I want to thank Dave Foran, our former director, for his leadership and the various programs that he successfully launched during his tenure. This past year continues to be one where we have received many testimonies of how the NET Bible and the web site has helped mature lives e.g.
Hi, I'm a Pastor in Bacolod City, Philippines. ... Your site has been a great help for me with regards to theological studies, and even book studies. I am now going through the book of Colossians in our Sunday Worship Service, and your articles and commentaries have been very helpful! Thanks, and may God bless you and your ministry ../s/ Ricky ..
WOW - what an amazing site - thank you so very much for all your faithful inspired work over the years to develop and maintain and extend bible .org and especially the NET bible site( http://net.bible.org ) - incredible - the Greek and Hebrew word meanings material is sensational - so well organized and thorough - great for preparing messages and for personal study. ..... let this wife, mother of three and part time preacher bless and thank you again for all your ministry warmly /s/ Merilyn Sydney Australia
I'm writing this to let you know how much God has used your website in my life. I've been using your studies many years for personal growth and for teaching my 7th & 8th grade Sunday school class. You have become an invaluable tool in our home. I thank God for you! ../s/ Patty
Whenever there is a change of leadership at the top of a ministry we all ask...
“How will the ministry change and how will it affect those areas that I as a user currently use?”
The short answer is that our basic thrust will not change, the leadership at bible.org and its partners are committed to getting the NET Bible better known and continuing to produce trusted bible resources and tools that support the local church and overseas ministries where there is little reference material on the bible.org site. We will continue to listen to your feedback and suggestions for enhancements and in fact we plan to soon make it easier for all to see the enhancements that the users are requesting and we will make it easier for you to interact and test those new enhancements as we develop them for all to use.
Our long term goal for the Bible.org site is that you in your role as missionaries, pastors, church leaders, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, Bible teachers, and individuals seeking biblically sound teaching will be able to search and find answers to your questions about the Bible. We plan to search not just Bible.org material but other Christian material off-site so that you can come to bible.org first to find answers to your questions and to supply your need for solid study material. We plan, as well, with the help of ministry partners and the power of the Holy Spirit to create a good on line study environment to help you mature in Christ. Your feedback in 2008 has encouraged us to begin several projects that expand bible.org so it will be even more effective in reaching the world for Christ and helping people establish new Churches globally. I will share more about these projects in my upcoming blogs but in this first communication I want to assure our users that bible.org will continue to meet and hopefully exceed the needs that you have come to expect from it.
We have all heard that the world economy is turning down and that ministries will be having problems continuing their same level of services. We at bible.org are not immune from these economic forces and have ourselves been affected. However, after prayer we feel the Lord would have us continue to run as lean an organization as possible and not cut the 'worker bees” that are developing new tools and content and we have taken steps to look for more volunteers (like myself) that have executive and/or ministry experience and can develop content and direct the projects and ministries of bible.org. If you have time to help us email me.
In the next few Blogs I will summarize several of the projects that we expect to release in the next 6 months and about a process that opens up our planning for community comment allowing us to better serve the church in 2009.
What are some of these projects that bible.org is working on?
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Update the bible.org site so that it better supports communities with different focus areas while continuing to support article search and bible studies with the NETBible. Provide tools so our users can study the Bible more effectively. Expand the site so that it can more rapidly respond to the needs of our users worldwide.
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Status of current projects and opportunities for you to participate in them.
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Its time to bring “Open Source Tools and mindset” to meeting the goal to reaching the world for Christ within one generation.
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A view into the future plans for Bible.org and how to measure its progress toward its vision
David Austin is the Executive Director of the global Internet ministry bible.org. He is passionate about those who don't know Jesus Christ as savior and volunteering to make a difference. This blog is dedicated to keeping the bible.org community informed about matters of ministry and life from his vantage point of the "Director's Chair".
