BibleProject - Happy New Year From BibleProject!

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

We shared a lot of firsts together in 2022—from launching our first app, to reading the Torah movement by movement as an international community, to experiencing the Bible through new classes and videos. In our final episode of 2022, Tim, Jon, and BibleProject CEO, Steve, reflect on the year behind us and look forward to the years ahead.View full show notes from this episode →Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience all of our resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTSShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

Hello, Tim. Hey, John. Hi. Hi. It's the last week of the year, and that means if someone else here with us. Yep. Yeah. Yep, yeah. Hi Steve.

Tim, Steve atkinson. John, good to be here. Our fearless leader, CEO of BIPER project, and here we go. It's the end of 2022 and we wanted to just take a step out of our normal kind of talking about Bible stuff and reflect on the year so far. What the journey has been like and celebrate with all of you who listened to the podcast about the really cool stuff that's been happening. Yeah, we did this last year and the year Steve you were with us and that was a lot of fun.

So let's do it again. Thank you, yeah, once a year. Once a year, that's all we need of you. That's, and then just go back. That's right run everything Gotta give the people what they want They've just been begging for you back So let's reflect on the year. It's been a wild year. It's been wonderful year 2022 yep

Trying to process it process it the biggest thing for this year that really marked us was releasing the app. Yes. We released that at the very beginning of this year in 2022. So this time last year, we're hustling to get it on the app store. We've never released an app. We've never done anything like this. We're going for it and we get it up on January 1 so that not only does the app release, but a whole new reading experience that goes with it would release that we've been called a journey through the tour. Yep, a reading journey. Yeah, that was a big project.

So many people on our team worked so hard to release that into the world on January 1st, and it's been really amazing to see all the interaction with it. Yes, Steve's our data guy. Yeah, what's the action on the app? That's scary that you're calling me the data guy. I actually, the data guy at the room, I know the data guy, and where we're currently at is 685,000 downloads, which is exciting and 170,000 monthly active users. And yeah, super encouraged by that.

And again, I know we focused a lot on journeys, but I'm excited about the app because it's a great place to house all of our content. So you can watch all of the videos there, the podcasts are there, and they're set up and grouped. In a way, I think it's a lot easier to find them on some of the other platforms. You know, it makes me think, Steve, for years, early in the project, as you, because you've been a less, like, a cheerleader, for the project for so many years before you came on into leadership. And I remember one of the consistent themes

you would bring up in talking to patrons or sharing it with people is people wishing there was just like a one stop shopping center for all the content in one convenient place. And the website did that in certain ways, but does the app finally satisfy? Absolutely. All the desires of your heart.

I am a satisfied person because it does house everything. And it's right there and it's on our phone. And as some of the data suggests, more and more of our content is being viewed over the phone, over any other device. And so, super excited about that. These kids and their apps. And I know the app isn't everything we want it to be. And we got a long ways to go. But so excited about this first start in the fact that I continue to receive

patron comments from folks that are talking about how much they love the app. And so when people ask, where can I find the podcast, where can I find it, just so encouraging to say, download the app, you can find it all there. Yeah, and so something that is not, we don't celebrate a lot is that all the contents there, it's also when you watch a video or listen to a podcast, we have a feature that kind of gives you the notes as you're watching.

That's right, yeah, listen as you're listening, or watching a video. Yeah, which is cool. And're listening, or watching a video. Yeah. Which is cool. And so that's super valuable for people. So the app was a big splash, big project. The reading journeys that we created and it's kind of interactive reading experience

was through the whole Torah, through the, like one quarter of the Bible. Really? Yeah, the Torah is one quarter of the Bible. Really? Yeah. The Torah is a quarter of the Bible. Not by Page Count. Yeah. Yeah.

The New Testament is about one quarter of the length of the whole Bible, if you had the three parts of the Tenocht. So think of it like the three parts of the Tenocht, Torah, prophets, writings, New Testament. We did a quarter of the Bible. Yeah. So good about myself. Yes. So. And you should, John.

And we divided all the five scrolls into three parts each. Yeah. Or in Genesis 4. So that was a big part of what we were making and releasing. And it was the first year where we spent a whole bunch of time releasing something that wasn't in video form. Right. A lot of content that wasn't in video form. Right. A lot of content that wasn't in video form, it was in the app where you could

explore a theme while reading through that part of the Bible. Now let's talk about that. Because the big vision for the app is not only is all the content accessible, like as you need it when you need it, but the big dream of the app is that you can learn these skills, these literary skills that we're exploring. You can learn them while interacting with the Bible. So you're learning the skills while you're reading the Bible and in a really painless way. That's the ideal. It's like you're just in there, you're exploring, you're interacting in a really cool way. That's a big, big project that we're undertaking. And the journey through the Torah, tracing a theme,

was kind of a big swing at what could that interactive Bible be like? How could you read through the whole Torah? Also learn these biblical themes at the same time. Learn how to see one section of a biblical scroll and just follow one word or idea through that section. And that's what we're trying to help people develop the awareness and skill for how to do that.

So it's kind of like you could take a class on themes in the Bible and how to trace them, or you could read the Bible. And we're trying to combine those two into you actually learn how to trace a theme as you actually read through. That was kind of the big idea. Yeah, yeah.

So we learned so much, and it was so rewarding to get through the Torah. And next year, as we think about We learned so much and it was so rewarding to get through the Torah. And next year, as we think about, how do we interact with the Bible within the app? We're gonna go for like smaller wins that allow us to try a lot more stuff, like reading plans or skill developments, ways to access our content and interact with it.

Because what we're doing with this interactive Bible is really new. I don't think it's been done. There's study Bibles. There's digital Bibles. I don't think there's a really a truly native digital study Bible, which by that I mean, like you could, this is what we've been talking about in terms of like maps. Exander are product lead for the app, kind of gave us this metaphor where he talked about how it used to be, Steve, you talk about the like the maps that used to have in the car

or the Thomas guide. Thomas guy. The Thomas guy. Or you'd be driving along and you're on page 455 and then you would drive off the page and you then had to go to page 687. Yeah, to pick it up so you're, you know, in rush hour traffic. Not dangerous at all.

No, no. And you also said you could pull off to like, like a triple A and the print director for you. It's here in the real old days. But if you wanted a map, if you're going to take a big road trip, you could go to AAA and they would map the entire trip. So you'd have these books and it would be highlighted, but a page can only contain so much content.

So you'd flip the page and then there was the highlighted right again. So that was the world of analog maps. And then came a long map quest. Do you remember map quest? Oh yes. Changed everything. It was a wet, yeah.

The red line that traced your route. Yeah, you just put in like two directions, and it's like, here you go. Yeah, here's how you get there. It's like magic. And then you magic. Had to print it out though.

Yeah, yeah. But that's still, it was magic. And what I loved to was someone would start to give you directions, and then you say, don't worry. I could get there. You could get there? You've never been there. Oh yeah.

Trust me. I've got this special piece of software. So, what MapQuest wasn't was just a digital version of an analog map, right? Just scanning a map. And here now you have a map on your computer. Yeah. It was a brand new thing. It was truly digitally native.

Yeah. And then from there, Google Maps has gone just... Awkers. Yeah. Street View, Google Earth View, Lookup Businesses. No, I'll tell you what, Lane did get in, to drive. Yeah, I mean, but when you think about it's been this iterative process where it's not where they started.

And so I get excited because I think we've got a foundation that we can now build on. Yeah. So the low-hing fruit for us in the app right now is just get you access to our content while you're reading the Bible. And we're doing that. And there's some interesting design challenges there, but it's fairly straightforward. The big design opportunity is the Google Maps of the Bible.

Because when we talk about structure, right? And you look at, or literary design. Literary design. A section or a paragraph. Yeah, it can get really complicated. Especially when you're just trying to think about abstractly or talk about it. But when you can start to see it and interact with it.

Yeah, game changer. And see at one scale of Zoom, like at the text level and then zoom out and see it at the movement level and then see at the scroll level and collections of scrolls and be able to see all the stuff that you point out. How cool is that going to be? Yeah, pretty cool. It's going to be pretty cool. Yeah.

So next year, we're going to just keep going at what are some small wins to learn how to do this right, because it's a really cool opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a big open horizon for what we are working on in the year to come. The fact that we poured so much energy into the app also had other implications for the other content we released throughout the year. Yeah. Our focus on the journey, we thought that we could rely on our back catalog and put the team's focus on journey. Going through the app with theme videos we've already released and we all in the so we didn't release as many theme videos this year. We did however put our animation studio on a special project.

Which we haven't fully. This is the sound of me rubbing my hands. Like, we're making a crafty plan. But you guys, we're working on the mega mega series that is so awesome. Yeah, and you've gotta be patient. It's gonna become, but next year, you'll start to see it, come out at the end of next year.

But we were able to put our animation team largely on just like this big 10-part mega series on a really important part of the Bible. But we did release some theme videos. Yes, really cool ones. Really cool ones. And the level of design just keeps just going out. Yeah, absolutely. So, Blessing Enc blessing occurs was released.

Beautiful video on the theme of blessing occurs. Eternal life, which we did in the doodle style of our very first video, Heaven and Earth. So I think we have about five theme videos in that doodle style. And they all kind of feel like they work together. Totally, in a way. Yeah, the Furby always makes an appearance. Wow.

Yeah. Look for the Furby. Love the Doodle style. Big fan. Big fan. Me too. So yeah, the big idea there was eternal life is a gift from God that can begin now. And then as of the release of this podcast, but not in real time, it's going to be another

theme video called The First Born. Yes. It'll come out Christmas week, which is going to be awesome. Oh, it's so cool. Actually, we're called The First Born. I think we're going to call it The First. The Last Will Be First. The first?

What did I say? The first will be last. I was going to say The First Will Be Last. The last will be first think the first will be last. I was going to say the first will be last. The last will be first. The last will be first. Okay. Good. Glad you're clear on that.

What do we have in store for next year? What's coming out of this? Well, so we want to put out more content than we did this year. So we've got four theme videos coming out this year. Yeah, totally. And yep, four theme videos that'll be tracing an idea from... Do we want to say what they are gonna be? Oh, sure.

Yeah, they're gonna be, I have this in my mind. The anointed. Yeah. What? You asked me the question, but I think you know the answer. And I don't. As I just took it over. The anointed, which is the theme of the question, but I think you know the answer. And I don't. I just took it over. You know it, Ted, which is the theme of the the word the Christ origin of the word Christ about somebody who

gets oil poured on their head. Yeah, just getting oiled. Yep. And then the land, the land, yes, so good. The city, the city. I'm excited about that one. And the last but definitely not least, the Chaos Dragon. The Chaos Dragon. You know about this? No. First time hearing. You know there's Chaos Dragon in the Bible, Steve?

Uh, yes. Is that revelation? Mm. Shows up with the vengeance. Page one, Steve. Wow. The Sea Dragon's on page one. Sure. Okay. Yeah. He kind of hides out in page one Steve. Wow. The C-Dragons on page one. Okay. Yeah. He kind of hides out in page one. He

hides out in many English translations, but not all. Yeah. I'm feeling a little better. Yeah. He has, he has, he has, he has, he has, he has, he has many heads in Psalm 74. But he is in revelation. But he is also in the revelation. Yeah. good point. I just, yeah, here's before that. So the Chaos Dragon. Listeners of the podcast, if you've been listening for a while, you've heard us explore the Chaos Dragon. Moses grabs the Chaos Dragon, turns into a staff. Woo!

All right. That's going to be great. So those theme videos, but we're going to do more. We're going to do, so if you remember, visual commentary videos, we started on those, and we paused on those. For this year. for this year, but we got more coming out So we're rebooting that yep, and we're gonna do more of those yet and the origin of the idea there was our friend Brian Russell from oh, yeah, yeah, Bible that you version. Yeah, you version. He uh, he said hey you guys gonna do a video for every chapter of the Bible and

You version, yeah. You version. He said, hey, you guys gonna do a video for every chapter of the Bible? And we were like, no, there's like a thousand chapters of the Bible. And then we went away and thought about it and we're like, maybe. Yeah.

So visual commentary is us trying to figure out how would we do that? And I think it'll be super useful. And we're gonna reboot those. Oh, we're also gonna be doing scrollable content next year. Ah, yes. Are you in that aware? Well, I am aware of it, and we're gonna reboot those. Oh, we're also gonna be doing scrollable content next year. Yeah. Are you in that awareness?

Well, I am aware of it, but I didn't know that it was called that until this moment. Yeah. Well, Steve's super hip on the scrollable revolution. That's right. It's on the TikTok, dude. Did you know more people are googling and TikTok than on Google? Oh, absolutely. Are you serious? Yeah. Is that true? I heard that.

Oh, that's true. And I'm taking this fact because John said it last week. So you know how facts work nowadays. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, um, let's, someone, uh, yeah, fact check, fact check. So it's a scrollable content. Yeah. It's not just take talk, but YouTube shorts, um, the YouTube algorithm actually rewards

short form content now. That's more scrollable. Instagram Stories, Facebook has their own thing, and it's a different type of media than we do these five-minute plus, you know, dense, beautiful, really cool explanation educational videos. What you can't just put on YouTube shorts or TikTok. It's got to be, it's in portrait mode, meaning you're holding the camera vertical. You have a couple of seconds to grab someone's attention and make it relevant. There's kind of a tone and a methodology to just that type of media. So we're going to be releasing content in that new form of media starting next year as well.

So John is the hope that in this scrollable content, because you can't communicate all that you want to communicate, but to catch someone's attention and then have them go to the website or to yeah that would be one thing but the other thing is what can you teach in a minute in 60 seconds you can do some cool stuff yeah yeah you can teach some cool ideas yeah and then you string a bunch of those together and all of a sudden you're just a seminary graduate from the TikTok. It is the new Roman road. TikTok. There you go.

The new Roman road. Yep. All right. So that's content. And this is going to be a lot more of it. Yep. Yeah. And if that weren't enough, we also have a full on like Bible classroom product. So Bible project classroom is been full steam ahead.

We slowed down for the COVID period. Couldn't film. Well, we didn't film during a plague. But we started filming with COVID protocol. And then we're able to in the last half of this year keep going. So we filmed actually five classes in 2022. Wow.

And we released a four. One, two, three, four. Yeah, so we released Noah to Abraham, which is a class in Genesis that you taught. Yep, Genesis six through nine, six through 11. Which is now part of a series where you can do Heaven and Earth, which is Genesis one and two. Yep. You can do Adam to Noah, which is Genesis one and two. Yep.

You can do atom to Noah, Genesis three through six. Two through five. Two through five. Double dip on two. And then, know it Abraham. Yep. That's right.

Is there anything that's gonna be the next one of those? Yeah, you got it. Yep. Yeah, we released the art of biblical words. How to study biblical words. That was a, that was a mini-class actually, shorter. Dr. Carmen Eimes came and did an overview class of the Exodus scroll. That was awesome. And that's out. Yep. And then yet to be released from us sitting here, but going to be released

by the end of the year is a class and overview on one Corinthians, the false letter. I love that you just switched, hard switch to one Corinthians. Yeah. Well, there's no ST, you know, by the one. For we Americans say first. Yeah. Clint, but there's no ST. And it's definitely not as first letter. He says in the letter that it's a second letter.

So anyway, Dr. Lucy Peppiott came and taught that class. And so those are classes we released. So anyway, Dr. Lucy Peppiott came and taught that class. And so those are classes we released. But as far as the classroom audience, Steve, I know you get to hear lots of feedback and also- Let's go to our data analysis, Steve. Here I am, John Purge, Taya, Dr. Pagoda, as I look down, I realize that over 110,000 people have actually taking

a classroom class. That's 110 people in classroom. 110,000. Oh wait, what are we getting? 110,000 people. So John, to put this in perspective, we were recently at a football game. Yeah. At a large stadium capacity, 70,000. So imagine everyone in that stadium, plus maybe a major league baseball stadium with their phone or laptop open, taking a course on classroom. It's like a high state where Ohio State plays football, 100,000 people. I've never been in a stadium that big. Wow. That must be an experience. Yeah, it is. I think it is. It's where the Ohio State plays football. And it's just encouraging to me because it's these classes. I think the

shortest one is maybe three hours. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Short form is three, but the standard length we are going for is about 12 to 14 hours of session time with lots of interactive stuff built in between those sessions. So realizing all of those 110,000 maybe don't complete their entire course, but there have been 697,000 sessions completed. Hmm. Cool. Super. Wow. That's all free. It's all free. It just gets rid of that barrier to entry for a lot of folks that this type of education would not have been possible in the past. And so super excited about that.

Yes. And it's a really cool platform, though we've been able to build because of the support of our patrons to be able to build exactly what we want. Speaking of which, we're iterating on it, the platform, and one piece of feedback that we're getting is people want to do it on their phone. And we're like, oh, this is a classroom product, people do it on their laptops, we built it for a laptop screen.

And no, people want to do on their phone. And people want to be able to switch to just audio, walk around, you know, like, and people want to skip around to the sessions that they want, not go through a course the way it's designed. So we're adding those features into classroom, plus a cool new feature called Interactive Slides, which just makes the whole experience way more elegant

when you're working with your notes. All of that is going to be accessible within the app. We're going to put the classroom in the app with you're doing all your phone, interactive slides, go at your own pace, however you want to go. And the first class to be released in the app is going to be in January. And it's going to be Adam Tenoa in January. It's going to be cool. So that's a lot of content. That's a lot of stuff. We're making and releasing so much stuff. So in that sense, well, there's been fewer videos that in previous years, overall, this is the most content we've ever released in one year. Yeah, in the whole,

which is just wild. Yeah, in the whole. Which is just wild. Yeah, and I guess there's also the languages, like that's content, like we're up to now, 55 languages, 4,300 videos localized in those languages. And on those YouTube channels, collectively it represents 1.7 million subscribers. And these are like new YouTube channels collectively it represents 1.7 million subscribers. Wow. Yeah. And these are like new YouTube channels. Yeah, big set up in the country. Yeah, yeah. And all the different languages. It's so so wild. And we

we're releasing the whole website in Spanish. Yes. In fact, by the time this airs, it will have been publicly released. It's privately released right now. And now that's just one language. But what's cool about that is we built the infrastructure to like make that language happen, but then also make it so that any language is now way easier. The guys have told me that each language is about 80% there because of the infrastructure

that's been built to be able to do that. We're Spanish as the prototype. Yeah, yeah. As I think about the whole localization effort and our global focus team, I think, and I think you guys participated in this, but earlier in the year, we did a language advisor summit in man. It's kind of hard to capture in words what it was like, but we had... Real quick, so our language advisors are like the point people for each language. They're both like half-skill in linguistics and language. And also they have some form of theological education to lead the content charge and understand the cultural context.

And so they can put that together. Thank you. So we yeah, we did a zoom summit of all of those people all over the globe It was yeah, it was amazing. It was so cool. Oh, yeah, cuz you would just look at your screen And there's people from all over the world. Yeah, that share this passion. Yeah, they're a part of this mission and I mean I was getting emotional during the call and then the highlight for me was when the Russian language advisor and the Ukrainian language advisor prayed together to close out the meeting. And it was so powerful. Yeah, it was, man. Yeah. Yeah, that was a moment. Like, I experienced these moments regularly in this project, but that was definitely one where it just feels like, man, this is just one little corner of what's the spirit is up to among his people in the world, and we are just so privileged to be able to participate in it. You mostly hear us talk about the video Bible nerd content stuff that we're making, but for those of you who are a part of our patron community, I mean, this is really an amazing

story that's being told. And the localization teams and ministry is in 55 languages and growing Those all represent culture groups of followers of Jesus around the world who are unifying Around wanting to share this content Yeah, yeah, it's so cool, man. So humbling. So inspiring exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up Steve you bet I You know you mentioned our patrons, Tim, and I'm so encouraged. And I say every day, but it's probably five days a week.

I read a patron comments. And there's one common theme that runs through all of them. But this one that made me laugh was from a patron because I just so appreciated his honesty. He said, I'm 67, and the Bible has always been something I secretly didn't understand or like. It was always a stumbling block to trying to know Jesus. During the past three years, calamity has hit

and forced me to search to find spiritual help. The Bible project has been a huge part of my three-year journey of reading the Bible through three times and finally having it make sense. So thank you and Shalom. Wow. Isn't that encouraging? That's so encouraging. And put another way, this person just last week sent something in that said, the Bible project videos and podcasts have opened the story of the Bible for me in a way that I never imagined. It's like I went from seeing through a keyhole to an incredible 360 degree panorama.

My love and hunger for the word has grown exponentially. Thank you, bless you. And there's something about all of these comments where it's like something is unlocking for people. And we were talking, I think it was yesterday, even Tim about this idea, never want to lose sight of the fact that it's not us, it's not Bible project. Jesus is what changes people. That's where the transformation happens. And we're just excited that at this moment

in history, we can be a channel, but we're not living water. And so while people are using these resources, things are being unlocked, the transformation happens outside of who we are. And so encouraged by that. Yeah, well, yeah, I'm just every year that goes by with this project, and you know, I feel like we kind of stumbled upon our mission, the language of our mission, a couple years in about helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to

Jesus. And not since we were talking about that yesterday, I was thinking about the leads to Jesus. It means a lot of things, actually, because one is as you're reading in any part of the Bible, it's like, how does this fit into the bigger story? But actually, but leading to Jesus also is the language of like, you're on a journey to a person. The word became flesh. Yeah, and when you encounter the person, that the whole story points you to,

the story is so valuable and beautiful, but the goal is not to just enjoy the story. It's actually to encounter a living, the living Jesus. And that's exactly right. There's something that when lots of people have that kind of encounter through scripture, amazing things happen in the lives of people and then through their lives and their communities, and families, and neighborhoods, and what a journey to get to be

a part of pointing people, you know, to Jesus through the biblical story. Really amazing. Well said because oftentimes we'll say, hey thank you for your support and allowing us to make this content. The point isn't the content. Well, that's it's a vehicle to this other place where something mysterious happens that's just absolutely beautiful. And so our job is to be faithful to that what, which is making this content that helps lead people. And so that's exciting to me. What a privilege. Yeah, well said You know you get patron comments They get emailed in and I get to see some of them too and they're awesome. Did you know? That there's patron comments on our website and

I always actually forget the update real time update real time And I always actually forget the update real time update real time Hourly yeah So if you go to bioproject.com slash give and you scroll down to Let's see you can even just go to the main landing page and just scroll down Oh, and then you'll be right. I think it says like what people are saying and it's so you can click into it Yeah, what supporters are saying and then you click more comments. And then yeah, it's real time. So the most recent

content is engaging and interactive has made me fall back and level three in the Bible. Love it. Love what you're doing. So if you want to see the impact that it's having on people, you can just go and scroll through those, especially if you're a patron of this. Go and just look at what you've got a part of building. Yeah, it's cool. It's really cool.

We homeschool our children, we use these lessons each morning. I've been going through a journey of re-examining my faith in the Bout Project has been a trustworthy source to find where I can find safe and carefully think with your content. This is a gift to my journey. That's cool. It's so amazing. I think as patrons, my hope would be it would be is encouraging to them because we think of our patrons as being a group of people that are in this with us and

And so vital to what it is that we're doing and so be encouraged read those I know for me there was one this is the last one I'll read but this came in it was a few of those days where my AirPods wouldn't sink with my laptop and I was just frustrated and Then I read this and it changed everything my name name is Vitale and I live in the Ukraine. I'm 30 years old and work for an IT company. As you may have heard about everything that is happening in Ukraine, I decided to email you and say thank you. Thank you for your work and everything you do. As because of your videos, app, and plans, I became closer to God and he's helped me overcome

a lot of panic, helped others to become and most of all trust God. It's hard to do living in the reality of what we are in. Wow, and that's something and so my hope is for patrons that they feel just disconnected to this because as we talk about this idea, we refer we use the word patron because all throughout history it's pastures that have funded talk about this idea, we refer, we use the word patron because all throughout history, it's pastures that have funded movements of the gospel. And so, so grateful for all of you that are in this with us and support. Yeah. One thing we talk about is we go at the pace of the crowd. So since the very beginning

of this project, we've just said, we want to make content, and now we're making technology, and we love it, and we want this to be an experience that helps you understand the Bible and leads Jesus, and we'll go at the pace you want us to go. And what that's actually met is we've done fairly fast. Fast and far. And we're closing this is finishing our eighth year. Yeah. We have the project.

And every year, the project grows. And we grow with it. And in fact, through COVID, where we anticipated, wow, there's a global pandemic. Maybe things are going to slow down. It didn't. It was the opposite. It was the opposite.

It was the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. 2022 is actually the very first time we saw a slow in the growth about project. And it was a really cool exercise to then have to say, okay, what do we slow down with? How do we slow down with the crowd? And we have guesses of why things slow down. There's just been a few things that haven't happened.

A few things happening in the world. The economy, and there's stability in general. The price of gas. So it wasn't entirely surprising. No. We anticipated it, but it was in the history of the project, one of the first times that we had to rethink what priorities we want to focus on in light of the resources at hand, which actually ended up being some really great conversations that we were able to have.

And I would say just specifically, it was really the months of maybe February through June, where we saw kind of a dip and it was noticeable. And that's what made us think, okay, wait, something's slowing down here and we need to pay attention to this. But it was so, it was a good thing. And so, I mean, I don't want to missly, you know, giving in 22 will be more than 21, but it's just much slower rate of growth and then cause this to play back. Yeah, we plan based off of historic growth.

Yeah. And so we just have to plan as best we can. And then when we look at what's happening, we have to adjust. Absolutely. And I think for me too, it's been a great year because it just brought us back to our roots where we talked about this from the very beginning that we believe that God is going to provide everything we need to do what He has called us to do. We need to be faithful to the what.

You guys have probably heard me mention George Mueller more times than you would like, but he's such a hero in the faith for me that he was all about caring for orphans in England and this idea of the grace of giving. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with going out and soliciting and doing super proactive fundraising work, but we just have felt like what we feel called to do is to trust that guys are going to provide everything we need to do what he is calling us to do.

And so in the middle of that time period where giving was dipping, you're resisting the temptation to start picking up the phone or knocking on doors and say, okay, what is what a George Mueller do in these moments? And had a house full of orphans, no food. He went in the closet and prayed and came out and set the table. And I think that's where we want to be as this idea of what is God calling us to do, is to make this content and To help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus

So we need to be faithful to the what and live within his provision so it was maybe in June late June early July A group of us on the team just started to get together once the mornings and pray for God's provision. And what I love about that is we're not praying that people will give. We see all provision coming from God and just trusting him that he will provide everything that we need. And I believe sometimes what you need is less.

And so we're set up for this next year. There's things that we want to do and actually have plans beyond that. And we're going to continue to trust that God will provide everything we need to do what he has called us to do. And you saw that in real time, you guys had that experience. Like, you could go out and go, man, we need an extra however much. And it'd be so nice if we had it. Let's go, make some phone calls and see who can write a check. But instead, you guys just got together and prayed. Yeah.

And you didn't pray for specific numbers or specific people, but you used, like, suddenly things were happening. In fact, there was one in particular Friday. Friday's when I got the word of it. It may have come in earlier in the week, but a patron sent in a first-time gift a very significant gift and we were super encouraged and a couple days later sent in a gift that was like 4x that gift And it was like wow and we immediately sent them an email saying he was this a mistake because it just seemed odd that these two gifts would come

It's a close and they said absolutely not felt like I was calling me to give and it has just been so fun to witness that. I'm weak enough as a person that if I'm actually out actively soliciting, I can somehow say it's God's provision, but I attach myself to that a little bit. But when you pray for God's resources and then just faithfully do what he is calling you to do, in our case, it's make these resources, or the content, when the gifts come in, there's only one set of fingerprints on it. And it's so beautiful to see how God continues to provide.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I'll just take a moment to name my gratefulness to your leadership in this area, Steve, in the history of the project. And even before we started this project, you, Steve, had a huge influence on you, John, about this financial model and way to do a nonprofit media company idea, which was to lead with creating things. And if people find it valuable, then they'll get behind it. And we can trust that that's what God's leading us to make next based off what has been provided already.

And so I just want to name coming in at the end of this year, how grateful I am for both of you and for Steve, your heart, your heartbeat for this. To me, it's an embodiment of the upside down vision of the Kingdom of God that you lead from a conviction that there is enough, even when it doesn't seem like it. You live as if there is enough and somehow there is enough for what it is that we're called to do. And that's been our experience in the history of this project. And I'm just grateful for both of you and your leadership in that. And just for patrons, for you, Alton, know

that's the character of the people leading the project. I just have so much implicit trust for what's happening here because of those set of values that are leading the charge. Thanks, Tim. Yeah, thanks, Steve. As I think about this moment we're in right now, we don't know how fast and hard we're going to go in 23 quite yet. And we're ready for anything. And I feel like we've never been so ready and so organized.

And so kind of so full of like really clear strategy and vision, then we are right now with the growth of the scholar team. Tim, you've been growing. Yeah. You all know Chrisa, she's been on the podcast a lot, but there's more scholars, meeting, growing in the paradigm,

so that we can make more content. The growth of the tech team, just some amazing, amazing talent coming out of the woodwork from all sorts of places, people walking away from really fantastic jobs To come and work with us. Yeah, our content teams are more organized have more vision are more excited than ever Just everything is just kind of just dialed in and now we're just like okay. God. What do you want to do? How hard and fast you want to do? How hard and fast do you want to go? And so here we are and we're excited. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the end of year eight.

Thinking back, this was just an idea. John, when you shared it with Steve's, I think as you've told the story over the years, you smiled. Yeah, we're like, I'm happy for you to have this great idea. I hope that works and I will support you. And anyway, I can't. I'll tell it real quick.

John shared that the first 90 seconds of that first video, and I looked and I said, wow, this is amazing. I'm in. What's your plan? And he said, I want to make these for every book of the Bible, put them on the internet and give them away for free. And that's something lit up inside of me. And I said, OK, I'm really in. And then I said, how are we going to pay for this? And he

tried to explain this thing to me. You built it. They will come. Yeah. It was this idea of crowdfunding. And I remember it going, keep smiling, keep smiling because inside I was thinking, there's no way that'll work. There's no way that will work. And but I clearly didn't have any idea. But what I love about this model is if we are making content and it's finding a home and it's leading to this unlocking, I think it is going to, we're going to have the resources to do what

it is we need to do. And so what started in 2014, I think has certainly exceeded my expectations, but so excited about the future and what's ahead. And I know it's an overused phrase, but I, every day feel like the best is yet to come. Like we're just getting started. Yeah. Yeah. For those of you who listen to the podcast, we love you guys. We love the community that's come around the podcast and we love hearing from you like we get to do with the Q and R episodes where you send in your questions and your feedback. So thank you all for being awesome and

so engaged and this next year the podcast it's going to be awesome. Yeah. And we're going to keep learning and exploring. Lots of great stuff coming in the podcast. Yeah. But it's the end of the year. Yeah. It's kind of a moment to just pause, reflect, be grateful, be with family if you can. And then let's go at it next year.

Yep. Sounds like a plan? Yeah. So thank you. Thank you everybody. We'll be in tune next year. But, uh, yeah, we're grateful. Grateful for you.

Grateful to God's generous. Mercy, that keeps us all alive. Uh, is key from this project, too, for love. Absolutely. Thanks, guys. I just don't know what to say. Let's go around the art. Okay, so you guys are the Exodus classroom students and what I would like to know,

what is the wackiest Christmas tradition that you either do currently or that your family did? My name is Abigail and my family has German heritage on both sides. And there's a Christmas tradition and it's a deal pickle, Christmas ornament. And on Christmas Eve, my parents would hide the pickle ornament in the pine tree. And on Christmas morning, whoever found the ornament got to open the first present and then also got to be the one who would like pick everyone's present

when it was their time to open it. All right, well, my name is David. I can't say growing up what I thought was wacky was going to a Christmas Eve service at midnight. I mean, it's Christmas time, so it's fun. And it's like I grew up in Cleveland, so it's like snowing and, you know, fire inside, man. As a kid, there's nothing better than that, so I's fun, and it's like I grew up in Cleveland, so it's like snowing and, you know, fire inside, man.

As a kid, there's nothing better than that, so I guess that was fun. My name is Tabitha, and so there's four of us kids, and what they would do is, Secret Santa, you know, draw a name. They'd give us each like $15 or $20. We would all go out together to do it, so we just did it on Christmas Eve. So probably my whole life, our Christmas Eve tradition is like going out and getting people's presents. My name is Vivian, I do remember growing up

in the Dominican Republic, we celebrated the three wise men's day, which was on January 6. My brothers would have us put water and some grass under your bed, you know, the grass was for the camels and the water was for the wise men because of their long journey. And so then the next day they would be replaced with toys. Well, this year I remember my brothers put so much grass under there. And I remember going to the next day, there was still grass there. I said, I think you left too much. I'm Cots and I'll share with you a weird Christmas tradition that takes place in Japan.

They like to do the things that Americans are doing. In Japan, you buy KFC. And the reason is because Colonel Sanders looks like Santa Claus. Oh my god. So they would, in front of every KFC in Japan, there's like the statue of Colonel Sanders and they decided to dress him up as Santa Claus and it really caught on and now it's like a Japanese thing. Everybody gets KFC for Christmas.

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