by BP Staff
NASHVILLE (BP) — Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention’s news service, officially launched a free app today (April 13) connecting to its daily content and to key entities across SBC life.
The app is available in both Android and iPhone formats through Google Play and the Apple Store. Enter a search for “Baptist Press,” using quote marks, for best access to the app.
The app replaces Baptist Press’ mobile site by which smartphone users accessed the news service prior to the redesign of its website last September.
Art Toalston, now in his 24th year as editor of Baptist Press, said the app broadens BP’s media spectrum, including its www.BaptistPress.com website and the news service’s ongoing presence on Twitter and Facebook.
“The app also will offer a versatile connection to all of Southern Baptist life, connecting to entity websites that are at the forefront of missions, evangelism, service, discipleship, stewardship and biblical theology,” Toalston said. “We are not through yet,” he added, noting that the app will remain under ongoing development.
Key features of the app include:
— A “News” tab connecting to both BaptistPress.com and to BP en Español, the news service’s Spanish-language weekly edition. The SBC Annual Meeting site also will be displayed from May through July in conjunction with this year’s June 16-17 meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
— A “Media” tab connecting to BP featured videos, photos and comics and to SBC.net, the convention’s website; SBCLIFE, the journal of the SBC Executive Committee; the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board’s news and feature sites; LifeWay Christian Resources’ Facts & Trends magazine; the online newsrooms of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and GuideStone Financial Resources; the six SBC seminary websites; and WMU (Woman’s Missionary Union).
— An “Info” tab that connects to Baptist Press on Twitter and Facebook and to information about faith in Christ for salvation. Departing from to the typical “Give” button on many apps, the BP app advises individuals to give through their local churches and to support Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program channel of support for SBC causes in their states and nationally and internationally.
— An “HCSB Bible” tab that offers full audio content of the Bible. The HCSB — Holman Christian Standard Bible — is the translation utilized in resources published by LifeWay.
The app also will link to the news service’s main website, which includes multifaceted user-friendly search capability for archived material and story collections.
Providing news with a Christian perspective since 1946, Baptist Press circulates stories through the Internet to 40 state Baptist publications across the country and to a worldwide audience of Southern Baptists, like-minded evangelicals and readers seeking faith-based content. The news service, based at the SBC Executive Committee’s offices in Nashville, reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists’ concerns nationally and globally.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com).
Baptist Press (BP) is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention and provides news to the 42 state Baptist papers. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists’ concerns nationally and globally.
