About bible.org

We acknowledge that conventional wisdom would say that this “about” page is too long however, we wanted to share our heart and our plans to better serve you our users and that can’t be done in 1 or 2 screens. Still, we need to also serve those who only want a summarized version, Therefore:
1- For a short summary of who we are and what we stand for. (Read sections 1.0-2.0)
2- For a more detailed understanding of bible.org, our vision, our heart, our passions, our calling, and our approach to changing the site to better impact the world for Christ and to serve you our users. (Read all sections).

The Table of Contents
1.0 Our Vision and Mission

1.1 Goals to support the Vision
1.2 Our Core Values

2.0 Executive Summary of bible.org and its History
3.0 The Full Story of our History: God’s Ministry through bible.org (1994-2003):

3.1 In 1994 The founder begins with a vision to build the most efficient Christian publishing ministry in the world.
3.2 In 1995 A Bible Quotation Problem with NIV and NASB Spawns The New English Translation Bible (NET Bible)
3.3. In 2001 First printing of the NET Bible and the “Ministry First” publishing model passes the test
3.4 2002/2003 Expanded the print ministry to new authors and pastors (you can now order 1+ copies on demand)

4.0 2003/2007 Plans and planning activities for the future

1.0 Our bible.org Vision:  

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To equip all people to:	Attain the knowledge of the Son of God		Col 1:9-10
	Become a mature person in Christ		Eph 4:11-14
and be	Competent to teach others		2 Tim 2:1-2

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Our bible.org Mission:	Being a servant and partner to churches and other front line ministries in both Bible study tools and biblical content development, so the body of Christ may be more effective co-laborers by leveraging the power of the Internet to provide people and ministries worldwide with universal access to the NET Bible and other trustworthy Bible Study resources.
	Links to NET Bible texts Eph. 4:7-16, 2 Tim 2:1-7, Lev 23:22

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1.1 Goals to support the Vision

• Provide better tools and opportunities for people around the world to know Christ and have a greater impact, for Christ, on their world by:
  1. Developing a freely available modern translation of the Bible which shows the transcribers notes and why they chose the wording they did as they transcribed from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
  2. Providing on-line Bible studies that help Christians mature in their faith and become active and more effective in ministry, giving their time and talents to serve others.
  3. Developing a ministry framework where churches/other ministry sites can "transparently host" the NETBible and its advanced search and study tools on their site. .
• Quantify the items from our core values such as the “Ministry First” set of values.
• Establish a book printing and publishing entity (NET Bible Press), as a for-profit company. This represents the first tent-making activity. These "for-profit" tent-making activities will be separate from the non profit bible.org foundation and will exist to generate the necessary funds that bible.org needs to continue the development and internet distribution of quality content and services.
• Open up a channel for donations that will become an additional source of monies that will continue to support the development and free distribution of new content and translations of the NET Bible and critical studies into the languages of the world with a million or more speakers.
• Develop a framework where bible.org can recruit and add staff for specific projects using the tentmaker funding mechanism or accepting new staff that is capable of raising their own support team.
• Ensure all activities, staff and volunteers are covered with prayer and prayer teams.
• Operate the bible.org organization as a model for other Christian ministries: willing to partner and share techniques, technologies, doing good for all involved and demonstrate an efficiency and effectiveness based upon Biblical principles without the reliance on today's marketing hype.

1.2 Our core values

• Do All as unto Christ— Being accountable to God and one-another for our actions in ministry
• “Ministry First” — Develop quality content that is available to ALL people groups of the world, independent of national or monetary status
• An attitude of serving one's neighbor—Include opportunities/requirements to go into the mission field (sabbatical) to clone/share skills
• Productive volunteers of today are supported staff of tomorrow
• Maintain both an effective and an efficient ministry, where donor's monies are applied to ministry and indirect overhead costs are supported by tent-making activities of sponsors and friends.
• A personal Prayer Life

Click on the following example scripture references which support our vision, goals and core values:( Matthew 6:19-21 ; Acts 20:32-35 ; 1 Thess 2:9-11;2 Thess 3:8; Leviticus 23:22 ;Romans 14:12;
Luke 14:12b; 2 Tim 2:1-2 )

2.0 Executive Summary: About bible.org and its main site

Bible.org is a non-profit organization founded in 1995 for the purpose of developing and distributing sound, evangelical Bible study materials in electronic format so that anyone ( e.g. those with small personal libraries, those who have no access to a local Bible college or seminary library, etc.), may have access to sound biblical studies from their home. As stated in the vision and goals above, bible.org set out to put “Ministry First” and to trust God for the funds from the sales of print materials and the tent-making activities of the founder to prove bible.org as both an effective and efficient ministry. An efficient ministry is important because we are all accountable to GOD for how we use HIS resources. Thus bible.org wanted to build a track record as one that was an outstanding steward of the resources God has entrusted to it. This has in fact been realized. In 2001 bible.org delivered over 18 million Bible studies to 173 Countries at a cost of about one penny per study. It also began translating activities to better serve the non English speaking world. God has proven again that the “Ministry First” approach works in practice. In addition to the web-publishing ministry, bible.org through its NET Bible Press subsidiary, publishes some of the site favorites in book form and uses the money from sales as a donation to bible.org. This donation offsets the ministry expenses.

In 2003 bible.org expanded this tent-making Printing service (NET Bible Press) into a on-demand service so that any Christian author who submits their material for web-publishing can order books that are priced at or near cost. These sales will provide a mechanism to compensate those authors writing quality material that are purchased in greater volume. Some have been skeptical that authors and ministries can support themselves by selling what they also give away for free, “The Leviticus 23:22 model ”. Our bible.org testimony is that while it is not a way to move authors into luxury, it works; God’s has used it to compensate authors who are willing to share their knowledges this way. The Bible says “...The worker deserves his pay.” 1Tim5:17-18. We give all the glory to God as He teaches the concept of a “Ministry First” distribution model as can be seen in both the Old and New Testaments e.g. Acts 20:32-35 ; 1Th 2:9;2 Th 3:8. All bible.org did was to trust His Word and to put it to the test. For more discussion on traditional Christian publishing and the “Ministry First” model of bible.org see the article titled “Christian Publishing -- An Oxymoron”?

 

In 1995 A Bible Quotation Problem with NIV and NASB spawned the development of the New English Translation Bible (NET Bible). While placing studies on-line for free with numerous quotes from modern translations e.g. NIV, NASB, it was discovered that copyright owners of modern Bibles just don’t have a way to license quotations for use to ministries who want to give their studies away for free on the Internet. This licensing problem or lack of “Ministry First” on their part and the fact that we couldn't afford the many hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay them, led to the development of the NET Bible as a completely new translation of the Bible, it is not a revision or an update of a previous English version. It was completed by more than twenty biblical scholars who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. It is one of our contributions to doing “Ministry First”.

How does bible.org begin to implement “Ministry First”?

• bible.org allows anyone in the world with an internet connection to use and print out the NET Bible without cost for personal study.
• In addition, anyone who wants to share the Bible with others can print unlimited copies and give them away free to others. This is unprecedented in the Christian Publishing Business.
• We invite anyone to present us with a proposal to put the NETBible text on a new platform and will work with them to make it available to the world for free (as of feb 06 we have e-sword available and sword, palm and cell phones in development)
• We are looking at how to rewrite the copyright statement so it is more in line with ministry first see copyright innovations.

3.0 The Full Story about our History: God's Ministry through bible.org (1994-2002):

3.1 In 1994 bible.org formed

In 1994 the founder of bible.org began with a vision to use the Internet to build the most efficient Christian publishing ministry in the world. A ministry that would allow anyone in the world to use and download quality Bible studies for free. The ministry organized as “not-for-profit” 501(C)(3) publishing ministry where material is published on the Internet and those same materials are available in print from a tent-making for-profit entity (NET Bible Press) for a nominal fee. The founder hoped that people, who could afford it, would see the value of quality Bible study material and purchase printed copies of the material and the fees collected would cover the Internet infrastructure, printing costs and become a source of income for the authors who needed it. The new idea behind bible.org was that a publishing ministry specifically designed to utilize the Internet could do far more good across the planet, for far less money than any other organization to date. We say “publishing ministry” because it is defined as a new kind of organization, one that puts “Ministry First” and does good for all people involved: the authors, ministry partners and customers (independent of their financial status i.e. poor/rich. “Ministry First” is accomplished by making available quality Christian Bible Study materials on the Internet for free and trusting GOD that He will support the efforts by sales of the same material in print or through tent-making activities of the founder. This approach decreases the need for paid advertising or expensive fund raising activities and allows many more millions of people to be reached. The theory is that this is more efficient and therefore provides better stewardship of the Lord’s resources. It also assumes that the people reached will appreciate this “Ministry First” model by telling others, which will help it multiply and be better able to reach the world for Christ. As customers begin their own personal study they will be equipped to become ministers themselves of the Word, sharing what they are learning with their families, their church and non-churched friends. In this way they will begin to accumulate for themselves eternal treasures in heaven thus fulfilling the great commission from Christ. They will also learn that God expects them to give not just a portion of their income back to Him but also a portion of their time and talent to further the work of telling others about Christ and equipping the saints and co-laborers in the ministry. bible.org recognizes this biblical command and will make available projects where Christians can give to the LORD their talents, monies and skills in the languages/technology/tent-making to better reach the world for Christ.

3.2- In 1995 A Bible Quotation Problem with NIV and NASB Spawns The Development Of The New English Translation Bible (NET Bible)

By the end of the first few months in 1995, bible.org was set up as a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 organization and posted hundreds of Bible studies on the Internet. In the process of self-examination they found several Bible studies where bible.org had quoted more than 500 verses – the normal limit on the number of verses than can be quoted from the NIV or NASB without permission. bible.org temporarily solved the copyright problem by limiting our quoting to 499 verses per translation in our longer book studies, but that seemed to be a poor long-term solution. After trying for a year to get permission to include a modern translation in all articles on our site (including offers to purchase a modern translation outright), bible.org saw that there was a huge and unsolvable problem with ministries who want to quote and use copyrighted Bibles for projects that will never, ever make money – the copyright owners just don’t have a way to license use of modern Bibles to ministries who want to give their studies away for free on the Internet. At the Evangelical Theological Society, Society for Biblical Literature (ETS/SBL) conference in November 1995, bible.org began the NET Bible project in order to solve a Bible quotation permission problem. While the first thoughts were along the line of a more modest project, the possibilities offered allowed The NET Bible project to set some unusual goals for the translation:

1. The translation would be offered for free, forever on the Internet.
2. The translation would be balanced and fair by being faithful to the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic Texts. Translation decisions would be based on faithfulness to the text above perceived marketability to specific groups. (The degree of translation policy influence by publishers and sponsors over translations has been far too great.)
3. The NET Bible’s audience was defined by the reach of the Internet – a worldwide audience of a multitude of faiths, cultures, backgrounds, and traditions. English is now the worldwide language of the Internet, so bible.org's goal was a translation with notes regarding the original text, for the whole world to see.
4. Translators were encouraged to document, with unlimited Translators’ Notes, all major issues and nuances considered in their renderings of each verse. This forms the basis for meaningful dialogue between scholars and reviewers/pastors/students regarding improvement via the NET Bible beta program.
5. No translation is perfect. An 8-year Beta program was designed to allow our scholars to hear from users, pastors, and scholars -- to correct areas where their renderings are less than optimum. Help bible.org map the NET Bible better – Send feedback!.

3.3- 2001 First printing of the NET Bible

In November 2001 bible.org produced the First Beta Printing of whole NET Bible with all 57,875 Translators' Notes and they “Declared War” on Overpriced Bibles. The NET Bible is made available free over the Internet and it includes all 57,875 Translators' notes. It is also available in a quality leather binding at affordable prices.

2001 “Ministry First” Christian publishing model passes the test — Many had thought that one couldn't build a successful Christian ministry on the premise of “Ministry First”. They argue that one has to first build value in the organization as has been done in more traditional Christian ministries. In 2001 bible.org demonstrated that “Ministry First” is practical in 2001 bible.org delivered over 18 million Bible studies to 173 Countries, not counting indirect students taught by our users or web caches. bible.org charged no fees and solicited no donations. bible.org's future growth was be augmented by sales of printed NET Bibles and software. Also in 2001 bible.org attempted an implementation of our vision to take good quality studies and translate them into foreign languages. Our initial approach was to use paid Christian translators overseas, but bible.org had several unfortunate engagements where overseas. Christian missionaries were sent money or computers as payment and never translated anything at all. It proved difficult to predict the quality or intentions of potential paid translators. However, bible.org found that volunteers, unlike their paid counterparts, were very productive and produced far higher quality translations. In retrospect, this makes sense, as those who have pure hearts see the urgent need for native speakers of their language to have quality Biblical studies materials and make it their personal ministry. Since each translation is used by millions of users, few ministry opportunities represent such a huge opportunity to serve the Body of Christ. bible.org encourages you to check out the translation formatting guidelines, volunteer your language skills, tell your bilingual friends, and if you don't know another language - we ask you to encourage the volunteer translators by thanking them or asking Greg Herrick how you might help them with their computer or other needs. Even though paying unproven translators is a less than desirable approach, helping support our brothers who have proven their faithfulness by translating hundreds studies into 14 languages so far is essential. bible.org staff and the site users both need to encourage these 14 translators and find 5045 other translators, so that Christians all around the world, who want to please GOD, will have materials in every spoken language to fulfill the Great Commission for real! So with the urgency of this challenge and other worthwhile projects begging for support bible.org will for the first time provide a direct means that people can support the bible.org ministries with donations directly

3.4- 2002/2003 Expanded the print ministry to new authors and pastors (you can now order 1 or more copies on demand)

In 2002 NET Bible Press (NBP) offered new authors and pastors the ability to publish their material in print runs as low as 35 copies, reducing the initial print run to just 1 copy in 2003. This was a result of NBP research into how to affordably print and distribute low volumes of thousands of studies in a thousand languages. We, at BS, learned how to efficiently publish any book, so in 2002 bible.org added a service to do affordable on-demand printing for low volume print runs which allows some affordable options to new authors and others with out-of-print editions. At the 2002 Evangelical Theological Society and Society of Biblical Literature conferences bible.org offered all Christian authors with out-of-print books the ability to earn additional income by joining the “Ministry First” model and put their books on-line and to get them republished using our on-demand print services.

4.0 2003/2007 Plans and activities

Over this time period, the ministry has flourished under an expanded executive team and many new volunteers from around the world. The website has been through two major updates, the NET Bible-First Edition was completed after 10 years and millions of invested dollars, and the NeXt Bible Study Tool was introduced as the most advanced online Bible study tool ever developed. Bible.org is now serving pastors, church leaders, missionaries, Bible teachers, and students of the Word in every country in the world. Many millions are now coming to bible.org on a regular basis to usethe more than 50,000 pages of free content for global ministry purposes. Lord willing you are one of those we are serving well as you seek spiritual truth and maturity.

.................. What changes do we need to make and how can we better serve GOD and the Christian community in the future? What are other ministries doing adequately and where should we focus our efforts in 2007, 2008 and beyond? These questions and more will be answered as we begin to get user feedback on the how the site satisfies their needs and the projects described on the ministry opportunities page.