By Joni Tapp

Mobile technology has its good and bad points, just like everything in life. Although it can prove to be a distraction or frustration, mobile tech can also be really helpful to pastors and those in leadership at houses of worship by increasing organization and productivity. Here’s a list of my 10 favorite apps (in no particular order) for those in ministry leadership:

YouVersion – One of the best Bible-reading apps out there. It has a huge amount of free versions, along with several great reading plans that will help you track your progress. There is built-in social sharing to easily share what you’re reading or learning. And it syncs across devices so you can pick up where you left off no matter what you’re reading on.

Evernote – This app is your one-stop place for gathering information of all kinds. You can gather files, images, audio, websites, anything all in one place, and you can sort them into folders to keep it all organized. You can also type right into Evernote, so putting all your thoughts in one place is simple. It also syncs across devices so you can use it for file sharing as well. Use Evernote to get sermon notes from your computer to your iPad. You can also use it to record an audio note while you’re driving in case you have a killer idea that you don’t want to get away. So many cool uses for this app.

Flipboard – This beautiful app turns your RSS, Twitter, and Facebook feeds into a magazine-style reader. It will aggregate your feeds all in one place, and make it so simple to just flip through to scan content for items of interest. You can either read them right there or mark them to read later. It can also bring in other content that has been read or shared by your friends, and it is one-tap simple to share your content on your linked social accounts as well. This app can save you a lot of time catching up on your reading, as well as providing a beautiful, eye-friendly way to do it.

Clips – This unique and stellar app is a database that helps you find a movie clip to use in your speaking. You can search for clips by topic or by movie. It will then tell you what movie to find the clip in, where to start and stop the movie, and it even suggests discussion questions. This is a huge time-saver for pastors who like to use movie clips as illustrations!

Bump – Sharing just got a whole lot simpler. This exceedingly cool technology allows you to share contact information or photos with another person simply by bumping your phone with theirs. No more awkward repeating of phone numbers, no more entering in info from a business card by hand, no more forgetting to send them an email with your contact info. If you both have Bump on your phone, just bump and go. You can also easily transfer photos from your phone to a friend’s phone or to your computer with this same app. This would be very helpful after a large ministry event.

BC Reader – For those who do a lot of networking but find someone who doesn’t have Bump installed on their phone (see above), use this handy app to scan in information from business cards.

Dragon Dictation – This talk-to-text app allows you to just speak what you want to type and it transcribes it for you. It’s amazingly accurate in several languages, and can be a real time saver when you want to type out something long and all you have is your iPhone’s on-screen keyboard.

IMDb – The International Movie Database is a great website, but their app is really awesome on the go, too. One of the best parts for pastors and leaders is the Parent’s Guide, which will help you gauge how family-friendly a movie is. So if you hear some parents say they’re going to take their kids to the next blockbuster, you can just open up IMDb right there and help them decide if it’s a wise choice for their kids.

Air Sketch – This cool app can turn your iPad into a portable whiteboard, with your drawings being projected to a screen via wifi. It can completely revolutionize your presentations, teaching, and meetings!

HootSuite – There are several good apps out there for gathering your social media feeds in one place. My personal favorite is HootSuite, but what I think is most important is that pastors and ministry leaders stay involved in social media, regardless of what app they use to do it. Facebook keeps you connected with your congregation and community, and Twitter gives you real-time information. Both are essential for a thriving ministry.

Image by sam_churchill