Detroit, USA - When Rasheed Baydoun wants to look up a Surah, a chapter in the Quran, he simply taps on his BlackBerry to call up it up.
It's a new part of practicing his faith.
Baydoun, a 25-year-old Dearborn Heights real estate agent and student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, says he is using apps more because they are easier to use.
A Muslim, Baydoun uses religion apps for his personal prayers and to teach Saturday and Sunday schools to youngsters at the Islamic Center of Detroit on Ford Road.
"It's convenient," says Baydoun, also a community activist. "You're not lugging around a big book."
Technology is quickly changing the way churches, mosques and other houses of worship communicate with their flock.
Apps, an abbreviation for application software, are quickly becoming a substitute for Bibles, Qurans and other holy books.
They are computer programs designed to help users perform activities faster. Apps are popularly used on iPads, iPods and smart phones. Many apps are free.
Journalist Mike Wendland, also an innovations pastor and spokesman for the mega-church Woodside Bible in Troy, says his congregation is noticing the increasing use of apps during services and for worship outside church services.
"You'll see people on any given day (at church) with an iPod or an iPad," said Wendland, who does a weekly broadcast report on technology for 200 NBC stations around the country. "It's amazing how technology has impacted every part of our lives."
Wendland says using religion apps allows you to practically "carry a Bible in your pocket."
Barb Diefenbaker, a longtime member of Woodside, is among those who find the use of technology in worship a marriage made in heaven.
"It's technology meets church big time. It's amazing," said Diefenbaker, a fourth-grade teacher and Troy resident. "It allows me to do a lot without having (a lot of books) with me."
Bishop Charles Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple on Detroit's northwest side, says using technology as a part of worship is "a sign of the times."
Ellis received an iPad for Christmas and plans to start incorporating it in the preparation of sermons and other services.
"The technological age we're experiencing has been beneficial for both the church and the congregation," Ellis said.
Some members at Greater Grace, an apostolic church, are already acclimated to using religion apps to call up Scriptures during church services, as Ellis found out during a Sunday service a couple of months ago.
"I looked over at a musician, and he looked like he was texting, and I asked him after church who he was texting during church," Ellis said. "He told me he was reading the Bible on his phone. I said, 'For real? Show me.' I was ready to tell him off about using the phone during church."
At Life Changers church in Lansing, traditional Bibles are slowly being replaced by Bible apps, said Pam Perry, a local and national Christian marketing expert who is a member of the church.
"Our church is tech-savvy," said Perry, a Farmington Hills resident and owner of Ministry Marketing Solutions, who instructs churches on the use of social media and technology. "No one carries a Bible. They have the Bible in their phones."
But for some, apps cannot replace the traditional rites of religion, such as confession.
A South Bend, Ind., company announced earlier this month it was selling a confessional apps for Catholics for $1.99.
Company officials say the apps are not to take the place of confession but rather help people prepare for the sacrament of penance.
Officials at the Detroit Archdiocese say it's "clever marketing" but a bit misleading.
"In the Catholic faith tradition, the sacrament of penance (reconciliation) is personal; it's about a one-on-one relationship between the penitent and the priest-confessor, who forgives the sins and extends the love and mercy of God to the person confessing them," said Ned McGrath, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
"It has to be done in person, not electronically. Not unlike a prayer book, the application, which I have not seen, appears to be a tool to promote an examination of conscience prior to going to confession, not a substitute for the sacrament itself."