Tome

The last 15 months have been extremely difficult for so many people. Covid forced us all out of our daily routines that we lived in for so long. We were used to going to the grocery store, having coffee with friends at the local Starbucks and attending Church on Sunday morning.

In an instant - those things were no longer possible as we all quarantined in our homes.

Church went from a social gathering to something we passively consumed sitting on our couches.

This did not sit right with my Cofounder, Troy Pollock, and I as we had a front row seat to many people’s faith being shipwrecked. We began exploring this idea of how we could leverage twenty-first century technology to meet these people where they're at with biblical content that was relevant and personal to their situation.

What is the new normal?

So many people, thrown out of sync now, became like an unanchored boat in the ocean, in the middle of a tremendous thunderstorm, being thrown around by the wind and the waves - unable to find any peace and stability in the midst of global chaos. Some people shipwrecked their faith during this season. Some will never return to church gatherings.

In the midst of this chaos there is opportunity to reset to a new, better normal.

When I started talking to people to understand why this was happening, one common theme emerged. A lack of understanding of the bible.

People said they tried to read it, but they didn’t know what it meant. There was so much context needed to understand how to interpret it that they gave up.

Specifically people said they didn’t know what the bible meant to them personally.

One person summed it up by saying that they would learn more from spending 5 minutes with a pastor discussing the bible than they could in an hour of reading their bible for themselves.

I parked all these thoughts trying to process them. I know from my past that the answer to all that is - just force yourself to do it. You need to push through - perhaps even the idea that reading your bible is like eating vegetables. You might not like it, but it’s good for you.

That idea of the nagging parent in the back of your mind telling you to just do it because “it’s good for you”. Just didn’t sit right with me.

One day I was reading a morning devotional with my kids and I read a story in Acts chapter 8.

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

These words leapt off the page:

Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

(Do you think it was a coincidence that I had this revelation while reading a devotion?)

We all need a guide to help us understand the bible, to help us personalize what does it mean to me?

With the technology that exists today we can create that. We have incredibly powerful devices in our pockets that can be used for incredible good.

So why the name tome?

What is Tome? A tome is a big heavy book - perhaps a scholarly book. Not unlike the bible.

But the name tome has a secondary, perhaps more important meaning. If you break the four letters in half you see to-me emerge. The bible was written just for each of us. It’s message is meant to be uplifting, encouraging, challenging, personal, relevant and unchanging.

It’s message can change every area of your life from your marriage, your fitness, your finances. Ultimately all good things come from a relationship with God - who has chosen to reveal himself through the Bible.

What we need today, in a world with more uncertainty than ever, is an anchor. An anchor to something concrete and unchanging. Something that will sustain us through the tough times because it’s based on something and someone bigger than us.

So I’m partnering with one of my best friends, Troy Pollock, to help bring this vision to life. Troy is a world class leader who shares this conviction. This is something we’re willing to put our lives into. Whatever the cost - we have to stand up and take on this challenge. It might not work out. People may not want to use the Tome app. But we have to try. Because what if it does work? What if people are looking to understand the Bible in a deeper way but no one has made it personal and engaging for them?

I hope you’ll come on the journey with us.

Please download the Tome app if you have an Apple device and subscribe to receive all our fresh content. Please share it with your friends.

And please share your feedback with us. We’d love to hear from you at care@tomeapp.com