Study Bible, or even the Orthodox Study Bible which OT provides me with, that i am more likely wanting to look up quickly in Church than I have with Accordance. That being said, Accordance offers me more in depth items that I reference during study times. There are obviously a few little things that make me favour the OT APP at times, but that is not to say there is anything seriously wrong with Accordance. I do use Logos APP for access to the NJB textual notes as well, but I will say it is not the top 2 Bible apps i use on my iPAD, and the only thing it has going for it, IMHO, is vast number of works it has. But number of works mean little. I could have more cheaply bought the two IVP "with the Church fathers" via there kindle store, but i value the ease of Biblical references and overall accordance integration buying them from you offers me, indeed i hope at some point you get the first book and the last (yet to be published) planned in the series and I honestly will not care that they are slightly more expensive with accordance. I had at first held my tounge about the subject but decided you deserved an honest answer about what I reach for. For people who have used no other APP than yours they may look at the OT reader and feel out of it. If the few items i mentioned can be corrected (I do not expect you to have every resource under the sun and while in the past I have often duplicated resources that I owned on my Palm device to more easily use them in Accordance, I likely won't be doing that any longer since it easier to use both either place these days and i certainly do not regret the fact that the Eerdmans dictionary has been purchased on my OT account and in Accordance (being forced to get an additional copy when upgrading to 10 was not an overly happy thing but i have moved past that) same with the OXFORD works owned in both platforms and the duplication of a few evangelical study bibles in both. That being said if OT came up with NRSV strongs i likely would purchase it, but all in all no more duplication for me. And also I must ad Accordance 10 is fantastic, while OT mac reader leaves almost everything to be desired, so your stepping into their realm is much more successful than their step into desktop software.

 

-dan

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  • 2 months later...

Because of the difficulty with the sermon note taking process in Accordance on the iPhone, I have been using another simple Bible program that does this very well. It allows me to easily (with one tap) switch to notes to write and then, with one tap, get right back into the text. The notes I take are also grouped by sermon series and do not have to be tied to one particular verse. I love the ease and efficiency, but always find myself conflicted that I can't do that in the program I use, enjoy and have invested in for everything else, Accordance!

My wife and I have been using the free iOS app, YouVersion, for a few years on our iPod Touch. It's a fantastic Bible reader and Bible reading plan app but it also has a live service feed where you can follow along with your church service if someone in thechurch types in the serman beforehand. Their (free) webpage is also very good...really love the reading plans, it's what got me to finally read the Bible cover to cover...only took me 41 years.

Edited by craigminah
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I teach Sunday school using a Macbook Air and also use it during services. I use a user tool in Accordance for keeping notes during a sermon. For just reading, an iPad is great but if you want to type... tapping a screen with two fingers, it would be impossible to ever keep up. I still have an iPhone but I quit using it. I tried a droid phone, a Blackberry and some others. I found all of them pretty much useless to me. The screen is just too small to do much with. Now I just carry a Jitterbug phone with no internet on it. I also hate text messages. My response to getting one is to just call the person back. This causes them to flip out as they only have x number of voice minutes left. I respond by saying that I don't feel like taking an agonizing five minutes trying to type out a 3 word response that probably would make no sense as there weren't enough words in the message. That's why I prefer the Air. It has a keyboard. It has a 13 inch screen. The battery lasts about 5 hours, which is more than enough for Sunday school and two services.

I have YouVersion on the iPad. My problem is that I got slogged down with a ton of stuff to do and just couldn't keep up with the accelerated plan I chose. I make liberal use of that catch me up button... @@

I think that the iPad is great for reading and touch based games and doing Bible study. Highlighting is easy and natural on it... but any kind of notes will be quite painful... unless you have a bluetooth keyboard to go with it. I have been able to get the keyboard from my iMac to work on it but it's a bit clumsy juggling the iPad and the keyboard on your lap. That's what the Air is for. One thing I really do like about the iPad with Accordance is that when you click on pictures in an article, they do a nice job filling up the screen. I wish the desktop version would do this.

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I usually use Accordance on my iPhone while my pastor is preaching the sermon for what I call "enhanced sermon listening." Our pastor is good, but I have a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. His sermon content often prompts me to investigate different side issues, which Accordance allows me to do. Of course, I continue to listen to the sermon during my investigations. ;-)

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I don't have a PhD in anything, but I do a lot of my learning via the rabbit-chase method. I have been guilty of doing some of that during the sermon, but also often just highlight the text that has raised some questions in my mind and check it out when I get home and have more time.

 

The iPhone screen is just too small for some things. Love the iPad for church and prayer meetings. Our paper Bibles now live at home - can't remember the last time I opened one!

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