Guiding Children, a OneHope research study produced in partnership with Barna, opened our eyes to the relationship that today’s children have with the Bible, the Church, technology, and more. One of the most critical findings was that the number one predictor of spiritual health in a child is that they read the Bible regularly – yet we saw scripture engagement decline as kids aged. Another staggering finding was that only 1 in 4 parents of tweens currently used digital resources to help their children engage with the Bible.
This report spurred our OneHope team to action. We previously created the Bible App for Kids as a digital experience for younger children – but it quickly became obvious that older children were also in need of an opportunity to engage with scripture in their native way – digitally.
In partnership with our friends at YouVersion and with OneHope partner churches and children’s ministries around the world, we created the Kids Bible Experience – a feature in the YouVersion Bible App designed to help pre-teens create a daily habit of engagement with God’s Word. Since its launch in July 2020, over 2 million pre-teens have already used this experience on a regular basis. More recently, this feature also became available to Spanish users as the Experiencia Biblica para Ninos. Additional features and languages are being developed to give even more pre-teens access to this game-changing discipleship tool.
One of the most exciting things about this program for me is that it is truly a collaborative effort amongst the global Church. Churches from the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and Australia contribute content that is used in the daily experience. Pre-teens using the feature are not only falling in love with God’s Word but are being exposed to the beauty of the diverse global Church.
When you see an opportunity arise in your ministry, business, community, or family, I encourage you to pause and look around at others who can join you on mission. We truly are better together.
To access the Kids Bible Experience, click here or look for it on the home feed of your updated YouVersion Bible App.
