Churches increasingly using custom apps

The iPad and iPhone are wildly popular among consumers and influencing both the business and education markets. This is just the tip of the iceberg for the pair of iOS devices -- their popularity will inevitably extend the iPad's reach beyond these core markets and into smaller ones like religion. According to a Wall Street Journal report, an increasing number of church and synagogue leaders are using custom iOS apps as a part of their outreach.

Churches are tapping talented congregation members or companies like ROAR or Subsplash, which has over a thousand church-specific titles, to develop apps that'll connect them closer to their members. The apps are used by parents to track their child's progress in Sunday school, listen to sermons when they are unable to attend a service, or connect with other members in a virtual prayer room. It's also a way for churches to reach out to teenagers, a group that is likely to drop their faith when they leave home.

It's not just Protestant and evangelical churches that are embracing the iPad and iPhone. Rabbis, like Dan Cohen of the Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in N.J., are also using the iPad in their services and developing apps for their synagogue members. Rabbi Cohen is apporaching the idea cautiously, though. Like many religious leaders, he wants to use technology to help people embrace their faith, not turn them away from it.