Looking Back at 2025 and Ahead to 2026

Summary

BibleProject Podcast Episode Summary

Looking Back at 2025 and Ahead to 2026

Date: December 29, 2025
Hosts: John, Tim, and Steve
Theme: Reflecting on 2025’s achievements, stories, and resources; unveiling what’s ahead for BibleProject in 2026.

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Episode Overview

In this special year-end tradition, John, Tim, and Steve gather to look back at the highlights of 2025 for BibleProject—from new resources and stories of community impact to themes explored in podcasts and videos. The team shares memorable listener stories, noteworthy milestones, and a preview of exciting content planned for 2026, all with their signature warmth and humor.

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Key Topics, Insights, and Notable Moments

Opening Reflections and Community Focus

• Year-End Tradition: Steve notes this is his fifth annual wrap-up episode.
  "It's what I'm living for, John. Right here, man. I work out all year trying to get ready for this month." (00:29, Steve)
• Celebrating Listeners: The hosts express gratitude for the many stories and participation from the BibleProject community.
  "We want to… celebrate all of you who are listening who’ve been a part of this and celebrate what we’ve gotten to do together." (00:50, John)

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Listener Impact Stories

• Patron Testimony: Steve shares a moving message from Natalie, who struggled to engage with the Bible until the BibleProject helped her.

  "I had reached a point where picking up the Bible felt like picking up a brick... Through the Bible Project, God healed my relationship with his Word and gave me a new taste and desire for it." (01:33, Steve quoting Natalie)

• Personal Resonance:
  "It’s like we’re working on something that’s working on us." (04:04, Steve)

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New and Improved Resources

The "One Story" Reading Plan

• Significant Overhaul: The BibleProject’s flagship year-long reading plan on YouVersion received a substantial rewrite by their scholar team. "It’s kind of like having a Bible nerd that you’re reading the Bible along with helping you through literally every part of every book..." (05:14, Tim)
• Collaborative Experience and Encouragement:
  "You could actually do it with a group of people where you can have friends and connect with friends." (05:47, Steve)
  • Encouragement not to give up if you fall behind:
    "Just feel free to… pick up where the rest of the group is… don’t be burdened by it." (08:29, Steve)
• Humor: "If you read through the Bible in a year with us, you will have zero questions afterwards. That’s our Bible Project guarantee." (08:10, John, tongue-in-cheek)

The BibleProject App

• "We've never spent a lot of time, like, advertising our app... It's actually cool. Hundreds of thousands of people every month. It's a great way to listen to our podcast. It's a great way to do classroom." (30:02, John)

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Major 2025 Themes and Series

Exodus-Themed Content

• Unique Themes of Exodus:
  • The team broke down major themes: Mountain, The Exodus Way, Redemption, and Wilderness.
  • Each theme became a video and/or podcast series.
  • Mountain Series: Explored the biblical symbolism of mountains as meeting places between God and humanity.
    • "When y’all told me you were doing a video on the mountain, I was like, oh, my goodness. We’re running out of topics." (10:13, Steve)
    • "But I was so wrong. It's about where heaven and earth meet. It was so good." (10:16–10:53, Steve)
  • Exodus Way: Liberation as an ongoing biblical pattern.
    • "That was a video that was on one of the first lists that I brought to you back in 2013." (11:27, Tim)
  • Redemption: Explored through the lens of reclaiming what’s lost, not just freeing slaves—a shift for Tim.

    "It was a much deeper rediscovery... We even shifted the fundamental definition of redemption." (13:14, Tim)

    • The “Repo man” analogy was memorable and made the theme accessible.
  • Wilderness: Fresh and meaningful to John.

    "The wilderness is a place that makes us ready… it felt really significant to me." (15:20, John)

Other Key Productions

• How the Bible Is Formed Mini-Series:

  • Explains the formation of the biblical canon, including the Catholic Deutero-canon and Protestant Apocrypha.
  • "We wanted to help course correct on that and introduce our audience to these really amazing Second Temple Jewish texts." (16:30, Tim)

• Advent Series:

  • Focused on four Advent words, continuing the tradition of new, accessible content tied to the church calendar.

BibleProject in Context: The "Movement"

• Beyond BibleProject:

  • John and the team emphasize that the most enduring legacy is not the videos, but promoting a culture shift towards reading the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.
  • "This idea of the Bible’s one story is way bigger than this project... they're really getting excited about is the Bible..." (18:32–18:55, John)
  • "Its enduring legacy is that we've brought more language and culture around this idea..." (19:08, John)

• Stories of Global Impact:

  • Churches using BibleProject resources without attribution (focus is on Scripture, not on the brand).
    • "There was no mention of BibleProject. And it was just so great." (20:15–20:16, Steve)
  • The reach includes translation into over 55 languages and use in places as diverse as libraries in Rwanda, seminaries in Pakistan, and coffee shops in Bulgaria (see 24:36–26:20 for Melanie’s update).

• Grassroots Initiatives:

  • Nicole and Amber created a curriculum for kids/families based on the one-story paradigm (1storyfamily.org), showing how the movement is spreading organically.

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Milestones & Community Highlights

• Podcast Milestone:
  "We've been doing this podcast for 10 years now... This is our 10th year as a podcast... near the end of 2025, we released our 500th episode." (32:12–32:45, John/Tim)

• Classroom Courses:

  • Genesis classes completed, launching Matthew classes for deeper study (27:43–28:46).
  • Classes made available in prison education programs via the Pando tablet (29:05, Steve).

• App Improvements: More coordination, easier navigation, and integration of all resources.

• Gratitude for Support Teams:

  • “Super encouraged by a group of volunteers that come to our office every Tuesday... Also for our prayer team... Over 80,000 people receive a monthly prayer email… And then lastly, is the 50,000 patrons that joined us this last year and are a part of what’s going on here and enable us to really to make the content, to scatter these seeds…” (38:38–41:03, Steve)

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Looking Ahead to 2026

• Exodus Capstone: The Ten Commandments

  • Next video and podcast series will be an in-depth look at the Ten Commandments; each command will get its own episode and video.
  • "I was surprised as we started to work on it, how much more excited I got about the Ten Commandments..." (33:56, Tim)

• Podcast-Exclusive Mini-Series on Jude

  • Before the Ten Commandments series, a six-episode exploration of the Letter of Jude—an often-overlooked, "wild" New Testament text.
    • "Jude’s wild. It’s a wild ride." (36:13, Tim)
    • "I kind of forgot this was in the Bible." (37:10, John)
    • "It’s such a unique window into an early form of Christianity... different than Paul’s church planting movement." (37:32, John)

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Notable Quotes

• "It’s like we’re working on something that’s working on us." (04:04, Steve)
• "The gift for me of being a part of this project is being able to live out our mission statement, where I feel like I’m experiencing the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus." (02:41, Steve)
• "Our most enduring legacy...is that we've brought more language and culture around this idea of reading the Bible this way." (19:08, John)
• "If you read through the Bible in a year with us, you will have zero questions afterwards. That’s our Bible Project guarantee." (08:10, John, joking)
• "It isn’t about us. And...if it wasn’t having an impact on people’s lives...then does it really need to be done?" (41:47, Steve)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Patron Story (“Natalie’s Comment”): 01:32–02:35

• One Story Reading Plan Announcement: 04:08–06:00

• Exodus Themes & Releases

  • Mountain: 09:14–10:56
  • Exodus Way: 10:55–11:44
  • Redemption: 12:01–13:57
  • Wilderness: 14:34–16:15

• How the Bible is Formed Series and Apocrypha: 16:15–17:26

• Local and Global Movement & Testimonies: 18:55–26:35

• Classroom/Prison Partnerships: 27:43–29:27

• App Updates: 30:02–31:57

• Podcast 10-Year Anniversary: 32:12–32:45

• What’s Next in 2026:

  • Ten Commandments: 33:16–34:52
  • Jude Miniseries: 34:58–38:27

• Thanking Volunteers, Prayer, Patrons: 38:35–42:59

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Tone and Style

Energetic, thoughtful, playful, and transparent—a conversational tone that invites the audience to celebrate, reflect, and look ahead together. The hosts are honest about challenges, gleeful about successes, and always aware that their work is just a part of a much larger movement of people experiencing the Bible as a unified story leading to Jesus.

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Summary Takeaway

The episode reaffirms BibleProject’s commitment to making the Bible accessible and exciting for everyone. With a blend of heartfelt stories, practical resources, major milestones, and behind-the-scenes glimpses, the team celebrates the global movement of reading the Bible as a unified story leading to Jesus—while teasing rich, new content for the coming year. The greatest legacy, they agree, is not in their content but in helping spur a worldwide cultural shift in how people engage with Scripture.

Transcript

[John]

Foreign.

[Tim]

Hey, John. Hi.

[John]

Hi. Hello, Steve.

[Steve]

Hello, John. Hello, Tim.

[Tim]

Steve.

[John]

Here we are.

[Tim]

Great to have you here.

[Steve]

It must be the end of the year.

[John]

Yes, it is.

[Steve]

That's right. Once again, giving the people what they.

[John]

Want, a little bit of Steve. That's right.

[Steve]

That's right.

[John]

This is the fifth time you've come and joined us at the end of the year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

This has become quite a tradition.

[Steve]

It's what I'm living for, John. Right here, man. I just. I work out all year trying to get ready for this month.

[Tim]

It's on the list of holiday events that you look forward to. Oh, I do, actually.

[John]

I do.

[Tim]

I look forward to this as part of our end of the day.

[John]

No, I do, too. I open up presents on Christmas morning. But what I really am excited for is the end of the year Drop.

[Steve]

I'm right there with you.

[Tim]

I love it.

[John]

Okay, so what we want to do is just reflect on the year and just celebrate all of you who are listening who've been a part of this and celebrate what we've gotten to do together.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

Because there's so many rad things that have happened.

[Tim]

So many. And, I mean, we got to make and release a lot of great content.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

In media, but also just some really beautiful stories have emerged about what God's doing in the lives of people through the spirit, activating scripture and pointing people to Jesus. But we get to be a part of it because we're making stuff about the Bible and we get to hear all these cool stories. We want to share some of those with you, too.

[John]

Yeah. Can we start with the patron comment?

[Steve]

Sure. Yeah. I get Patreon comments. Well, several of us do. Every morning there's an email that comes in around 9am and there's usually 20 or 25 patron comments. And one that came in earlier this year just really jumped out to me because I felt like it's like a composite. Natalie is who sent it in, and it captures what we hear from so many people. But this was the way she framed it. I had reached a point where picking up the Bible felt like picking up a brick. It was so foreign and unapproachable to me. I always had the desire to read the whole Bible, but never knew how. Through the Bible Project, God healed my relationship with his Word and gave me a new taste and desire for it. Your videos and podcasts have helped me understand it and see it in a completely different way. Now. The hardest thing for me was always reading the Old Testament, but through the podcast series on the Torah, I finished it for the first time in my 24 years of life. Thank you. Well, thank you, Natalie.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

So cool.

[Tim]

Way to go.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

It's no small feat to read through the Old Testament.

[Steve]

What I love about Natalie's story is it's similar to my story. It's like, I think there is. What I've experienced is there people have a felt need to want to understand this book, and yet trying to do it on your own can be so challenging. And the gift for me of being a part of this project is being able to live out our mission statement, where I feel like I'm experiencing the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. That was so foreign to the tradition and the way that I was raised.

[John]

Yeah. You know what's funny is our mission statement is to help people. And you really like the word help in there.

[Steve]

I do.

[John]

And I stopped saying it in our outros because of your sentiment right there. It's like, I'm actually experiencing the Bible this way, and I want to emphasize this, like, we're doing it together. So I just started saying to experience the Bible as unified spirit. And you brought up, like, help is important. And it made me wrestle with that and be like, yeah, you're right. That helps us stay focused. But I like what you just said, which is that's how I'm experiencing it too. Yeah, we get to help, but we get to also join in.

[Steve]

Oh, that's. You know, we said we had our staff retreat in September, and I remember talking to our team and saying, hey, it is amazing that we get to be a part of something that is not only helping people out there, but it's helping us. It's like we're working on something that's working on us.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Steve]

That is so amazing.

[Tim]

100%.

[John]

It's really cool.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

One thing we could then talk about is the new reading plan that we have.

[Tim]

Yes. Yeah.

[John]

Speaking of reading through the Bible, I think this is a big news, so let's just up top talk about it, which is we have a through the Bible reading plan that's been on YouVersion for years, and a lot of people have done it.

[Tim]

And we have a number of plans on the YouVersion Bible app, but then we have one that has been, like, read through the whole Bible, like, go for it.

[Steve]

The one story reading plan.

[Tim]

Exactly.

[John]

The one story reading plan. And I think every week we hear from someone who said, I did it and thank you, and that was kind of their entry point into knowing what we're up to.

[Tim]

That's Right. Because it's a reading plan, but has both like commentary and our videos interspersed so you're never just alone with some weird passage in the book of Jeremiah or Ezekiel. There's always something there to help you understand and move forward.

[Steve]

In the one story reading plan that had been on youn version for a long time, and our scholar team just spent.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Steve]

Almost the entire year.

[John]

At least I think more than a year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

More than a year.

[Tim]

Yeah. A number. Yeah. Of my colleagues on the scholarship team took it on as a project to rewrite the whole thing and really beef it up more substantially so that it's kind of like having a Bible nerd that you're reading the Bible along with helping you through literally every part of every book of the Bible with videos and like short form commentary. So it's a whole new one story reading plan that's released.

[Steve]

I think it's available now.

[John]

Yeah, it's up on youversion. Brand new. If you want to read through the Bible with us, it's awesome.

[Tim]

It's fantastic.

[Steve]

And youversion has. It's a great app and it allows you. You could actually do it with a group of people where you can have friends and connect with friends.

[Tim]

Yeah. They're sharing and collaborative reading. It's like having an online group that you're reading through the Bible with.

[Steve]

That's helpful for me, knowing there's other people going through it. So there's a group of us in the office that have all said, hey, let's, let's do this. It's like, John, a couple years ago, you and I were going to do the sermon on the Mount.

[John]

The playlist.

[Steve]

Weekly playlist. Yeah. One of us completed it, one of us made it. So I guess in a way we both did it. But it's so encouraging because it's hard to do by yourself.

[Tim]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think part of why we're excited about it is the podcasts and the videos that we make. The ultimate goal isn't just that people watch a video or listen to podcasts. We really want to ourselves and help y' all actually read scripture for yourselves with greater wisdom. And so we're excited about a Bible reading experience that can hopefully help a lot more people.

[Steve]

With a scholar in your pocket.

[Tim]

With a scholar little pocket Scarlet Bible nerd in your pocket.

[John]

It's funny to me that reading through the Bible in a year has become such a thing.

[Tim]

Isn't it interesting?

[John]

Yeah. Because a year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

Why a year? Why a year? I mean, it's great. Because a Year is such a.

[Tim]

Just mental.

[John]

Yes. It's like we live in years. But dividing the Bible into sections, it's a bit artificial. It's completely artificial.

[Steve]

It is, but it's like running a race. It's nice to know when you have a start. Yes.

[John]

It's the pace.

[Steve]

That's what it is. I think it just creates some guardrails for people and it helps them. Wonderful focuses. But I think when you read it through completely, I think you begin to see, you know, like as Sally Lloyd Jones says, every story whispers his name. And then when you can read it at a different pace and marinate in it for longer periods of time, it just, it's helpful. But I think it's. It's fun. I don't. Bible wasn't designed to be read in a year, but it's not a bad thing to do it either.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

And you will find that on the YouVersion Bible app. So if you don't have that, be sure and get it and you can go there.

[John]

And if you don't have the Bible app, I mean, don't they have like a billion downloads now?

[Tim]

Wonderful.

[Steve]

Yeah. They're over a billion.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah. One Stop Shopping Center.

[John]

And is it true? I think we have a guarantee that if you read through the Bible in a year with us, you will have zero questions afterwards.

[Steve]

I think so.

[John]

That's our Bible project guarantee.

[Steve]

It is the Bible project One and done is what we're calling it.

[Tim]

Wow. That one passed my. My editing overview.

[Steve]

I'm just happy and excited, you know, and the thing too, I would just say to people as encouragement because in the past you may have done these and you may have done it with other people and you can get two or three days, two or three weeks behind and then just say, oh yeah, give up. I would just say pick up where the rest of the group is. Just feel free to.

[Tim]

100%.

[Steve]

Yeah, just let those go. You can come up, pick up those chapters later at another time, but don't be burdened by it. Allow it to be something that it truly is, which can be life giving.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

Very cool. Let's talk about what we released this year. We spent the year going through themes that are connected to the Exodus story in a very important way.

[Tim]

Yeah. Unique themes that the book of Exodus just kind of like comes into its own, as it were, as a book of the Bible. These are unique contributions that Exodus makes to the storyline of the Bible. So we started with the mountain earlier in 2025, you know, Mount Sinai. Pretty significant yeah, there's mountains before Mount Sinai and there's mountains after Mount Sinai, but Mount Sinai kind of gives you, in the fullest form, the meaning of the mountain that makes you both read backwards into Genesis and forwards. So that was cool. And I think actually for the podcast. Yeah, it was after Sermon on the Mount in 2024, we actually started the mountain series to kind of end the.

[John]

Year, and then the video came out.

[Tim]

At the beginning of this year, and then the podcast ended right as the video came out. Yeah, Yeah.

[Steve]

I was so encouraged by that series. But full confession, when y' all told me you were doing a video on the mountain, I was like, oh, my goodness.

[John]

We've ran out of ideas.

[Steve]

We're running out of topics.

[Tim]

Bottom of the box.

[Steve]

We're making videos on mountains. Oh, no. But it was in a conversation I had with Hakeem where he talked about the significance of mountains. And it's those places where heaven and earth meet. It's the edges where he talked about also, like, where the heavens meet the ocean. It's like, why are we drawn to looking up at those places where those edges meet, the heavens and the earth meet and come together. And then also the challenge to be people of the mountain that then go down into the valley and live there. It's just. I was like, oh, my goodness, why did I doubt it was so good? Really enjoyed it right there.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

And then we did the Exodus Way, which is taking the idea of liberation out of slavery that happens in Exodus and looking at as a theme about really what's happening with all creation, the.

[Tim]

Way out of slavery, the way through the wilderness and the way in and the way in to the promised land. To the Garden. Yeah. Actually, that was satisfying. One is fun project to work on and develop, but also that was a video that was on one of the first lists that I brought to you back in 2013.

[John]

Mountain wasn't on the show.

[Tim]

Mountain was not. But Exodus Pattern was, I think. Just. I have a fondness for how that works, and so it was really fun to finally see that come to fruition. That was great video, great podcast series.

[Steve]

Love what the studio did. The kind of the board game.

[John]

The Doodle Deluxe is what they called that style.

[Steve]

It was so good.

[John]

The board game aesthetic.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Because I just see that in my own life.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

And how that over and over again. Yeah. It's just beautiful.

[John]

Yeah. Okay. And then we did Redemption.

[Tim]

Redemption.

[John]

The theme of redemption. That was heavy. And then it was kind of heavy video.

[Tim]

Yeah. I mean, we're talking about Life and death and the meaning of the universe.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

And the character of God, like, who is God towards pretty. And the death of Jesus ruined creation and the meaning of Jesus death. Yeah. Really substantial themes.

[Steve]

It was heavy, but it was also. There's this element of hope that just was so powerful and just.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

To me it felt like it just permeated that video and that picture of home and what that can look like.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

The podcast series was amazing. I've recommended it to so many people because again, it was just such a reframing for me and the tradition that I was raised in and then listening to it and when you talked about the Repo man, it was like, oh, my goodness. I never.

[John]

I loved it.

[Steve]

It was. It was so helpful.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Steve]

Just realizing Repo man, they've got a bad image, but they're really good people because they're restoring, taking, and putting things.

[Tim]

Back where they belong.

[Steve]

Yeah. It's a branding issue for the repo, but we need to. Anyway, it was really powerful, so thank you, guys. That was a great series.

[Tim]

It was a great example where I came in thinking I understood what it was I wanted to share with you, John, and talk through. And it was a much deeper rediscovery and new discovery even. So much so that we even shifted the fundamental definition of redemption. In my mind, it was release of a slave from slavery. But that's only one way. It's really about God reclaiming as his own something that has wrongfully left God's possession. And that's the essence of the idea. And slavery is one way you can go out of God's possession. But anyhow, that's sticky. It stuck with me and it's really became helpful frame to view the whole story of the Bible. Super cool.

[Steve]

That was good. And John, you kept pushing, you kept asking him the same question over again.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

[John]

My job is quite simple sometimes just keep asking the same question over and over again.

[Steve]

Full three year old. Why? Why?

[John]

Why?

[Tim]

Yeah, I love it.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[John]

Don't let everyone know how simple my job is.

[Steve]

You know what I love is the number of people that will say to me, oh, love the podcast. I don't know how those guys do it. They talk as though it's unscripted. And I'm like, well, it is. You know why it sounds that way.

[John]

It is.

[Tim]

Yes.

[John]

I tell people it's unscripted, but it's highly edited.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

So, yeah, lastly, we did the wilderness. And for me, actually, maybe because it's the freshest, but I think Also because it's so surprising to me. In many ways, it became my favorite theme of the year.

[Steve]

Why is that?

[John]

You know, it feels trite and simplistic to talk about how God could take a bad thing and make it good. And I thought that's kind of a sub theme. We were talking about in the wilderness, but when we started talking about how God's preparing us for garden life and we can prepare in the garden, like that's a possibility, but that actually might be problematic for us.

[Tim]

It's a harder way to learn when.

[John]

There'S so much abundance. We actually can't learn how to be the kind of people who trust in God's word. And so God will reclaim this unfortunate tragedy of being in the wilderness as saying, well, this will be the training ground now, so you could be guarding people. So the wilderness is a place that makes us ready. Felt really significant to me.

[Tim]

Yeah. Yes. I think where it pushed me was in like the big philosophical questions about the meaning of non existence and. Oh yeah, which is whatever. Like you forced me to make all that much more clear and practical and not talk about it all the time, which is great. But I. Every project we do, I learn because of just sitting and talking for hours. It's just. Yeah, I have so many great learning memories from that podcast too. Yeah, it's great, man.

[Steve]

Speaking of learning, one of the podcasts I learned a bunch on was how the Bible is formed.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Steve]

That was so good. Thank you.

[Tim]

That's right. That was a little miniseries.

[John]

A little miniseries in the middle of the year. And why did we do that little miniseries in the middle of the year?

[Tim]

Yes, because we wanted to create a video series in read Scripture style that we did for the Read through the Bible, for the in betweeners, the books that are part of the Catholic Dudro canon or the Protestant apocrypha. These are books that have always been a part of the wider library of the Christian scripture collection, and they've fallen out of use in some Protestant traditions in the last 500 years. And we wanted to help course correct on that and introduce our audience to these really amazing Second Temple Jewish texts. So we released a series of videos on those. They're on our website and in the.

[John]

App and on YouVersion.

[Tim]

And on YouVersion. And then we wanted to provide kind of a rationale which was a crash course in the making of the Bible, specifically focusing on where did these wider. Where did the wider library of texts around the Bible come from? And so on. Yeah, it's great.

[Steve]

Yeah. Super encouraging. And then Finished the year with Advent.

[John]

Yeah. The four Advent words.

[Tim]

Yes. That was fun too.

[John]

It was fun. I really enjoyed working on those.

[Tim]

Yeah. I guess the main theme is that we're enjoying making all this stuff.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

But that we're also like learning constantly ourselves. And we, as you say, we are experiencing the Bible as a unified story of the leads of Jesus as we make the stuff that we help other people do the same.

[John]

Yeah. It's wild to think all the stuff we get to create. However, when we think about what we're doing, it's not just about what we get to do. We do also love to think about. We don't have the right language for this, but sometimes we call it a bigger movement. What we're doing is we're saying let's read the Bible as a unified story leads to Jesus. And then this project is us doing it in our way, like with our voice and personality and, you know, our creative way of doing that. But that's just one expression of reading the Bible's unified story leads Jesus. The bigger thing, this idea of reading the Bible as one story is way bigger than this project. And when people get excited about what we're doing, we kind of have to remember what they're really getting excited about is the Bible and that it's one story and it's unlocking. And I think our most enduring legacy as a project isn't gonna be all these animations. I think one day, decades from now, they're just not gonna be as useful. There'll be something else. But I hope our enduring legacy is that we've brought more language and culture around this idea of reading the Bible this way. And people are starting to do it in their own way, in their own communities. And it becomes a thing much bigger than us. This idea of the Bible's one story in one way.

[Tim]

It already is much bigger than us. Because it's older than us.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

And way more international and cross cultural than us. So there's lots of cool things brewing that we've gotten to witness or hear about or link arms with.

[John]

Yeah. We were just together as a staff and someone from our team made a comment that was really cool about her church.

[Steve]

Yeah. Nina lives in Virginia and was talking about her church is doing a series the Exodus Way. And it was really all of the resources we had from when we released the Exodus Way and they were using it.

[John]

When you say using our resources like they were using it.

[Steve]

They had built like a reading plan and there was. They're going through a series as a Church. And that was focusing on the way out, the way through, the way in. And it was all this stuff. And the thing that was so exciting is it wasn't about us, it's about the Bible. There was no mention of Bible Project.

[Tim]

And it just so great.

[Steve]

I actually got kind of teary eyed because I thought that's what we've longed for. This idea of people reading the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. It isn't about the Bible Project. We've talked internally about this idea of stewarding our moment and then disappearing. And that that is this idea of the enduring long last legacy is we could see this huge shift on how people read the Bible.

[John]

Yeah. That a church could use similar language or use the language. We were kind of inviting us all to think about the Exodus way and the three parts and not feel like, hey, that's ours and if you're going to use it, like credit us. But actually, how cool is it? It felt like this moment of like it's working, like the idea is getting in underneath and people are embracing it as their own.

[Tim]

You know, for people in that church community, they don't hear their leaders saying, here's something that I learned from this thing that's made by these guys who live on the west coast. But it's like people in that church are hearing their pastoral leaders present it, like, this is what we're learning, how we're reading the Bible. They're learning from their teachers in their community that they know. And that's how Bible reading has always worked in the history of the Jesus movement. It's about communities of learning in local places that's so, so vital to how Scripture does its most powerful work. It can do powerful work if you're alone in a hotel room, you know, discover the Gideon's Bible. But it's even more powerful when it's a part of a learning community in the local church. That's the good stuff right there.

[Steve]

And so that's what it is. Every time I read these comments from patrons and it says, you know, love Bible project, it's like, I just want to lose the project part of that off of there because it isn't about us. And Mike guy on our team that heads up what we call strategic relationships, he mentioned to me just the other day that his team has identified over 2,000 churches that actually have our content on their website. And so it's like my hope is that just more and more people are beginning to read and are using this content in their own context.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful.

[John]

Another really cool story is two women, Nicole and Amber, began to write some kids curriculum using homeschool type curriculum based around really the paradigm. And it was really good. And they then started to just in earnest write more and more of this kids curriculum. And this was happening and I didn't really know what was going on. And then Amber came and kind of shared what she was doing and this map that she made of like a.

[Tim]

Little one page treasure map.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[John]

Of how the Old Testament works and what you've called the melody before.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

She was kind of tracing that idea and how all these stories were connected. It was just a beautiful way to think about the Bible. And it was so much seeing the Bible as one story, but doing in a way that kids could really like grasp. So cool. And I would love it if they just were like able to keep going. They understand homeschool, but also they have a vision that's bigger than homeschool. They're trying to create curriculum that like the whole family gets developed, you know, gets discipled by reading the Bible together, but they understand homeschool curriculum.

[Steve]

So over the years, so many people have reached out saying, you guys should make kids curriculum.

[John]

And we've just said, that's, yeah, that's not us.

[Steve]

That's not us. That's not what we do.

[John]

But they get it.

[Steve]

They do. And so I've people recently since having met Amber, when they reach out, I'll just send them the link to her website, 1storyfamily.org and these aren't folks that are homeschooling. They're just saying, I want something to go through with my kids. Do you guys have anything? And it's like, no, but here we go. And a couple of responses I've got super encouraged by what they've been able to do with their kids with her resources. And so, yeah.

[John]

And it would warm my heart if they got some gifts at the end of the year from people who are like, oh, I believe in that. I can support this. Because what they're doing is same things we're doing is everything's free and they just want to give it out for free.

[Tim]

So she's great.

[John]

Yeah. Cool.

[Steve]

One of the things that encouraged me this year, it was Melanie from our global team sharing about some stuff. And she did it in a way where she was sharing with the entire staff. And so my assumption is it would surprise our audience as much as it surprised our staff, but she went through a list of things and she said, she emailed me the list this morning and this list said. Would it surprise you to learn that a library in Rwanda, one of the largest theological libraries in East Africa, hosts Kenya Rwanda videos that our team has made? But it surprised you to learn that seminary schools and theology conferences across Pakistan integrate videos into their curriculum and gatherings. Pastors from desert, rural and city communities gather to watch and study them together. Would it surprise you to learn that a coffee shop in Bulgaria becomes a weekly gathering spot for Bible project discussions? Would it surprise you to learn that our Chinese content is available in mainland China through the Wedevote app? Would it surprise you to learn that Ywam School in the Ukraine includes our videos in its curriculum? And the list goes on and on. Here's a fun one. Would it surprise you to learn that a 15 year old Norway's Lutheran Church confirmation program watches our videos? So encouraging to see over and over again. So just thank you to our patron community that allows us to just give all this stuff away and push it out there. We're not having to sit and think about licensing agreements or any of that. It's just we can scatter this seed everywhere, whether it's one story or it's folks all over the world. As our global team gets These, we're over 55 languages, street lights, localizing our videos to their audience and just all of that that you have made possible that we can just give it away. And so exciting to see and so encouraging.

[Tim]

Yeah. I am regularly at a loss for words when I sit back and think about the scope of where all this has gone. And I think it's just a testament to when who Jesus really is is on full display through scripture and people are encountering Jesus the way scripture really does, on its own terms, present him. It's flabbergasting. It's like the most beautiful thing in the world. And it just is its own, I don't know, it's its own momentum. And I feel like that's what we're getting to get a front seat to witness for this season of the project. And it's just such a great privilege and it is because of the generosity of all of the thousands of people who have come around this project. So thanks be to God for that. It is so cool. So cool.

[John]

A couple other things that have been going on that maybe people aren't aware of. We have classroom classes.

[Tim]

Yeah, there's more. There's more. Yeah.

[John]

And we released two classes this year.

[Tim]

One on the story of Joseph, Joseph and his brothers. Oh my gosh. So good, so good. That wraps up a whole six classes on the book of Genesis.

[John]

Yeah. You taught through all of Genesis.

[Tim]

So rich. Yeah, so rich. One of the great privileges of my middle age adult years was just sit in Genesis for years, crawling through with students.

[John]

Yeah. Lots of people are taking it and finding it so valuable.

[Tim]

Yeah. And also we are beginning a long multi class series through the Gospel of Matthew. Thought we'd take the first book of the Old Testament, and then we're starting to release what will eventually be seven classes on the book of Matthew. So class number two came out, which is on Matthew 5. 7. Sermon on the Mount. We called it the Messianic Torah.

[John]

Yeah. So if you haven't gotten enough Sermon on the Mount, here's another way.

[Tim]

Here's another way to go through it.

[John]

Classroom setting.

[Steve]

Can you ever get enough of the Sermon on the Mount? No. Is there a point where you'll know I'm full? No more Sermon on the Mount for that.

[Tim]

No more sermon.

[Steve]

Never. Speaking of classroom, super encouraging too. And we may have mentioned it last year, but it just is growing and growing is there's an organization called the Pando.

[John]

Oh, yeah.

[Steve]

I think they. They make a tablet that they get into prisons across the country. And some folks that are incarcerated that were watching our content asked if we would put the classroom videos on there. And so there's folks that are incarcerated that are going through the classroom classes. Some of them doing it in groups.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

So they can go through together. And a Patreon comment I received earlier this year was from a woman named Rachel. And she said, oh, my goodness. I watched your content, your videos in classroom when I was incarcerated. I didn't know you were out here in the free world and I wanted to support you. And she thought that we were strict. Yeah. So encouraging. She said, you have no idea the difference this content is making for folks that are incarcerated. And so, so encouraging.

[John]

Wow, that's cool.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[John]

We should also just mention we have an app. And we have never spent a lot of time, like, advertising our app and just we keep tweaking it, making it better. And it's gotten to a point where it's like, oh, this is actually cool. Like, people are using it. Hundreds of thousands of people every month. I think it's a great way to listen to our podcast. It's a great way to do classroom.

[Tim]

Yeah. You can take classes and listen as if it were a podcast. Yeah, yeah.

[Steve]

On the audio only mode. Yeah.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

You could find our resources in a couple different ways through like a catalog in there, but also like, each chapter of the Bible has resources that we have connected to that chapter. And then there's also. We have these, like, collections, like when we go through the mountain, for example, it's like, there's a lot of stuff we make. We make the podcast, we make the video, we have articles, we have discussion questions. That puts it all in one place so that you can kind of choose your own adventure and build out, like, the way you want to study it.

[Steve]

Yeah, no, the team has done a great job this last year of really focusing on more coordination as we release all of this content at one place. And the app is a great place to get that, where it has that. So, like, a study guide that you can go through with a small group or individually. And it's all there on those top cards on the app.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

I think, like, our core audience, the people who are, like, in this with us, are finding it useful and using it.

[Tim]

It's probably the easiest place to go through the maze of all of our library. That's definitely.

[Steve]

And I think we're getting better. Early days of bibleproject. I remember somebody said to me, you have amazing content. It's just like going into a library with no shelves and all the books are on the floor. And so, as we continue to grow and mature as an organization, our team is really finding ways to make everything more searchable and allow people to find it. But it's the one place that you can go that has everything, and it's all right there.

[Tim]

Yeah. Perhaps last but not least is the very way that we're talking to y' all right now is on the podcast. Oh, yeah. And this was a milestone year for the BibleProject podcast.

[John]

We've been doing this podcast for 10 years now.

[Tim]

This is our 10th year as a podcast.

[John]

That's ancient for podcasts. We're like podcast like dinosaurs. That's weird to say.

[Tim]

Grandpas. Grandpa.

[Steve]

Grandpa sounds better.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Okay.

[Tim]

So, yeah, somewhere near the end of 2025, you know, we released our 500th hour of talking. That is 500th episode. So wild. So imagine. But that that happened.

[John]

And some people have listened to all 500 so wild. It's a lot of spending time with us.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

So I'm sorry, and you're welcome.

[Steve]

It's my companion every Monday morning when I take my walk. I enjoy it. It's great. Some people might think, hey, as the CEO, are you not listening to these before we send them out to the wild? But no, I'm right there with all of you hearing it. When it comes out.

[Tim]

So it's great.

[John]

Yeah. And so what's coming out next year on the pod that's gonna turn in all sorts of resources.

[Tim]

Well, I guess we're not yet gonna wave goodbye to Exodus. We've got one more Exodus kind of themed.

[John]

Ah. Like a capstone theme to Exodus, in a way.

[Tim]

We're gonna do a whole video series and podcast series on your favorite page of the Bible and mine. The Ten Commandments. Wow. From Exodus, chapter 20. All 10.

[John]

We're gonna do all 10.

[Tim]

Well, yep.

[Steve]

Yep.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Complete it.

[Tim]

And I think I'll just say I was surprised as we started to work on it, how much more excited I got about the Ten Commandments than I had been before.

[John]

Yeah. While doing it.

[Tim]

While doing it.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

I felt the same way.

[Tim]

Yeah. It was so fun. Both the conversations, you know, that the podcast will be. But then the videos.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

It's so surprising.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

I think that's all I want to say.

[John]

It's gonna be a big series because there's gonna be, like, an intro video.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

And then a video for every one of the commands.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Big series.

[John]

And so. Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of content. And animation studio is doing such a. Cool.

[Tim]

So amazing, really, are that.

[Steve]

Finding myself walking around the animation studio a little more these days, looking over people's. Yeah. And having seen some of the early stuff that they've been working on. So encouraged and surprised. I mean, I'm old. You hear Ten Commandments, you think Charlton Heston, you know, on that movie that would play every Easter. And. Oh, my goodness. I think our. Yeah. I think y' all will be so encouraged by this series.

[Tim]

Yeah. That's next level.

[John]

Before that. Yeah. A little kind of detour.

[Tim]

Yeah. A little miniseries.

[John]

A little miniseries that isn't going to have any other content associated with it. It's just going to be a little podcast only. Little exploration.

[Tim]

Yes. On the Letter of Jude.

[John]

The Letter of Jude.

[Tim]

Half a page in most of our Bibles.

[Steve]

And how long's the podcast series gonna be?

[Tim]

Like six episodes.

[Steve]

Okay.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

But it could have been easily 10 episodes.

[John]

Yeah. But I bet we could have done, like, 20. Yeah.

[Tim]

Okay. So backstory is when we did all the read Scripture overview videos. The Letter of Jude. I gave myself, like, two weeks to just immerse myself in all things Jude, catch up from all my learning in the past, Read the stack of books, write the script, draw the poster draft to give to Everett, who drew the final poster. And it just stuck out in my mind as like, whenever I get time, I want to come back here and spend a whole lot more energy and time. And then 10 years went by.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

And so I had the study break planned for earlier this year, and I got the choice to, like, what do I get to do on this study break? And I was like, to just only eat, breathe, sleep, and think about Jude and everything that Jude's connected to. I had so much fun. Yeah.

[Steve]

Can't wait.

[Tim]

So the podcast series is so wild. Jude's wild.

[John]

Jude is wild.

[Tim]

It's a wild ride.

[John]

It's surprising. It's in the Bible.

[Steve]

Wow. Really?

[John]

I think, you know what's funny is I famously show up unprepared for the podcast, and part of my comfort level with it is we usually are talking about some, like, Old Testament passage that I just know no one's familiar with.

[Tim]

Oh, sure.

[John]

So, like, yeah, yeah, it's fine. I don't need to be prepared.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[John]

But for some reason, because I was like, oh, this is a New Testament book. I almost felt like I should probably have read it recently. And so I think it was the, like, night before we were going to start, and I read Jude.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

And I realized it's like, five minutes, right? It took you.

[John]

Yeah, yeah. You can read it. Yeah. It's 25 verses, but I ended up reading it many times over.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

And it's so confused. And it just occurred to me, like, I don't think I've read this for 20 years.

[Tim]

Yeah. Yeah.

[John]

And like, I kind of forgot this was in the Bible. Yeah. So, yeah. There's a lot of really strange, wild stuff in Jude. And what I think you really loved about it that you kept talking about is it's such a unique window into a early form of Christianity that's different than, like, Paul's church planning movement. Separate from that.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

It was like a Jewish messianic movement in Galilee, in Jerusalem, and it was founded by the brothers of Jesus.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

Jude and James and that crew.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

And the way that they read the Bible as, like, Jewish kind of Tanakh nerds.

[Tim]

Yes.

[John]

It just is like, yeah. Hyperlink heaven.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Wow. I think, you know, I don't know anything about Jude. I think I've always just seen it as the on deck circle for as I try and gear up to read.

[John]

Through Revelation, it's like, yeah, let's get a little confused before we get really confused.

[Steve]

And it's 25 verses, so you plow through it and go check the entire book. Done.

[John]

More than any other book is where I'll Read a verse in Jude and I'll be like, yeah, I don't get it. And I don't have time to get it.

[Steve]

I got this big book called Revelations staring me in the face. I'm just gonna blow through this. Yeah. So that's great.

[Tim]

That's gonna be awesome.

[John]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Yep.

[John]

And that's just the beginning of the year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

There's more.

[Tim]

There's more coming out.

[John]

There's more coming out.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

But we won't belabor this few things.

[Steve]

That I just want to make sure that.

[Tim]

Please.

[Steve]

As we're reflecting on the year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

So encouraged by a group of volunteers that come to our office every Tuesday. There's usually 20, 25. I think we've had as many as 30 people that are down there. Patrons. They're addressing envelopes to say thank you to the folks that support this. And they're just there faithfully doing this. And it's so encouraging to see them. And they're just a great group of people.

[Tim]

So they're handwriting our thank yous.

[Steve]

Absolutely.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Tim]

So cool.

[Steve]

It's. They're part. I see them as part of our patron care team.

[Tim]

Absolutely.

[Steve]

To just thank the people that are making this all possible.

[John]

Because it's so fun to get an actual hand, like, written envelope, your name handwritten. Written on a thing. And you're like, look at it. And you're like, wait, this is actually handwritten. Like, this wasn't. This wasn't like an auto pen thing.

[Steve]

This was like.

[John]

Someone wrote this.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Tim]

That's a great team. It is so cool.

[Steve]

Just really amazing group of people. And then they do so much more than that, too. They just are. They're in it with all of us.

[Tim]

They are.

[Steve]

And so grateful for that. Also for our prayer team.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Steve]

Over 80,000 people receive a monthly prayer email. Christopher from our team gathers requests from around the team, puts the prayer email together and then sends it out. And so we see that as the absolute foundation for what we do. And it's the bedrock we've talked about over and over again that the impact that the Bible project has had is so much greater than the sum total of all of our very best work. And we just clearly see that God goes before us and it is something he's doing internally. We say that he makes the wave and we just get to ride it. And we are so grateful for this season in which we get to ride that. And so those things just so encourage me. And then lastly, is the 50,000 patrons that joined us this last year and are a Part of what's going on here and enable us to really to make the content, to scatter these seeds and to push the content out there and to allow it to show up on the YouVersion app and allow the folks at Streetlights and these 2,000 plus churches that we know of that are using the content and then localize it all over the world. So on behalf of the entire project, I just want to say thank you for being in this with us.

[Tim]

Yes, 100%. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and support for this. And I know why I'm compelled to be a part of it is, as you said, John, I'm experiencing the Bible as a unified story. It's leading me to Jesus, and that's why I give to the project both energy and financially, and it's just so amazing. So, yeah, thank you all for doing this with us. It's really incredible.

[Steve]

Yeah, yeah.

[John]

Good word.

[Steve]

We have said we really move at the speed of generosity. And, you know, you can hear people say, hey, you know, we couldn't do this without you. I feel from the very beginning we really said, we won't do this without you.

[Tim]

Yeah, that's right.

[John]

Yeah.

[Steve]

That if there weren't a group of people that found value in what we were doing, and if it wasn't having an impact on people's lives, where they were motivated to join us, then does it really need to be done? And so we hear you and we'll continue to make content as long as there's people that have a desire for it.

[John]

Yeah. So that's to another wonderful year.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[John]

And I'm excited for next year. And I hope that as we all end the year, it's kind of just a moment to reflect on what God's doing in our own hearts and families and communities and spend time with family, start to gear up for, like, another run at this thing called life. You know, like such a weird moment in time to be like, we're going around the sun one more time. Here we go. So it's cool that we're all doing it together. It's wonderful to do it with you guys. Wonderful to do it with our whole team and all of our patrons. Yeah.

[Steve]

Well, thank you guys for inviting us in on this community of reading the Bible together that you do and grateful for. You guys.

[Tim]

Yeah, likewise.

[John]

You too, Steve. Okay. Until next year.

[Steve]

Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. I'll let you guys take it for the next 11 and a half months, and then I will come on back. Okay.

[Tim]

John and Steve, did you know that the Bible Project is a crowdfunded nonprofit media studio. We are making things to help people experience the Bible as unified story. Lisa Jesus and this podcast is one of those things and it's made by man. Such an amazing gifted team of people. You should check out the show notes for the podcast.

[Steve]

It's all made possible by the generosity of you and you and you and you. I see all of you. Thank you.

[John]

And you can find everything on Bibleproject app and Bibleproject.com hi, my name's Chris and my name's Hannah and we are from Indiana. We first heard about the Bible Project a couple years ago when we were doing a Read through the Bible in the Year program. I used the Bible Project for study and a favorite part so far from the Bible Project is the how to Read the Bible series. We believe the Bible is a fine story that leads to Jesus. Bible Project is a nonprofit non profit funded by people like me. Find free videos, articles, podcasts, classes and more on the Bible Bible Project app [e-mail] thank you.