What is GotQuestions.org all about? Celebrating 22 years and 200 episodes! - Podcast Episode 200

Hi, welcome to the God questions podcast. My name is Jeff I am the managing editor at Bible ref comm and today's episode is a special one because it is our 200th podcast

I have two special guests with me today they are

Shea Hoodman and Melissa Hoodman and they are the co -founders of God questions and Presumably you've seen them before another podcast but today we're gonna take an opportunity to hear from them about some of what the history of This ministry has been like now for those who for some reason might be coming to this for the first time

The got questions ministry family has been around since 2002 so this year we're celebrating 22 years and We've managed to put together a tremendous number of resources and at this point in 2023.

We're talking 361 million page views 7 million app sessions 4 million gospel presentations 500 ,000

YouTube subscribers and so on and so forth It's gone from something that had to start somewhere into a really major phenomenon, so Shea Melissa, thanks for being here today

Good to be here. Thank you, Jeff so the first question I had for you guys was the just a little bit of the sense of Pre got questions.

So what was what was life like? What was everybody doing before got questions ministries was a thing

So it was probably late 2001 that I had graduated from Bible College and seminary and I was serving in our local church

Most and I were both serving at Stonecroft ministries in Kansas City Melissa was the writer and for their

Bible study program and I was a supervisor of the shipping department So not exactly using my biblical and theological training much.

And so we were really just praying or what would be a Ministry, there'd be a perfect fit.

What was something that we could use the the training? You've given us the the passion you've given us our love of technology.

I love to write So it was really like the ministries were serving in which we loved and still do

We're driving us to something more Or The ways that we were serving in there was like, you know

It'd be even better if we could serve God in a more direct form, especially for me

So we late 2001 we began experimenting with Putting a simple

Bible question answer page on the internet and at the very very beginning was actually called theology 101 and there was an old site called

Geo cities where You build a website next to other people's websites kind of picture like a city block

I don't remember who we were next to but the very first iteration of got questions was there and it was in February of 2002 that we purchased the got questions dot org domain name and launched the site shortly thereafter

So we kind of view I think it's February 15th is actually the official Anniversary of got questions ministries because that's when we bought the domain name and launched that site that's when it it really started to take off and we begin to see is like wow, this is

Amazing to see but God's doing Melissa anything different in your Recollection of the events that's so long ago.

But do you remember how we pick the name? I do We were sitting on a couch watching

TV And if for those of you who are really old like us, you'll remember that there was these got milk commercials

Jeff Do you remember those? Oh, I do. Yeah, and I'm like, hey Shay, what do you think about got questions?

He's like, I like it and we spent like fourteen dollars or something like that and bought a domain that day and and so that's how got questions was birthed and you know it's funny because I I think a lot of people think that we like started got questions on purpose and God started

I've got questions on purpose. We didn't we started got questions as a hobby Something to do for fun in the evenings after we got off, you know our real ministry jobs

So, yeah, it's it's a story of God taking something that was really small an idea that two kids had to tea well early 20s and Building it into something really big and it's it's been a fun ride that's part of what

I think makes this interesting is you started this as Sort of a hobby sort of a side thing

But how how quickly how busy did that did that get did you just start with articles or answering questions?

What was how did the first, you know, little baby growth happen? originally got questions org was a one -page website and the home page had a

Ask us your any Bible question you have and there was a form there where someone could ask a question

What literally one page I guess there was a landing page if someone actually asked a question so two pages total on the website and first few months very little traffic was coming in but then eventually the

Search engines that existed notice. I said plural back then there were way more than just Google Started to recognize got questions and people more people started visiting the site

So then we started getting 10 questions a day and then 20 questions a day than 30 questions a day. So it's like Wow, so that opened up two new avenues in the ministry one

We started realizing that we need help as I remember Melissa and I we'd we'd work all day long come home

We had bought a laptop computer and a desktop. So I'd be on the desktop She's gonna laugh at the two of us were trying to answer all these questions ourselves

So he started building up a volunteer team of people. We knew from Bible College and different pastors and friends

We knew hey, here's what we're doing. Would you like to help then also? Building up starting to add some

FAQs to the website so that we started seeing the same questions

They're coming in again and again again, you know It probably should be better for people if they could find the answers

Instantly on the website rather than having to wait for us to be able to respond in a few days so that was kind of the volume that increased traffic really drove us to make some changes that would

Eventually drive the mystery even more and more growth And actually I think two of our very first volunteers still serve

The ministry all these years later Kevin who's on the podcast, right? He's he was one of our very first volunteers and also my dad

Stepped in and helped us at the beginning and he's still serving as well. So that's pretty fun to think about.

Yes Well, I you can tell that there was a lot of rapid growth in that sense Because if you were starting this in 2002,

I first became acquainted with the ministry in early 2004 Which is when

I started as a volunteer is like in April of 2004 So already by that point within two years and a few months it was

Significant enough that it had articles available and you were looking for more volunteers for the

Q &A team So it seems like it took off pretty quickly when? You were in that phase.

Maybe I'll ask Melissa from your perspective. What what was hard? What was easy? What seemed like it was impossible in those first couple of years of working with God questions

Well, I think the first thing that happened That was challenging for us was just the sheer amount of questions

We were getting and Shay kind of briefly talked about that. But also is that we didn't have any money So I remember the first time we needed to like buy a computer or buy something

We're like, oh, I wonder if we could like could this be self -sustaining, you know, is this something that?

We could do as like a job and that was like so overwhelming to think about that God could use the internet one to reach people for Jesus that was totally unheard of back then right and then to that we could use this as like a real ministry job

And that God could use that in both of those ways to help people to serve him but also to reach people with the gospel

Another thing way back then we used to have a chat and we would sit down we would have chat hours

And so it was like, you know 9 to 12 central time on Tuesday nights. We would chat with people well that got to be really hard because all these teenage girls would come and complain about their boyfriends and So This like call -in radio show almost it was horrible.

It was so hard So that's what I remember about that time that we just tried things to see if they would work and then we were like, okay

I can't do that. I am NOT cut out for that. And so we would you know, change the strategy a little bit

I don't I don't mind the sound of that. Maybe we could cook up something like like a dear Shea No sort of a thing

No Okay, all right no more suggestions like that at some point in time there was a recognition that this was not only gonna take enough time

But that it could be self -sustaining and there was a move to actually doing this as a ministry

How did that when was this what flipped the switch on that someone tried to give money? I think is what happened, right?

Hey, yeah, so I Could probably find the email because I know I saved it somewhere this individual who

I had submitted dozens upon dozens of questions wrote in and said so I've had these questions for many many many years and You are the only one who's ever like given me

Satisfactory answers to these questions. I'd like to make a donation. Are you tax -deductible?

I was like Hold on a second You want to give us money? To do this fun little hobby that we're doing.

So no, it's almost like just and I sat down. It's like, okay. Wait a minute How does this work? I have no clue how to become tax deductible really had no idea at that point so it's when we have to establish a board of directors apply for the 501c3 paperwork with the

IRS and do take all these important steps to get to the point where we were tax deductible and then

He he made a donation. I have no idea how much it was. It seemed generous at the time But um, yeah, that was kind of the first hint and even then

Like kind of as Melissa alluded to our thought was never that we would draw a salary from it

It would be well, at least the ministry could buy its own laptops and those sorts of things

So but for the first couple of years really Melissa and I were funding Got questions are out of our own pockets just to the minimal expenses we had

So yeah, I think the fact that once he donated and then once we put a donation page up online

I think it was only PayPal at that time and more people started donating. We're like Lord, is this is this you saying that this could be much bigger

Than what we originally thought that was kind of like the wake -up call so to speak. Yeah, and and Jeff I also saw what kind of joy it gave to Shay to have a job that like Fulfilled him so well and all of his skills and abilities, you know

And it's it's really hard to make money as a writer and even to like pay your bills and pay your rent You know, so just see if you have something that he just brought him so much joy

I was like we have to figure out a way. Is this really God saying? Hey, this is what I want you to do. So There came a point in time where you decided that that was going to be at least for Shay That was going to be your actual right job

So it went from being a hobby to a part -time secondary thing to a full -time Was that a quick transition or was that sort of a grad was that catch you by surprise like wow

I definitely need to devote all of my time to this. It's one of those things where God grew it slowly, but surely over the amount of time from the time we launched

It was really almost two and a half years later that the ministry had enough funding to Start paying me a very modest salary

To make a long story short We were still living in Kansas City, Missouri at the time when we launched got questions

And I was from Colorado really wanted to find a way to move back I'm God eventually opened the door and another ministry here in Colorado Springs offered

Melissa a position and The CEO of that ministry was a big fan of got questions and so offered to both give me

Free office space in their suite so and then a little extra funding for got questions so I could start doing it full -time is when we

Actually stepped out in faith and the got questions board approved me a salary

We had enough money in the bank to pay two months of my salary

And that was not a huge salary. Trust me on that one, but and in that history

You're 20 years later since we actually started paying an employee I've got questions has never had trouble paying any one salary

So God has just been so faithful to confirm as we've grown slowly But surely over the years strive to be good stewards strive to set reasonable budgets and all of that This is amazing to watch how

God provides because yeah, it's stepping out in faith to leave a job With a the larger ministry with steady income to something.

Oh, there's enough money in the bank to pay you for two months Let's see how it goes. That's yeah, and say a lot of people thought we were crazy

No, no one really understood the Internet right that this could be an actual Something that was gonna be sustainable for a long time.

Is this just a fad, right? So, yeah, I think a lot of people thought we were crazy, but God told us to do it.

So we did it I can understand that I had a Google blog for about seven seconds and that was hard enough for me to To mess around with you know, so I can imagine why people might have thought that but I do see that there's this

There's this theme that's happened in what you're saying so far and what we've seen in the history where there's this steady constant

Growth you guys just keep plugging at it. Keep working at it and things just Continue to go now at some point in time you get from one website which is got questions org and now got questions has

Compelling truth and seek find and GQ kids and for 12 teens and Bible ref and a podcast and YouTube What was the the the process that you started to get to you know, what what made you feel like yes

We can or we should start to expand what we're doing so the very first Website in addition to got questions .org

that we launched was actually seek find org which we found we'd go to Google or another search engine and search for a

Certain Christian topic to help us to write an article and we'd find Good sites mixed with bad sites.

It's like why don't we just create a little internal Christian search engine that only indexes

Trustworthy Christian sites and then we played around that eventually got something that worked pretty well

And then we say, you know, this might actually be a good tool for People at large and so then we made it actually public so people could start doing it

Then the second site after that that we launched was actually a site our site for kids GQ kids .org

where tried to take the Answers that we have on got questions or but communicate them in a more kid friendly

Format, so those were the two First sites we launched after got questions as you said shortly had thereafter.

We launched a site for teens for 12 teens org compelling truth org which is a site with a little more of an apologetics and worldview focused in the others and Eventually, we had a blog site for a while that eventually we kind of realized

I don't know that the vision for this Site actually fits our strategy. So it's actually still in existence that at blog us org, but it's we're not actively

Building up that site anymore, but then later we launched them Bible ref comm with Jeff Which you are obviously thoroughly familiar with which is a verse by verse a

Bible commentary Where anytime someone goes to Google and searches for what does John 3 16 mean?

What does Philippians 4 13 mean? We want to have an article on every single verse in the Bible that it explains that verse but then also explains it in its

Surrounding context as well. And then it's just grown over the years to you know

Okay, if people are finding us through Google through searching How are people finding us on YouTube so launch a

YouTube channel where we create video based versions of our articles are obviously In our history is when the iPhone came out and suddenly apps became usually popular.

So we launched apps for iPhone and Android so It's not like an official slogan or anything, but it's kind of like wherever people are searching

For truth for biblically based answers to spiritually questions. We want to be there with content so that is what drives multiple websites multiple avenues of getting our content out there and just We want to be use of God we want to be there where people are searching because Just like every other mission field the

Internet is a spiritual battlefield. We're dealing with Cults we're dealing with Christian ministries or churches that don't teach the truth of God's Word or at least don't teach it very well

So we just want to be there with the truth presented in love this answer questions

Biblically, that's always been our focus and passion. So wherever the internet goes We will strive to be there with solid biblically based answers

Yeah, and say I think if you look back at our history, I think it's a God asking the people in the staff.

I got questions to do the next thing You know what? How can you be faithful in the next step? What's the next step?

What's the next step? It's not like oh, we knew we were starting this huge ministry. No, it was be faithful in whatever's next and I think that kind of Explains a little bit about that history, you know, it wasn't like hey start 250 languages tomorrow

No, how about you start Spanish? You know, it's just it's just his a story of God asking us to do the next thing faithfully what

I see when I'm Talking to people sometimes about the ministry is a lot of people see what they see they interact with it

But it's it's one of those situations where people typically they only grasp what they interact with So, you know people think of the website they think of the answers and stuff, but sometimes they don't realize everything that's

Behind this so to make sure that people understand who are watching and listening This thing that Shay Melissa started is is not still currently being operated by two people

This has grown and required resources to the point that there is a Staff of people to do different things in the background.

There's an small army of volunteers Working with the Q &A. So one of the things I can say from my perspective of seeing that is that you've not only

Developed something that's provided answers places for people to seek truth, but they are ministry opportunities for other people who are looking for that That's something

I don't know the people always understand that it's it's not just type something in press end There's there's web development and their servers and there's translations and all these things that going behind that and Obviously that stuff does not pay for itself

As there ever been a time where there was a real concern that Something wasn't going to work or that got questions was just not going to have the funding

Each time we hire a new employee Especially in the early years was

I were for a few years. It was just me I mean, what's the the board approved bringing me a lot of volunteers, right?

Me, you know, that's not the only employee and a ton of volunteers The first time we hired someone else was okay not only is like my livelihood depend on this ministry now,

I'm asking someone else to step out in faith and Doing that is another stepping out in faith in and of itself and so hiring our

Third employee our fourth employee our fifth employee now, we're up to 12 employees

Praise God. I'm so grateful for the got questions team, but even beyond that I'm a dozen or two contractors who serve the

Lord in different ways whether it's video production or Translations or writing or editing or programming or development or so many different things going on There's an arm like you said a small army of about 200 volunteers who answer questions who write articles and so forth there are hundreds of people who are involved in got questions ministries on a regular basis let alone not even talking about the

Approximately 16 million people who visit just got questions that are our main website every month.

It's it's tremendous It's the verse in I believe it's first Peter where God is doing immeasurably more than anything

We can ask or imagine and that's truly truly the case with got questions ministries. I Have seen a lot of people ask questions about that aspect sometimes of the ministry especially when that conversation comes up and something that I think is unique and You guys can correct me maybe if the phrasing of this isn't accurate, but the the way that got questions was funded originally is effectively exactly the same way that it's

Funded today. This is not a ministry that does sales. This is not a ministry that does a huge amount of Advertising revenue.

It's pretty much all people who have come to the material and said this has really helped me And I want to be able to keep going with that.

Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, I think you're exactly right Jeff the majority of our funding comes from people who have been helped from the website

You know people often say, you know I had this list of 150 questions and I took them one at a time and went straight down the list and you guys were faithful to answer every single one and Here's $50 or here's $30 a month or or a church that would say hey

I really really appreciate what got questions does for not only for our congregation but for in as an outreach as a mission

Biggest mission build in the world right is the Internet And so we want to support that and we're very grateful for all the donors.

We couldn't do it without you. So, thank you Approximately at this point. It's about 90 % of our income comes from donations there a few

Foundations that support got questions a few church and ministries, but of the 90 %

I'd say 90 % of that Individual donors who Jeff exactly as you and most have said just have been blessed spiritually benefited by the ministry and want to give a donation as a thank you and Truly, yeah, you're right.

We don't charge for anything There's absolutely nothing on the website that cost any money and a lot of people really appreciate that because you know

Everything we do to some extent cost money But we don't charge anything and it's my absolute goal and passion to never charge for anything

Just to give everything away give the content away make it available To as many people as possible and just trust that God will provide and he's been so so faithful to do that in our history so far

One of the joys sometimes of serving in ministry is there's hard times There's difficult things that you have to do.

There's moments you have to get through But one of the things you also do get in return for doing that is you get that sense that you're doing what

God Wants you to do and there's a blessing behind that. What what do you you start with Melissa? What do you find most enjoyable right now about the work you're doing with got questions?

What is the thing that most sort of fills up your spiritual cup? Yeah, so right now my main responsibility.

I have two responsibilities One is I manage the kids site GQ kids org and for that responsibility when a child comes on and asks the question often with the help of their parents,

I'm assuming but And then gets the gospel for the very very first time man that makes everything

Every single thing work it worth it. That is just such a blessing to be able to lead anyone but in my case mostly children

To the gospel and say here's what Jesus did for you You know, do you believe this and that's just a blessing and then to hear them say wow,

I get it, right? I love that. Yeah, and then I also do social media forgot questions and that's a little harder but there's a lot of people on social media who share our content share our verses that we present each day and Are truly thankful that we're giving them a tool that they can reach their friends with the gospel because that's why we're here

Right. We're here to help people Understand God's love for them and what he did for them on the cross

So if we have a tool that can help someone do that with their friends and family,

I'm that just brings me joy She how about you?

What's the thing that and And this is a sort of an interesting question from Chase perspective because he is the man with all the hats

He's the dude in the middle of the web holding a little thread with everything attached to it so you have quite a few things to pick from but What's the thing right now that you feel like is the most fulfilling part of what you're doing with the ministry?

boy just let me answer the other side of that as the ministry's grown the

Administrative aspect of it is grown as well. And I I just being full house. I don't particularly enjoy

That part of it. I know it's necessary. I know it's necessary for the leader of the organization to handle that sort of stuff, so I'm happy to do it, but Just recently

I've been refocusing myself on actually like writing articles again I've been writing articles all along but the last few years it's been significantly less than it was in the past and Just being able to oh, this is a cool question.

I think there should be an article on the site I'm gonna write an article on that and as a CEO I can have the prerogative

I I can choose which ones I want to write which ones I want to make other people right make Jeff write the ones you

Don't want to write That's something about camels Jeff. Isn't that right? Yeah, so Just the truly the exact the one thing

I enjoy the most About serving a guy questions the same thing. I enjoyed the most me first launches.

It's getting to answer people's Bible questions I'm truly someone has a question. That's a great question

I want to answer that and then be answer it for someone personally But then also then answer it and publish it on the website and know that you'll eventually be read by Thousands of people that's just so rewarding and encouraging and then hearing backs and wow

I never imagined that got questions would already have this Article this question answered.

So thank you for that hearing the the testimonies of people who've been impacted So yeah, it's it's always for me

But the same thing is I want to help people find answers to their questions about the Bible So anytime

I get to do that, that's that's what keeps me going keeps me charged keeps me excited about but the ministry and then

Watching the Lord take our feeble efforts than using it in Explosive ways.

It's it's amazing. I Appreciate that you guys are taking the time to talk about this the the the last two questions

I have for you guys are relatively brief or I'm gonna try to keep them brief and one of them would be Can you give me a short?

Description of something about working in a ministry like this that most people just would not realize

You know a sentence or a statement that you could say people don't get that or people don't realize This what's something that to you you find that when you talk to people about doing an internet ministry

Especially one that's as wide and far -reaching is this that people do not expect they don't understand until somebody tells them

Yeah, I'll start. Hey, I'll give you I'll give you a time to think Since I work for the kids website

GQ kids org People are often surprised to hear that the questions we get from kids are harder than the questions we get from adults kids think very tangibly very

Concretely and so often it's it's very hard to answer their questions And so that I think that would be the first thing that came to my mind is that you know

It's so important to answer kids questions so important But it's also kind of hard to so It's a joy to do that, but it's sometimes very challenging

For me a good sentence would be no matter how Big a ministry gets

Actually hearing from people is tremendously encouraging and needed

If people who've like I've been using your website for 20 years And I never even thought of it's like sending you a thank you.

It's like well Yes, we've been thanked. I don't know in our history probably a million times

But that doesn't mean we don't want to keep hearing it It's very encouraging.

It's very encouraging to hear from people there there are people behind these websites and who are receiving the emails and we do receive some

Discouraging discouraging ones on occasion. So having that balanced out with people who've actually have their lives impacted in positive ways is

Tremendously encouraging. We see the reports. I can see a report says 16 million visit people visited the website last month, but to even hear from a handful of people

In specific ways that we got questions as impacted them is tremendously encouraging to us

Powers us up to We're at it for another day. Yeah, awesome. Awesome Well, I know another way that people can support is with prayer

So what would be the top prayer request or two that you guys would say people could be praying for for got questions right now

I would request prayer for our got questions staff and for our volunteers that they would not grow weary in doing good that we would stay encouraged and uplifted and Mentally strong spiritually strong so that we can continue the good work that we're doing

Amen, absolutely Melissa and dad that I'd say it's prayers for Wisdom and discernment just to know

God's direction. There's so many things we could be doing We want to go where God is moving we want to follow his lead in regards to what

Specific avenues of ministry that got questions pursues we just Want his leading and that's a

Lot of great ideas are presented to us a lot of great ideas come from our staff We don't pursue all of them because we really want to stay focused on What ideas are most in harmony with the mission vision purpose and values of the ministry that God has convinced us of so?

That discernment we truly covet those prayers in addition to the prayers for protection and encouragement that Melissa mentioned

Excellent. Hopefully people who are listening you're gonna pick up on those Yeah, and just that God would continue to use the site to reach people for Jesus, you know, it's it's blown

I remember the first time Shay was in the office in our one -bedroom apartment in Kansas City, and he's like Melissa Do you think someone can get saved on the

Internet? And I was like, I don't know. I I think so and just to think that over the last 22 years

God has led so many people to Salvation Through a little idea that she and I had so long ago

Explodes my mind and I pray I pray daily like God would continue to use it that the kingdom of heaven would be enlarged

From the efforts of our team and from the Holy Spirit working and they'll been their lives So yeah, that would be another prayer

I would add That's excellent. Well speaking as somebody who's gotten to interact with the ministry on Almost every conceivable level.

I can say that there's a lot of appreciation for what you guys have started in the way You've continued to lead it with the integrity that you have.

I Appreciate it. I know the other staff volunteers appreciate it volunteers and the people who use the site

Appreciate it as well. So today this has been the got questions podcast our 200th podcast episode today we've been talking with Shay and Melissa Hoodman the co -founders of got questions ministries and Talking a little bit about this journey that's been going on for 22 years now

Watching this grow from something in a little back room of an apartment to something that's impacting the world

Millions and millions of times over so we appreciate prayers and hope that this has been helpful Maybe enlightening give you a little bit of a different perspective on what exactly it means to have a ministry like this