Is Bible Project's Funding Biblical?

Selling Jesus iconSelling Jesus

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Although we disagree with Bible Project on some key theological issues and their stance on intellectual property, we are encouraged by the example they have set in freely giving ministry through the biblical support model. God has blessed their decision not to sell biblical teaching, but rather fund it through the free generosity of God's people. They serve as a model in this respect for others who doubt that God can fund large (or small) ministries solely through donations. We would encourage the Bible Project to delve more deeply into the vast array of biblical teaching on the issue of money and ministry, and apply biblical principles not only to their model of giving resources, but also to their perspective on intellectual property and copyright. Learn more about a biblical approach to copyright with the following three links: Articles: https://sellingjesus.org/learn under the section "Copyright and Licensing" Recommended reading: https://sellingjesus.org/learn/resources#category-2 How Copyright Hurts the World video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKqUckG4bmA @bibleproject LEARN MORE https://sellingjesus.org https://thedoreanprinciple.org https://copy.church PODCAST ALSO AVAILABLE ON... Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/2dDRm550aeja4a8vdtHEck Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/selling-jesus/id1694183357 RSS - https://anchor.fm/s/e3894160/podcast/rss

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00:02
So the Bible Project just released an anniversary podcast celebrating 10 years of ministry.
00:09
And so I thought we'd take a listen and comment on a few things. Really interesting stuff.
00:14
Here we go. Steve, you came in this morning talking about a growing patron community and reflecting on how amazing that is that we have such a big community of people supporting what we're doing here.
00:25
Yeah, I think, you know, John, it's amazing to me on a number of levels, but part of that goes back to when you were first sharing about your idea of Bible Project and this concept of crowdfunding.
00:39
And back in, I think it was 2013, when you first showed me some of the stuff you're working on Bible Project explained crowdfunding.
00:48
And I'm like, inside, I was thinking, man, I don't think this will work. But you had a conviction that if we focus just on our content and trying to make really good content, that if it is as good as we were hoping it would be, and it had impact on people, they would want to be a part of it.
01:06
And so when I talk about this growing patron community, we don't have a team of people out raising money.
01:12
What people see is the invitation at the end of our videos or hear it at the end of the podcast to just join
01:19
Bible Project and be a part of this. So a couple of things right off the bat. That guy's initial reaction is so typical of what people do when we share our message here at Selling Jesus.
01:32
This idea of giving freely isn't going to work. And this was, you know, something that eventually grew to the scale, you know, they're operating on a budget like $20 million a year, which most people would say, that's impossible.
01:47
If you give everything away for free, if you're doing ministry out of the Pacific Northwest, which is so extremely expensive, high standard of living, you know, cost of living there, then, you know, depending on God to provide, to supply all of your needs as a ministry, it's just kind of a fantasy, right?
02:09
That's not going to really work. What you need to do is do what everyone else does. You need to do a paywall. You need to charge for things.
02:15
You know, even if it's kind of like a hybrid or a freemium approach, you got to do something like the world does it or it's not going to work.
02:23
And that kind of practical mindset is really what prevails. It's the spirit of our age. And so I find it refreshing that this guy is honest enough to just say, you know,
02:33
John, you were kind of crazy. This wasn't going to work. And in 24, we had just under 50 ,000 patrons that are a part of this.
02:43
And this next year, it looks like it'll be over. That's amazing.
02:49
Can you say more about that? Like we don't actively, what, we don't actively go to recruit people to become patrons.
02:57
No, it's simply an invitation. If you listen to the podcast, we always say in the podcast, there's, you know, thousands of people.
03:04
Just like you. Yeah. That's the invitation. Yeah. That's the invitation. And we don't mail out envelopes at the end of the year and say, please consider giving.
03:14
We just have had this conviction from the very beginning that God is going to provide everything we need to do what he is calling us to do.
03:22
And there's something just powerful about that. You know, that's such a simple thing to say, but it is a step of faith so few are willing to take.
03:32
There's something just powerful about this amazing feedback loop that we get where we're not out looking for transactions.
03:42
We're not looking for financial resources. Our hope is that this content we're creating is allowing or providing opportunities for transformation to happen.
03:55
And I think that's what's responsible. What I hear over and over again from people in the patron community, it's like, this is making a difference in my life and I want to be a part of this.
04:02
And so, yeah, traditional fundraising, you have a group of people that are out asking people to give and we simply are committed to this idea.
04:12
Making phone calls, doing events, the whole shebang. That's right. Dial and smile.
04:19
Really? Well, you know, it can just begin to feel very salesy. Yeah. And I think that was not anything that any of us wanted to do.
04:27
There's nothing wrong with that because you can do that in a way that's inviting people into something. Absolutely. But it is pretty rare and wonderful that we don't have to spend that energy.
04:37
We're not burning calories doing that. And I think the key words there are rare and wonderful.
04:44
When you're able to be free just to focus on doing what God has called you to do and you're not saying, okay,
04:51
I'm going to allocate 20 % of my time to begging people for money. This is so not complicated.
04:59
And people want to make it so complicated when we suggest that ministry should never be sold but it should be supported.
05:09
And so, it's fun to highlight a really positive project like the Bible Project because even though they have, you know, we have some theological differences with them, we don't agree with their stance on intellectual property and we can get into that in another video.
05:25
But I want to keep this mostly positive to the things that they're doing so well. Let's keep listening.
05:32
I think part of it is this sentiment we've had from the beginning. We'll go at the pace of our audience and we believe that God will give us what we need and then we can just have this focus on like, let's just stay focused and just do the thing.
05:50
And what a gift. Yeah. I think it's just that idea of it being a project. That we weren't trying to build an organization that would be around forever.
05:59
We were going to do this as long as it was impacting people's lives that it was...
06:05
Okay, that might be a new thought for people listening. Unpack that a little bit. Well, I think that's what was very appealing when you and I first met.
06:12
It's like, what's your vision? And you said, I want to make these videos for every book in the Bible, put them on YouTube and give them away for free.
06:20
Yeah. And then you can be done. It sounded like it was the kind of thing that we would all be a part of at different capacities.
06:26
You had your agency, Tim, you were preaching pastor at a church and this
06:33
Bible project was going to be this little side hustle for both of you guys. And my thought was,
06:39
I was advising and then later on the board that it would be something we did for a period of time, high five, and then
06:46
I'll go do our next thing. We're not trying to build an institution. We're not. And as we've been growing, we have to really continue to wrestle with that.
06:55
We need to make sure we don't turn the corner and be like, okay, well I guess we're an institution now. We want to remain a project.
07:02
That's a really important distinction. I think that is refreshing again. They're not trying to just create a vast network of job security for themselves, which is what a lot of ministries fall into and what
07:18
I think leads some of them to end up selling Jesus because they're like, well, we've built up such a big institution.
07:25
We have to make sure it endures forever because we all want job security and we don't know what else we would do with our lives.
07:33
And we can't trust God to always provide for such a big institution that it's grown to be.
07:39
And so now we need to justify the sale of ministry in some way.
07:45
This is a really great mindset. Ministry doesn't have to be an institution, doesn't have to be multi -million dollar structures that you're sustaining.
07:56
It can be simple. God can provide for it. You can go out in faith and just see
08:02
God work and if he's not in it, then he won't provide for it.
08:08
And you can take that as a clear message from him that maybe you need to do something else, another kind of ministry or just some honest work with your hands.
08:19
And we want to continue to just discern what's the next set of things we're meant to do in front of us and then let's accomplish those things and then let's hold everything open handed and say, is there something next?
08:31
And that's a project. Yeah. Projects typically have a beginning and an end. And I think the realization this year is that Bible Project itself won't go away.
08:42
The resources are going to continue to exist. So it's just holding it open handedly and saying, and we talk about this idea of running our business in seven year cycles and every seven years holding our hands wide open saying, are we supposed to do this again for another seven years?
08:59
Now the resources will exist in some form or fashion. Bible Project will exist. It's just, are we going to continue to create new content or is it a matter of just stewarding the content that's been created?
09:11
What's also wonderful about our patron community is that this idea of crowdfunding is not novel to Bible Project, but what usually happens with creators or artists who have a patron community, it's not robust enough to really sustain them.
09:25
So then they have to focus on marketing or getting maybe advertising dollars and running ads, which we don't have to do on our content.
09:33
And then there's this constant just hustle of like making sure more people find your stuff on these social platforms like YouTube or TikTok.
09:43
And so what you end up doing is chasing the algorithm and figuring out what is popular on YouTube and what will
09:51
YouTube promote or what will TikTok promote and all now make that kind of content.
09:56
And so what ends up happening is your patrons come along and go, we believe in you, make the stuff you want to make.
10:03
But then the algorithm's like, actually, no, make the stuff that is going to perform well.
10:08
And so these creators and artists, they get stuck and they're like, I don't know what to do. I want to make the stuff for my patrons, but I have to also chase the algorithm.
10:17
I'll say we are free to not have to chase the algorithm. Like that doesn't have to be our priority.
10:24
Our priority can be what's the thing that we think the patron community will appreciate the most.
10:31
If we dive into this theme or this idea like what YouTube's not going to care, but our patron community will care and we can we can move that down.
10:41
And I think the lens that we run everything through is this idea of being first and foremost focused on our mission, that everything we do is to help people experience the
10:51
Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And our patron community gives us the freedom to be laser focused on that.
10:58
They also give us the ability to be generous with everything that we create and be able to give it away for free.
11:05
That's amazing. So that freedom that he's talking about is real.
11:10
It's tangible and beautiful. With my wife, we've experienced that for five years, giving away
11:17
Hebrew teaching at our channel, Aleph with Beth. And it really is just like you say, it's liberating.
11:25
You can focus on the things that matter. You can focus so much of your energy, not on all of these gimmicks.
11:32
let's do a Black Friday sale. You can just forget all of that. And that's so freeing.