How new tech, hire of former Facebook exec, signal new day for Edmond church's Bible app

EDMOND ― A former Facebook executive is among three leaders with Fortune 500 company experience set to join the team behind Edmond-based Life.Church's YouVersion Bible App.

Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion founder and chief executive officer, said the popular free Bible app has hired Nona Jones, former head of global faith partnerships at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. Jones has been hired as YouVersion Bible App's new chief content and partnerships officer. Greg Hall, who grew up in Owasso, has been hired as chief operating and growth officer, while James Chung will be chief technology officer.

With the Bible app already a global phenomenon, Life.Church is signaling a new day with the hiring of the trio of senior level professionals. Gruenewald said the leaders will help YouVersion Bible App expand its reach.

"They all bring a wealth of experience to our team and I think really set us up well for the growth that we're experiencing, and for the future," Gruenewald said.

Life.Church, founded by the Rev. Craig Groeschel, has headquarters at 4600 E Second St. The church, with multiple satellite sites across Oklahoma and other states, launched the YouVersion Bible App on the first day of the Apple App Store in July 2008.

Gruenewald said the new hires and other developments are indications of a promising start to the new year as the Bible App's 15th anniversary approaches in July.

"We definitely are privileged to steward just an incredible thing that God's done over the last 15 years," he said.

Gruenewald pointed out that Jones, Hall and Chung have each stepped away from their corporate roles to join YouVersion.

"They've chosen to step away from those those very big and sometimes lucrative jobs that they have to come and be a part of full time ministry and working on our team here with the Bible app," he said.

Chung previously worked at Intuit, Apple and eBay/PayPal. Most recently, the California resident served as senior vice president of technical operations at Globality. Hall, who lives in North Carolina, most recently served as chief consumer officer of Hanesbrands Inc. He held several senior marketing and merchandising leadership positions for Walmart for more than 14 years and also led brand management at PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division. Of the three, Jones already has been in ministry leadership over the years. She and her husband, the Rev. Tim Jones, lead Open Door Church in Gainesville, Florida. She has also served as a YouVersion teaching partner and shared devotional content for the Bible app.

Meanwhile, Gruenewald said YouVersion began making some significant hiring changes before adding the three senior level leaders. He said YouVersion hired 50 people to the team last year, bringing the total to 165 people who work only on YouVersion. He said he envisions hiring to perhaps double or even triple in the future as the Bible app's reach continues to grow.

New tech and other developments

The testing of new strategies and technology tools also has prompted excitement among YouVersion team members. Gruenewald said in fall 2022, YouVersion launched a new app designed to reach more people in Africa. He said the Bible app is growing rapidly in there, along with Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Gruenewald said the new test app, developed using Bible App infrastructure, was designed to combat some of the connectivity challenges users in that part of the world experience. Bible app users also had been having problems keeping the Bible app on their devices because of its size, but the new app was designed to alleviate that.

He said the newly developed app already has been deemed a success. It had 1 million installs in its first few months, and since Jan. 1, there have been 375,000 installs with an average growth rate of 26,000 installs per day.

The ministry leader said the app is currently in the top 25 apps in the Google Play Store in 17 countries, including Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

In other developments, the Bible app debuted a new feature called Daily Refresh that also has been well received.

Gruenewald said the new feature was launched in December and is already helping app users create more consistent time with the Bible. He said Daily Refresh is offered in 42 language and combines three app features — Verse of the Day, Verse of the Day Stories and Guided Prayer — to help people grow in their intimacy with the Lord.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond Life.Church's YouVersion Bible App is seeing new hires, updates