Missional by Design · The makers
Make it well, as an offering
Craft is worship. Excellence, accessibility, beauty and care are how we love God and the person on the other side of the screen.
From the calling
Scripture and tradition
“I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship” (Exodus 31:3). “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). The same skill can serve an idol: Aaron fashioned the calf “with an engraving tool” (Exodus 32:4).
Praxis calls the redemptive way “creative restoration through sacrifice”: making new things that “create possibility and opportunity for others”. faith.tools asks whether an app is “maintained and regularly updated”, and asks of every app: does it “properly cite and license the Bible translations it uses”?
Sources: What is redemptive entrepreneurship? · faith.tools selection criteria
What it rules in, and out
In
- A reader that is a joy to read in, and typography that honours the text
- Accessibility as standard: screen readers, contrast, dyslexia, other languages
- Stillness, beauty and reliability
- Translations cited and licensed
Out
- “It’s for ministry” as an excuse for careless work
- Beauty used as bait
What the maker gives up. Shipping fast at the cost of the people who cannot use what was shipped.
Qualification. Excellence is not luxury. A small team can make a simple thing well; what matters is care for the person, not polish for the portfolio.
Test a design
Would we offer this to God as it is, and could the person with the least sight, time or reading ease use it?
- What did we leave unfinished that someone else will have to carry?
Worked out in the deep dives
Every pattern tagged with this principle
- How much text at once
- Numbers, headings and notes
- Bible audio
- Devotional audio
- Context before application
- The player works without the screen
- Playback and reading positions can differ
- Playback cues are a reader preference
- Timing has an honest granularity
- Passage preview opens a full reader
- Reflow before shrinking
- Answer first, expand by need
- Chat contains source objects, not just bubbles
- The task survives a change of screen
- Parallel reading chooses a useful arrangement
- Results grow without flooding
- A reference opens at a deliberate destination
- Resolve the reference before navigating
- Partial is not complete
- Silence belongs in the timeline
- Pause narration without losing the moment
- Paragraphs or one verse per line?
- Verse numbers that help without taking over
- Finding a passage
- Choose a translation with enough context
- Adjust reading settings without losing the passage
- Show what the chat will use before sending
- How visible should extra resources be?
- Keep my note distinct from a shared comment
- Mark a passage without interrupting the thought
- Book and chapter pickers: list, grid or drill-down?
- How do readers move to the next chapter?
- One field for browsing, references and AI discovery
- Orient within a liturgical calendar
- Make room for prayer
- Scripture and interpretation stay distinct
- Footnotes without losing place
- Peek, compare and return
- Editorial distinctions survive reflow
- Compare without flattening
- Preview before deep study
- Word study names its basis
- The annotation anchor is explicit
- Overlaps remain legible
- Interlinear rows expose their alignment
- Group editions around a shared verse
- Choose a devotional format
- Speech and ambience have separate controls
- Narration style has provenance
- Translations
- The reader controls the scroll