How to join a YouVersion Reading Plan in the middle…

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A group of us have been reading through the Bible with YouVersion.

Some friends, who delayed in starting, would like to join us along the way. I talked to YouVersion tech about this, and joining a plan mid-way isn’t designed into the program, but here’s their suggested work-around.

You can access Catch Me Up from the Settings tab on all reading plans. Simply open your reading plan, tap on the Settings tab, and scroll down to find the Catch Me Up button. I’ve provided an overview below of how this feature works.

Let’s use in this example a 1 year plan that you started on January 10th, 2013 and ends on January 9th, 2014.

Let’s also say the following is true:

Jan 10th (Day 1) – Completed
Jan 11th (Day 2) – Completed
Jan 12th (Day 3) – NOT COMPLETED
Jan 13th (Day 4) – Completed
Jan 14th (Day 5) – NOT COMPLETED
Jan 15th (Day 6) – NOT COMPLETED
Jan 16th (Day 7) – NOT COMPLETED
Jan 17th (Day 8 – Today) – NOT COMPLETED

And of course, all days after the 17th are not completed either.

When you use the catch me up feature, it will make “Today” (In this case, January 17th) the first NOT COMPLETED day AFTER your last completed day. It will not mark any new days as read. In this case right here, if you use the Catch Me Up feature on the 17th, the following will happen:

  1. “Today” (in our case, January 17th) will be Day 5.
  2. Day 3 (which, after using Catch Me Up will be January 15th) will STILL show up as NOT COMPLETED.
  3. The start date of the plan will show “January 13th, 2013”.
  4. The end date of the plan will show “January 12th, 2014”.

Catch Me Up will never mark days as read or unread. It will only adjust the start and end dates of the plan to make “Today” the first NOT COMPLETED day AFTER your last completed day.

I hope this clears up the function of the Catch Me Up feature. If I can help you with anything else, please let me know.

Since I started my plan on time, I am not going to try this, but I’d like to know if it works for you.

Whether it does or not, I encourage you to read the Bible — with a friend, friends, or on your own. Plans are available at www.bible.com.

The plan CurwensvilleAlliance is reading is this one: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/64-reading-gods-story

How to start a Men’s Ministry

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I read a statistic recently that said less than 10% of churches in the United States have or can maintain a vibrant Men’s Ministry. I am pretty much in tune with such statistics and trends, but honestly, I was shocked at how low that number is.

Think of ten churches you know. Really. Stop. Think. Just think of the ten churches nearest your home. Now realize that all but one of them, if they are representative of the national average, have no meaningful men’s ministry.

This podcast is to help you find some rationale, motivation, and even permission to invest your resources into Men’s Ministry.

This is not a Seven Step Program to starting a Men’s Ministry, but rather, it’s the first step — answering the question, “Why should I start a Men’s Ministry?”

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Why should I look forward to the return of Christ?

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I think that heaven is largely underrated in our society. Maybe it’s the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Do you remember those? When Tom Cat was finally killed in his pursuit of Jerry Mouse and he ends up on a cloud playing a harp. I love cartoons. But please — don’t get your theology from them. One of the reasons heaven is under-rated is because some people get their theology from cartoons.

Generations before ours looked forward to heaven, perhaps more than some of us do. Why? Is heaven actually worth looking forward to? Is the Return of Christ a good thing? Should we be excited disappointed when we hear someone say that Christ’s return is near?

This podcast speaks about the return of Christ, giving us a perspective that helps us look forward to His glorious appearing.

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