Equipping workers in God’s field.

Why it exists

People now bring their prayers, doubts, confessions and questions about God to a screen first. When some told Jesus to silence the crowds praising him, he answered, “Listen—if they were silent, the very rocks would start to shout!” (Luke 19:40, The Voice). Making him known is entrusted to us first. But many people now talk to rocks first: a microchip is a rock we tricked into thinking, and with AI the rock talks back. We get to help these rocks reflect Christ and lead people into deeper knowledge of God. Those who build these products plant and water; God gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). That is an exhilarating calling and a real weight. Workers in God’s field sets out the joy of the work and its spiritual, theological, ethical and legal responsibility.

Who it is for

Product designers, product managers, developers and founders who build Bible, prayer, devotional, study and AI products, and the ministry, business and church leaders who guide them. Much of it also applies to other products that hold sources, reflection or sensitive conversations.

How a deep dive works

Each deep dive takes one design decision and lays its real options side by side, from what apps do today to leaving the feature out. At a glance shows a still of every option with one gain and one cost. Try it is a working example on a phone-sized screen, with its settings in one panel. Takeaways, Use cases and Research give what we noticed, which option suits which situation, and the Scripture, tradition, science and accessibility guidance behind it. Which fits, real Examples, a Theological reflection and Three ways to build lead to Decide: one question and an exercise for your next review. Earlier, shorter patterns now sit under Go further in the deep dive they belong to.

Where each option comes from

Every option is labelled, so an idea we invented never passes as something people already use:

• Observed: seen in a named app, with a dated screenshot where we have one.
• Familiar convention: a widely used convention, generalised rather than copied.
• Borrowed: taken from outside faith apps, such as reading or productivity tools.
• Exploratory · untested: our own proposal, not yet tested.
• Leave it out: not building the feature, treated as a real option.

Use-case tables are editorial judgments drawn from the research, not test results. Nothing here is user-tested yet, and no example or pattern promises clinical benefit or spiritual growth.

How sources are used

Every source states what was reviewed, what it contributes, how it is applied and where its limits lie, and the research sections cite them by name. Technical specifications establish meaning; help articles document how a product behaves; empirical studies report findings for the people and systems they studied; legal texts set requirements within their scope. These are not interchangeable. Quotations and figures on newer pages are checked by script against a saved copy of each source, with translations noted, and the build fails if a quotation or a number cannot be found there; older pages are being brought up to the same standard. App screenshots are dated and keep their original language; working examples, stills and diagrams are our own. The AI design collection curated by Vitaly Friedman, the AI Interaction Atlas and other catalogues are credited in the source register.

Scripture quotations

Articles, reflections, research notes, working examples and diagrams quote the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), a modern English translation dedicated to the public domain in 2023. Every build compares each quotation on the site and in the working examples with the BSB’s published text and fails on any difference; the few deliberate exceptions below are listed in the check with their reasons. Luke 19:40 is quoted once from The Voice for its word “rocks”: Scripture taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Some working examples show other wording on purpose, and say so: the translation comparison sets the KJV, the World English Bible and Young’s Literal Translation beside the BSB; the marking example uses the KJV, where a highlight on BSB words has no exact match; the prayer example reads Compline as printed in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which quotes the RSV; and in the progress example a reader’s own note quotes the KJV. Historical commentaries, such as Matthew Henry’s on Psalm 23, quote the KJV they were written on. Each example says which translation it shows.

Accessibility and themes

Pages and working examples are checked with axe against WCAG 2.2 AA, in both light and dark themes, and by keyboard. The site follows your system’s light or dark setting, and the switch in the header remembers your choice; working examples, stills and diagrams follow it too. Screenshots of real apps stay as they were captured. If something does not work for you, please say so.

Licence and reuse

The original text, stills, diagrams, worksheet and structured data of Bible & Faith Patterns are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt them for any purpose, including commercial work, as long as you credit “Bible & Faith Patterns, Tobias Treppmann, Missional by Design (patterns.missional.design)” and indicate if you changed anything. The code of the working examples is available under the MIT licence.

Documentary photographs are credited to Startup Life and used with permission. They are not included in the CC BY 4.0 licence.

Some material here is not ours to license. Screenshots of real apps belong to their publishers and are shown for commentary. Quotations from books, articles and studies remain their authors’; follow each source’s licence. Berean Standard Bible quotations are public domain. Luke 19:40 from The Voice™ is © 2008 Ecclesia Bible Society, used by permission, and is not covered by this licence.

All content is also available as structured data, for your own tools: the content API.

Publication and maintenance

This is an evolving, independent design reference. Sources, app examples, scenarios and patterns are added and revised as evidence becomes available. Review dates remain visible; legal and support references need fresh verification before product decisions. The Digital Spiritual Formation section integrates selected Kairos manuscript sections and reviewed external findings, with further study review in progress.