Since Tim Mackie was in his 20s he has been on a mission to understand the Bible — its history, culture and language — and to help others understand the Bible. This passion led him to earn a theology degree and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, to serve as a pastor for several years, and eventually to start the BibleProject with co-founder Jon Collins.

In Today’s Conversation podcast hosted by NAE President Walter Kim, you’ll hear Tim share:

  • Why he and Jon decided to start the BibleProject;
  • How Tim was drawn to Jesus through an outreach to skateboarders;
  • What approach the BibleProject takes to navigate different interpretations of Scripture; and
  • How creativity threads through Scripture and connects to our calling as Christians.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: I’m speculating here, but I want you to draw this out. Pre-pandemic, post-pandemic, what you’re doing at the BibleProject seems like it would have been equally applicable before and after because of the medium that you have chosen to work in and through. But is that the case? Have you noticed any shift in the ways that people have engaged with your material during the pandemic?

Tim: You’re totally right. Your intuition is correct there. It wasn’t something we planned necessarily, but it just so happened the main medium and platform that we are using is both YouTube and just online delivery. We are able to give away all this content for free with no ads or no paywall or subscription payments, because from the beginning — and again this was Jon’s idea — of starting kind of a micro-Patreon model which is, “If you find the videos helpful, donate a few bucks and help us make some more.” When the number of people begins to grow, it creates a pretty stable base to be able to build an animation studio. So that is what happened over time.

What we found was in pandemic era where people are at home more and looking for more content to either learn on their own or to learn with friends/family, we’ve seen a large amount of momentum and growth in our audience and growth in the number of people who are learning about BibleProject. It’s felt like a very providential experience that we couldn’t have planned. So yes, we have noticed all of those things and are feeling really humbled that we get to be in this role where we feel like our work is more meaningful than ever, because we’re actually serving a lot more people than we were a year ago.

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Today’s Conversation is brought to you by Christian Community Credit Union.

 

 

 

Tim Mackie

Tim Mackie is the co-founder of the BibleProject, a nonprofit animation studio helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. He is the former pastor of Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin, and Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon. Mackie also served as a part-time professor at Western Seminary. His early research interests focused on the manuscript history of the Bible and the biblical canon. Mackie holds a bachelor’s degree from Multnomah University, a theology degree from Western Seminary and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Walter Kim

Walter Kim became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in January 2020. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver, Canada and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes and engages in collaborative leadership to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He regularly teaches in conferences and classrooms; addresses faith concerns with elected officials and public institutions; and provides theological and cultural commentary to leading news outlets. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief and consults with a wide range of organizations. Kim received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and his B.A. from Northwestern University.