Over the years, I’ve downloaded and deleted hundreds of apps.
Many of the apps that are on my smartphone now I use only occasionally. But, there are a handful that I use regularly as in ministry as a pastor and preacher. These aren’t specific for ministry, so many people might find them useful.
Evernote. A seminary professor teased my class with stories of a proprietary note-taking, book-indexing, illustration-filing system that he had made secretly, just for himself, at a clandestine location in the desert of New Mexico, and about which he could reveal no further details without having us all killed.
A couple of years later, I found Evernote. This is essentially a high-tech filing system that allows you to sync between desktop and smartphone, make one-button clips of webpages from your browser, and do all manner of productivity-enhancing things that I haven’t even discovered yet.
Flashcards Buddy. I remember using paper 3×5 cards to memorize Scripture verses early in my spiritual life, and then again in seminary to help learn Hebrew and Greek. In this app, the 3×5 card has become digitized and environmentally friendly. I use it to memorize verses, and categorize them by subject matter and by Bible book. For desktop use, I sync the phone app with Quizlet.
Google. Everyone “Googles” nowadays, but I find Google’s calendar and contacts functions especially useful. The calendar can be synced with my phone and provide alerts, and I can share my calendar with others who need to know my schedule or manage appointments.
Mighty Text. I type as little as possible on my phone, but people seem to respond better to texts. Mighty Text allows you to text from your laptop or desktop computer, synced with your phone and contacts, so that you can type what others receive in text format.
Dictionary. Available in an app and desktop, this is useful as a convenient way to look up definitions and use its thesaurus function. With reasonable purchases, it also provides idioms, slang and other specialized dictionaries.
Of course, I keep specialized dictionaries in hard copy and on my Bible research software for sermon preparation. And, of course, I cannot get completely away from a paper calendar and a small 3.5×6 notebook, which goes with me everywhere.
These are all available free, with both smartphone and desktop application. However, I have upgraded Flashcards Buddy and Dictionary for specific features I wanted.
Let me know if you use others regularly in your ministry.