Church In Your Pocket

Almost overnight there have appeared a series of iPhone and other downloadable smartphone apps which enable worshippers from every spiritual stripe to look up holy book verses, access meditation instructions, or receive prayer reminders on the fly. There is even an app for Muslims to locate the nearest restaurants serving permissible (Halal) foods.

As cell phones become ubiquitous (owned by well over 80 percent of Americans and claiming 4 to 5 billion subscriptions globally), it's only natural that God go mobile too.

Along with the larger trend toward single-function apps (things like mapping a route to the nearest Starbucks or playing a computer game), the current breed of religious apps are narrowly focused. You can take your pick from dozens of apps designed specifically for reading the Bible or identifying holy days. Such apps are great for people with particular spiritual interests or informational needs.

But what is needed next is more personalized communication apps to connect individuals with their own local communities of faith and the day-to-day activities of those communities.

Instead of simply looking up a Torah verse, for example, next-generation apps would allow users to retrieve service times at their local synagogue, communicate with other members of the congregation via a mobile social network, access live streaming or recorded audio/video services, and receive updates and individualized prayers from their rabbi -- all on a single cell phone application. Add on the ability to organize events, sign up for classes, and make contributions or tithe directly from a smartphone and voilà! You've got your very own "church in a pocket" app.

Such all-in-one apps could also be integrated with mobile location-based services (LBS) like Foursquare, allowing users to know when fellow church members are nearby. In the case of a temple or church, the leadership could keep track of how many congregants have arrived for a service or event and even identify them by name. Naturally, each community would customize and brand its own app to target its own needs and user base, much in the same way that websites currently do.