A couple of years back or so, the 2010 Bible of the Year award-winning Glo Bible was released with a splash announcement, as a multimedia Bible for the digital generation.
That is immediately quite important, as interactive multimedia is where people now are, and we must begin there if they are to be open to learn and grow to where we need to be.
That is, we must work with the eye- ear- and hand- gates for learning, and the power of well crafted imagery to deeply impress itself in our minds, so that people will be empowered to learn in a rich media environment. As the scriptures counsel us:
2 Tim 3: 12 . . . everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Glo Bible's presentation on using the multimedia Bible gives a slice of what that can mean:
Even more importantly, with the 2.0 update, the Journaling feature can be used to create a presentation that preserves the interactivity:
This points to the capacity to create powerful presentations for use in sermons, classes, and for family devotions. And since the price now seems to be US$60 - 80, this is affordable for churches.
That's the recommendation.
What's the qualification?
Certain limitations.
The number of translations is limited, there seems to have been a problem with the uninstall feature, and some user-reviewers at Amazon had problems with install. Some of the web based links reportedly have been of perhaps questionable quality and scholarly depth. Also help and Tech Support have been a bit limited.
But, that said, Glo is a step beyond Ilumina Bible (prices for which have fallen to about US$ 15 - 20 -- a good deal), especially on the multimedia immersion side. The multiple interfaces as books and chapters, timeline, topics, atlas, media etc are also a great cluster of "lenses" to explore the Bible through.
I therefore recommend that providing there is technical support, churches should look to integrating Glo Bible into presentation systems, and services.
As time and affordability permit, classes and families may want to invest also. (Of course, other resources will be needed for more sophisticated, in -depth study or dealing with issues and hostile questions. My thoughts on this topic may be accessed here, a work- in- progress systematic survey of core Christian thought and teaching.)
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