Spiritual Nourishment in a Digital Age

Call on Faith, from Odyssey Networks, utilizes well-known authors such as Phillip Yancey and Dan Wooley to deliver powerful messages meant to motivate and inspire.   Apps such as Call on Faith have been created for those who want to infuse their lives with the spirit.

WASHINGTON, DC (Grace Hill Media) - Few things these days are more powerful than our cell phones.  Partly, because we're no longer holding phones, we're holding mini-computers that just happen to place calls.  Our lives are organized and run by these little gadgets that hold our personal planners, contact numbers, emails, and even serve as an alarm clock every morning.

Quick - what's your sister's phone number?  Your aunt's?  If you don't know it, don't worry.  They don't know yours off the top of their heads either.  But their cell phones do.  In one generation, cell phones have morphed from an item of luxury for business types trying to run the world to everyone's necessity.

Technology has partnered with "convenience" so that a few easy clicks can get us almost anything we want.  Our phones can book a table in a restaurant anywhere in the world.  We can watch the news, check our stocks, and ensure that we reply to our friends' witty Facebook updates and post our own.  Modern technology has made us multi-taskers and a little omnipotent, but has anyone noticed that it's also completely invaded our everyday lives?   

The device that keeps us in constant contact with the world also forces us to work harder than ever.  The new iPhone, Blackberry, or smartphone you just paid for has a price beyond what you've just shelled out at the register.

Now, we're expected to return work emails as soon as they come in, have an immediate answer (or look it up with rapid-fire speed), and be available pretty much anytime, all the time-and that can include vacation and even sick days!.   There's an irony in feeling the need to escape something built to make our lives "easier."  Suddenly having a mini-computer in our hands isn't all fun and games.

Until apps.  For the few who haven't downloaded one (yet), apps have put the fun back into owning a cell phone.  There are the usual apps to manage and plan our lives, but designers are now in search of content that can entertain and bring a smile to those on the "go."  Two to three minute vignettes are being produced for a light-hearted moment you can share with your friends or for personal daily inspiration.  And the faith-based community is right there with leaders of the pack.  Pastors and rabbis are among the many spiritual leaders working with cell phone providers and innovators to produce content aimed at giving us guidance and helping us get through our work week. 

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These spiritual influencers recognize the need for daily doses of motivation and spiritual nourishment.  The content they are developing specifically for faith-based apps is therefore  diverse.  There are sermons, daily scripture readings , bible quotes, poems,  and even personal stories of various leaders and "everyday" people sharing their greatest hopes, fears, and achievements.  By making this content available via cell phone app, they are equipping the faith-based community with on-the-go spiritual tools to help them triumph over the daily grind.  Currently there is more than 10,000 faith-based apps available for download.

One of these apps, Call on Faith, from Odyssey Networks, utilizes well-known authors such as Phillip Yancey and Dan Wooley to deliver powerful messages meant to motivate and inspire.   Apps such as Call on Faith have been created for those who want to infuse their lives with the spirit.  

Once the app has been downloaded, the consumer will have access to daily devotionals, prayers, reflections from spiritual leaders, and stories of compassion.  The content is ever changing - and always motivating.  The app gives Christians the opportunity to pause, reflect and use their cell phones to connect with what's truly important in their lives, something that's often forgotten in our attempts to achieve professional and social success.

Call on Faith's videos offer inspiration from a variety of the world's great faith traditions. Subscribers can choose to watch Rev. Richard Cizik (New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good); Christian author Richard Yancey; Rev. Barry Black (Seventh-day Adventists), Chaplain of the US Senate; Rev. Susan Sparks (American Baptist); Dr. Arthur Caliandro (Reformed Church): Rev. Peter Panagore of the First Radio Parish Church of America.

In addition, individual faith groups have their own special sections on Call on Faith filled with inspiring stories and tips on living more abundantly. These include the Episcopal Church, The United Church of Christ, and The Seventh-day Adventists (Voice of Prophecy and Mad About Marriage). 

There are also contributions from Catholics such as Father Edward Beck and author Paul Wilkes and rabbis such as Ted Falcon and Harold Kushner (When Bad Things Happen to Good People). Prayers and thoughts from Buddhism and the Eastern traditions are also included.  In addition, there are tips on parenting, relationships, and balancing your life and work.

Technology will continue to evolve.  It will continue to provide solutions, but it will inevitably deliver a new set of challenges.  However artists, spiritual leaders, and innovators have also changed.  They now recognize the importance of positive content in the digital world.  Through Call on Faith and other Christian apps, they are connecting us with what we need most - spiritual nourishment.that we can find right in the palm of our hands.

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