A New Mission Field That Never Sleeps
As of April 2025, the global digital landscape continues to expand rapidly. According to the latest Digital 2025 report by We Are Social, the world’s population has reached 8.21 billion, with 5.64 billion people now using the internet – representing a 68.7% penetration rate. Additionally, there are 5.31 billion social media user identities, accounting for 64.7% of the global population.
This ever – growing digital realm presents an unprecedented mission field. The Church’s outreach methods have evolved over time – from Roman roads to radio waves. Today, the avenues include WhatsApp chats, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels, and Bible apps. Moreover, emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) are beginning to play a significant role in how people experience and engage with Scripture. For instance, AI – driven chatbots can provide instant responses to faith – related queries, while VR and AR technologies offer immersive experiences of biblical narratives, making the stories more tangible and impactful.​
In this digital age, the question for missions is no longer “Should we go digital?” but “How effectively are we engaging?” Are individuals not only accessing Scripture online but also experiencing transformative interactions with it? These considerations are at the heart of our Digital Scripture Engagement campaigns, guiding how we utilize data to assess and enhance our outreach efforts.
Defining What It Means to Engage with Scripture Digitally
Digital Scripture Engagement is more than just broadcasting Bible content or increasing download numbers. It’s about people encountering God’s Word in ways that have the potential to change their lives – through mobile phones, apps, videos, and digital communities.
It’s the Tamil speaking man in Malaysia who stumbles on a LUMO Gospel film clip in his language on Facebook and begins watching it secretly during his lunch breaks. It’s the young woman in a closed country who installs a Scripture app on her phone, listens to the Bible in her heart language at night with her headphones on, and joins a small online Bible study group via WhatsApp. It’s the Youth pastor in Mumbai, India who checks his channel stats through YouTube Studio dashboards and adjusts his local promotion strategy based on where usage is dropping.
These stories are not theoretical – they are emerging from real data (but safely anonymised) collected through digital platforms. What we’re discovering is that engagement is happening, often in hidden but powerful ways. The challenge now is learning how to see it, interpret it, and respond wisely.
Why Data Isn’t Just for Tech Teams Anymore
For many years, data was something left to tech teams, analytics experts, or donor reporting. But in today’s mission world, data has become a practical tool for frontline decision making. Whether you’re a field coordinator, media partner, language program manager, or church network facilitator, knowing how people engage with Scripture digitally can shape everything from content creation to campaign strategy.
To make sense of the vast amount of information, we could use a simple four step framework: Define, Disassemble, Evaluate, and Decide. For example, if a campaign promoting the Audio Bible in Bengali isn’t performing well, we first define the problem: Is it a content issue, an audience mismatch, or a platform problem? Next, we disassemble the data – looking at app analytics, Facebook engagement rates, or YouTube watch time. Then we evaluate what’s working or failing. Finally, we decide whether to tweak the ad targeting, revise the creatives, or switch platforms altogether.
This process isn’t just theoretical – it’s actively helping teams all across the world make smarter, faster decisions for Gospel impact.
What We’re Measuring – and Why It Matters
While thousands of digital metrics exist, we focus on the ones that help us understand two things: are people reaching the content, and are they interacting with it meaningfully?
For example, Reach refers to the number of people who saw the Bible video or ad – it tells us how far the content has traveled. But that alone doesn’t tell the whole story. To really understand impact, we look at deeper metrics like watch time, repeat usage, and engagement. These give us a window into heart level interest.
A film might have high reach because it’s shared widely, but if most viewers drop off after just 15 seconds, it signals a problem: something in the content, context, or delivery isn’t connecting. On the other hand, when we see strong completion rates for long-form videos – like Nepali speakers in Malaysia or Telugu speakers in Bahrain consistently watching till the end – we know the message is resonating deeply with those diaspora communities.
What’s even more fascinating is how engagement data can uncover hidden communities. When a Scripture app in a minority Indian language started getting unexpected traffic from Gulf countries, we discovered that migrant workers had carried God’s Word with them and were still hungry for it even while abroad. Without analytics, we would’ve never known. Now that insight is helping shape the way we pray, plan, and partner.
The Tools Helping Us See the Big Picture
We use a range of tools to collect and visualize data. Platforms like Google Analytics and Firebase help us understand how people interact with Scripture through websites and apps, showing us when, where, and how it’s being accessed. For apps built using Scripture App Builder (SAB), we rely on custom tools like FCBH Analytics to track Scripture engagement more specifically. On the social media front, tools like YouTube Studio and Facebook Insights help us measure video engagement, comment trends, and how content is being shared across different regions.
But raw data isn’t enough. That’s where intuitive dashboard tools like Google Data Studio (now Looker Studio), Tableau, Power BI, Airtable, Notion, Monday.com etc. come in. These platforms help transform complex datasets into clear, visual reports with user-friendly interfaces. Whether it’s charts showing Bible app engagement across regions or interactive graphs tracking campaign performance over time, such tools make data easy to understand, even for those without a tech background. The real value lies in helping teams quickly grasp what’s happening and take timely, informed action to improve outreach and impact.
For example, during a special Christmas campaign, having access to real-time data can make all the difference. If engagement begins to drop halfway through the campaign, you might decide to adjust your reminder schedule, send out personalized encouragement messages, or even reassign group facilitators to reignite enthusiasm. These timely adjustments, guided by the data, can significantly improve participation consistency and overall group retention – ensuring the message of Christmas reaches hearts more effectively.
What We’ve Learned (and Are Still Learning)
One of the most important lessons we’ve learned is that data is not the finish line – it’s a feedback loop. Good metrics encourage us to give thanks. Weak spots help us dig deeper. If a Scripture resource is underused, it doesn’t mean it failed; it might mean people don’t know it exists, or can’t access it easily, or aren’t yet ready to engage. But now, we have a compass.
Another takeaway is that data helps build trust and transparency with partners. Instead of vague impact claims, we can now show how many people watched, listened, downloaded, and responded. This is especially helpful when reporting to Bible translation agencies, donors, or partner networks who want to see Kingdom outcomes.
More than anything, we’ve learned that data leads to better stewardship – of time, funds, content, and opportunity. It helps us labor wisely and prayerfully in the digital field.
In the End, It’s Not About Numbers. It’s About Souls.
Behind every view, click, or app install is a person made in God’s image. A mother searching for hope. A young man wondering if God sees him. A seeker scrolling late at night. A migrant worker far from home, clinging to the only Word he can understand.
As we dig into analytics and campaign reports, let’s remember that this work is sacred. Yes, we’re tracking reach and engagement – but ultimately, we’re praying for encounters. And as long as the digital world keeps expanding, we’ll keep planting the Word faithfully, watching for fruit, and adjusting our strategy with wisdom and grace.
Because when Scripture is shared well – and when we listen to what the data is telling us – lives are changed.
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This article is based on insights from the session “Digital SE: Analysing the Impact of Digital Media”, presented by Joshy Kurian and Peter Brassington at the International Language Assessment Conference (ILAC-8), held from 18–25 September 2024 in Penang, Malaysia. The session explored how digital platforms and apps provide new ways for people to interact with Scripture, while also generating anonymized analytics on reading, viewing, and listening habits. These analytics, in turn, offer valuable input for strategic planning and foster deeper, more informed Scripture engagement.
This article was developed with the assistance of AI tools for editing, language refinement, and clarity, based on original human input, session materials, and real-world ministry insights.