Apps in everyday faith survey

Dear logos community,

We are researching the use of technology in everyday faith like Logos products, specifically the use of Christian applications. One of the Logos developers recommended posting here given that many of you are active in technology and faith. Our research is independent and not funded by any organisation, but is looking to find out how spiritual disciplines/Christian practices connect with technology in terms of Bible reading, prayer, confession, fellowship and more. Would you consider helping out us Christian researchers in the Netherlands by filling in our survey and passing this on to those you know? The survey is available here:

The survey is available here: https://erasmushcc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Ral0TkXoU0nvCd (available in English, French, Spanish, German and Dutch). The survey will only take 10 to 15 minutes. The questions may not express your or my faith perfectly, but they have been based on other verified research. Please feel free to forward this information to anyone that using applications in their daily Christian life. If you are interested in learning more about this research or want to keep up to date with their results, you can find out more at https://www.facebook.com/christianapplicationsurvey/

Jason Pridmore, PhD

Erasmus University, The Netherlands

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DMB

The questions may not express your or my faith perfectly, but they have been based on other verified research.

You got that right (though I can't imagine whose research). Trying to fit into your questions is both trying, and quantitatively dishonest.

The big hole I couldn't find was simply studying the Bible. Though maybe it was there?

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/899972#Comment_899972

Hi Denise!

I'm also a researcher on this study. There were several questions on this. First of all, we ask about the frequency in which you read the Bible. Furthermore, we asked whether you use apps that help you reading the Bible. Following that, there were several questions on how you use and value the apps that help you read the Bible.

I hope this answers your question!

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/899975#Comment_899975

Thank you, Michelle. The best I could guess was 'journaling'! I rarely 'read' the Bible ... like just read. And never with an app.

Maybe Logos and its sister apps (Accordance, Bibleworks) are strange ducks. Study means you're moving across large amounts of information pretty quickly (tools, automated lookup etc).

Anyway, the survey likely works for typical mobile apps.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900058#Comment_900058

I started filling out this survey but found many of the questions not to be relevant to my situation but the survey kept forcing me to answer the questions. As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900058#Comment_900058

@Denise: I understand your point! Our choice for Bible reading stems from the spiritual disciplines, introduced by Donald Whitney. It was a struggle for us as well, whether we went for Bible reading or Bible studying. However, since Bible reading is perhaps more approachable to a larger group of people, we decided to use the word read. There were a couple of other academic reasons for choosing the word read, but we did take the word study in consideration. Of course, there might be a significant difference between the two for you and many other users of Logos. I'm sorry for the confusion it may have caused!

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

Hi Bruce! Thanks for your comment. That's unfortunate. For the survey, we need complete responses in order for it to be valid. That's why an answer is required to every question. We tried to have the questions be as fitting as possible, but we understand it's impossible for everyone to be 'in the same situation', as you put it! Again, I'm sorry you got frustrated with the survey, that is never our intention.

Paul Caneparo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

I started filling out this survey but found many of the questions not to be relevant to my situation but the survey kept forcing me to answer the questions. As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

Bruce

Like you I started the survey but soon gave up because the questions didn't seem appropriate.

Paul

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

+1 (could not get past second question)

Personally none of the four choices for affiliated Christian tradition fit me (and does not have a box for other entry). By way of an example, a Charisma News article mentions five branches to describe many faiths => http://www.charismanews.com/politics/64641-how-the-holy-spirit-is-blowing-on-the-us-capitol-right-now

Keep Smiling [:)]

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900125#Comment_900125

That's a shame! You are able to fill in non-denominational in the third question if you fill in Protestant in the second question @Keep Smiling 4 Jesus. Hope that might solve the issue!

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900124#Comment_900124

Bruce

Like you I started the survey but soon gave up because the questions didn't seem appropriate.

Paul

Sorry to hear that Paul! Could you describe your issue with the questions more clearly? I might be able to clear some issues up for you.

Lew Worthington

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

Same here. And I didn't think my situation was all that unusual.

Often, I found myself unable to answer questions like this since I like mangos:

What is your favorite fruit: Bananas or apples?

I started filling out this survey but found many of the questions not to be relevant to my situation but the survey kept forcing me to answer the questions. As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

Michelle Tuk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900128#Comment_900128

Same here. And I didn't think my situation was all that unusual.

Often, I found myself unable to answer questions like this since I like mangos:

What is your favorite fruit: Bananas or apples?

Hi Lew! I'm not sure I understand your issue If you felt more like another option, you could almost always select 'Other, please specify:'. Did this not solve you issue? Or did you have the issue with a specific question, like the tradition you can most identify with?

Floyd Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

I started filling out this survey but found many of the questions not to be relevant to my situation but the survey kept forcing me to answer the questions. As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

Thanks, Bruce. Based on your, and other comments, I will skip this survey.

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900106#Comment_900106

I started filling out this survey but found many of the questions not to be relevant to my situation but the survey kept forcing me to answer the questions. As a result I just quick the survey as I found it too frustrating. I'm interested if anyone else did the same.

I'm afraid I did the same.

Dan Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900133#Comment_900133

I had no issue filling out the form but did find some far less than applicable to me.

-dan

Juanita

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900125#Comment_900125

As KS4J said: "Personally none of the four choices for affiliated Christian tradition fit me (and does not have a box for other entry). By way of an example, a Charisma News article mentions five branches to describe many faiths => http://www.charismanews.com/politics/64641-how-the-holy-spirit-is-blowing-on-the-us-capitol-right-now"

For the same reason, I could not answer the second question.

Doc B

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900120#Comment_900120

For the survey, we need complete responses in order for it to be valid. That's why an answer is required to every question.

I assume you know that requiring an answer on every response biases your results in some difficult-to-control ways, because rejecting responses which are incomplete introduces a systematic bias. Right?

All that is on top of the fact that this is a convenience sample, which makes generalization of the results practically impossible, and which makes many of the statistical tools used to evaluate the data in violation of assumptions necessary for their validity (i.e., randomization of the sample).

I am also assuming you are aware of the effects of social desirability response bias with questions like you are asking. I'm curious how you are controlling for that since I don't see any controls in the survey.

Yeah, we are a tough audience. [:D] So what's the purpose of this study again?

Robert Neely

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900216#Comment_900216

So what's the purpose of this study again?

i was wondering that myself. Is this part of a Surveillance Studies project?

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900126#Comment_900126

You are able to fill in non-denominational in the third question if you fill in Protestant in the second question @Keep Smiling 4 Jesus. Hope that might solve the issue!

Searching Logos.com for church history resources => https://www.logos.com/products/search?q=church+history has thousands of results, which includes Mennonite Church History that traces their traditional history to the first century, which is another example that does not fit the affiliated choices provided in question two. Also have read some articles like => http://www.christianpost.com/news/americans-love-jesus-dont-go-to-church-barna-179227/ where traditional affiliation/attendance in the United States is on the decline.

Thankful for many friendly forum discussions: have learned a lot plus have a lot to learn. Forum participants represent a wide variety of faith traditions from around the world. Thankful for Faithlife sponsoring web site => http://christiandiscourse.com for many discussions (since these forums primarily focus on using apps and applications developed by Faithlife corporation).

Thankful for Faithlife's "traditional" insight in thread => Lexham Bible Guides - what Faith Traditions are represented?

Keep Smiling [:)]

Jason Pridmore

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900272#Comment_900272

Lexham Bible Guides - what Faith Traditions are represented?

You are able to fill in non-denominational in the third question if you fill in Protestant in the second question @Keep Smiling 4 Jesus. Hope that might solve the issue!

Searching Logos.com for church history resources => https://www.logos.com/products/search?q=church+history has thousands of results, which includes Mennonite Church History that traces their traditional history to the first century, which is another example that does not fit the affiliated choices provided in question two. Also have read some articles like => http://www.christianpost.com/news/americans-love-jesus-dont-go-to-church-barna-179227/ where traditional affiliation/attendance in the United States is on the decline.

Thankful for many friendly forum discussions: have learned a lot plus have a lot to learn. Forum participants represent a wide variety of faith traditions from around the world. Thankful for Faithlife sponsoring web site => http://christiandiscourse.com for many discussions (since these forums primarily focus on using apps and applications developed by Faithlife corporation).

Thankful for Faithlife's "traditional" insight in thread => Lexham Bible Guides - what Faith Traditions are represented?

Keep Smiling

Glad these resources have been helpful to you, which is exactly why we want to know if similar things are happening in relation to apps and people's Christian faith!

I would have to contend that our expressions of faith have emerged from the one universal catholic and apostolic faith in one way or another. The earliest division from this was the Coptics in Egypt whom interestingly were the first to translate the Bible into their own language, which helped enable this one small group of faithful Christians resist the dominance of Islam in Northern Africa. In a very real sense, all of us should be able to trace our histories back to the first century as you suggest the Mennonites do. But they are very much part of and developed from Protestant reformation movements (Menno Simons was a Roman Catholic Priest who protested Catholic practices). Most all contemporary expressions of non-denominational Christianity are rooted in Protestant reformations, with a few being non-denominational catholic expressions. While the idea of just being a follower of Jesus only and not being connected to any tradition or denomination is attractive and the way many Christians express their faith, it often does not take into account the histories of where that faith came from and, as Hebrews reminds us, the "cloud of witnesses" whose faithfulness to God helped bring us into relationship with him.

Hope that helps explain a bit more our choice to indicate three traditions and then the variety of Protestant denominations or not that we note on the survey.

Jason Pridmore

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900247#Comment_900247

So what's the purpose of this study again?

i was wondering that myself. Is this part of a Surveillance Studies project?

This is not fully part of a surveillance studies project, although that is part of my research interests! It can be seen as a form of self-surveillance or monitoring, much like other research I am involved in that looks at the use of apps to monitor diet and exercise and messaging. However this is part of Michelle's master's thesis and my own personal interest in technology and everyday experiences (like surveillance).

What we want to know is how these relatively new forms of technology are helping some people 'stay'(?) or be faithful by providing daily or weekly prompts in several of these different areas. I remember growing up with the little check boxes for Bible reading and the feeling I would get being able to check these boxes off. Or the experience of reading and praying through a prayer list. The question for this study is how are things like this being replicated digitally. As little is known about this, we are trying to see how people perceive these technologies to be helpful or not.

Hope that explains this a bit!

Jason Pridmore

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900210#Comment_900210

As KS4J said: "Personally none of the four choices for affiliated Christian tradition fit me (and does not have a box for other entry). By way of an example, a Charisma News article mentions five branches to describe many faiths => http://www.charismanews.com/politics/64641-how-the-holy-spirit-is-blowing-on-the-us-capitol-right-now"

For the same reason, I could not answer the second question.

I am not seeing what the five branches are in this article. There is Judaism (which is not within Christianity) and what they call Messianic (which I assume is Judaic Christianity). The latter would be an oversight on our part but is probably not a large number of potential respondents for us.

Jason Pridmore

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900216#Comment_900216

For the survey, we need complete responses in order for it to be valid. That's why an answer is required to every question.

I assume you know that requiring an answer on every response biases your results in some difficult-to-control ways, because rejecting responses which are incomplete introduces a systematic bias. Right?

All that is on top of the fact that this is a convenience sample, which makes generalization of the results practically impossible, and which makes many of the statistical tools used to evaluate the data in violation of assumptions necessary for their validity (i.e., randomization of the sample).

I am also assuming you are aware of the effects of social desirability response bias with questions like you are asking. I'm curious how you are controlling for that since I don't see any controls in the survey.

Yeah, we are a tough audience. So what's the purpose of this study again?

We are not aiming for generalization! We describe this as a purposeful sample in which we are interested in a particular group of people using a new set of technologies in order to find correlations between the use of these technologies and their everyday life. So no randomization is necessary.

We have controlled for social desirability effect with a few questions as well, including questions like how often do you feel others like you use these applications. It is not perfect, but we have thought of this.

You may be a tough audience, but we have been tougher on ourselves already. We don't claim to have a perfect study, but it is a unique and first in depth look at these practices.

Jason Pridmore

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900307#Comment_900307

... While the idea of just being a follower of Jesus only and not being connected to any tradition or denomination is attractive and the way many Christians express their faith, it often does not take into account the histories of where that faith came from and, as Hebrews reminds us, the "cloud of witnesses" whose faithfulness to God helped bring us into relationship with him.

Thankful for typical daily use of Logos/Verbum while growing closer to my Lord and God. Thankful for visual filter highlighting so can "see" range of Greek verbal expression in many languages (verbal intensity can be lacking in translation) => Examples of visual filters

Apologies for my lack of affiliation with a traditional denomination for many years so am not using historical labels plus not sure which one(s) fit with current lukewarm trends. Thankful can volunteer for faith program time in prisons, which has resident encounters with many historical backgrounds (so my primary focus is the Bible). Hence am a follower of "the Way" since Yeshua, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Thankful for Vyrso eBook => Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus that can be read in Faithlife apps and applications. Author's story of faith for a personal relationship with Jesus lacks affiliation with traditional denominations (and being ostracized by his family). Thankful for more Vyrso eBooks => Heaven is for Real Movie Edition , => Flight to Heaven , => Return from Tomorrow , => 90 Minutes in Heaven , => Angels Are for Real and => Understanding Prophetic People that illustrate awesome action of God's Faithfulness.

As KS4J said: "Personally none of the four choices for affiliated Christian tradition fit me (and does not have a box for other entry). By way of an example, a Charisma News article mentions five branches to describe many faiths => http://www.charismanews.com/politics/64641-how-the-holy-spirit-is-blowing-on-the-us-capitol-right-now"

For the same reason, I could not answer the second question.

I am not seeing what the five branches are in this article. There is Judaism (which is not within Christianity) and what they call Messianic (which I assume is Judaic Christianity). The latter would be an oversight on our part but is probably not a large number of potential respondents for us.

Another grouping of traditional faith branches are various Base Packages available for purchase => https://www.logos.com/basepackages plus Jewish Library Expansions => Logos 7 Jewish Studies Library Expansion, XL Thankful for several forum threads with denomination insights => Theology/Denomination Tags , => Differences between Eastern and Russian Orthodox Churches , => Please read - especially if you don't use a lectionary or even understand why one would. and => Book of Common Prayer

Thankful for Messianic Bibles => Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) that has a worthwhile introduction and => Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (TLV) whose introduction includes "Israel's family diary" (shared with Christianity as Gentiles are grafted into God's promise to Israel). Psalms 119:11 in CJB is:

I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.

Thankful for Logos resource => Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. At times, the Jewish authors of the New Testament (Covenant) assumed Jewish contextual understanding: e.g. John 7:37 "last day of the festival"

Thankful for practical pastoral advice to keep reading, studying, and treasuring God's Word. Thankful God is in control and worthy of Praise.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Mark Barnes

I completed the study, but I understand why others struggled. I'm explaining why in the hope that it helps those doing the survey to interpret the results.

The main problem was that everything was tightly defined. I understand the reasons for that, but it often meant that I felt that I could either give an answer that was technically correct, but 'felt' wrong, or vice versa.

For example, prayer was defined as "focused prayer". My quiet time meets that definition. But what about grace at a meal table? Or silent prayer for the meeting I'm about to attend whilst I'm walking to it. Is that focused?

Then I got to the next question and saw "worship" includes "devotional time". Perhaps I shouldn't have included my quiet time in the "prayer" question, but in this instead? Or should I double count?

Then "confession". I do this all the time, certainly dozens of times a week. But a lot of it is already included in the previous answers, and some of it is very brief. Should these all be included?

Perhaps I'm over thinking the questions. But I feel that the attempt to define spirituality in way that all traditions can understand, has backfired, at least for people like me. My faith doesn't fit those neat boxes.

(As a more minor methodological issue, I felt the distinction between weekly and monthly questions should have been better signposted. That was easy to miss, as by the time it changes, you're used to what it says and it's easy to skip over.)

Jason Pridmore

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/900410#Comment_900410

I completed the study, but I understand why others struggled. I'm explaining why in the hope that it helps those doing the survey to interpret the results.

The main problem was that everything was tightly defined. I understand the reasons for that, but it often meant that I felt that I could either give an answer that was technically correct, but 'felt' wrong, or vice versa.

For example, prayer was defined as "focused prayer". My quiet time meets that definition. But what about grace at a meal table? Or silent prayer for the meeting I'm about to attend whilst I'm walking to it. Is that focused?

Then I got to the next question and saw "worship" includes "devotional time". Perhaps I shouldn't have included my quiet time in the "prayer" question, but in this instead? Or should I double count?

Then "confession". I do this all the time, certainly dozens of times a week. But a lot of it is already included in the previous answers, and some of it is very brief. Should these all be included?

Perhaps I'm over thinking the questions. But I feel that the attempt to define spirituality in way that all traditions can understand, has backfired, at least for people like me. My faith doesn't fit those neat boxes.

(As a more minor methodological issue, I felt the distinction between weekly and monthly questions should have been better signposted. That was easy to miss, as by the time it changes, you're used to what it says and it's easy to skip over.)

Thanks Mark for the comment. We spent many hours struggling with these questions - the prayer one in particular we debated for several days whether to add "for more than a few minutes" to the text but decided against this because we were concerned that some respondents would spend time figuring out what 'counted' or not just as you did without this! And the notion of devotion and worship was another difficult separation, in practice of course these are integrated as is the notion of confession.

Thanks also for the signposting issue of daily/weekly/monthly differences. This is an issue with the software I am afraid - interestingly on a tablet or smartphone these are bolded quite nicely but this for some reason doesn't work in the web browser on a laptop version.

We really appreciate your completion of the survey even while feeling uncomfortable putting your faith in boxes. It is a comment we have heard many times and struggled with ourselves, but in consultation with some colleagues that are even more well versed at quantitative research than us (an interesting opportunity to really talk about faith with them!), settled on these as the best possible way of writing this.

All the best.

Jason (and Michelle)