Open Bible Stories

Open Bible Stories

Jesus "taught them by telling many stories" Mark 4:2 (NLT)

The goal of the Open Bible Stories project is this:

30 stories of the Bible in text, audio and video formats,
available on the web and on mobile phones, in every language of the world.

This is a challenging goal, but we believe it is possible because it is being built using a resource that has never before been used in the history of the Christian church: the collective time and talent of every believer in the world who wants to help. The project is released from copyright restrictions under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license), so that the stories can be legally adapted, translated and used by anyone, in any language and culture.

Check out the video of the first (almost) completed story: The Compassionate Father.

1.    The Creation - The creation of the universe and all living things.
2.    Sin Enters the World - The temptation and sin of Adam and Eve.
3.    The Flood - How God destroyed the world with a flood.
4.    God's Covenant with Abraham - God's promise to Abraham to bless all people of the world.
5.    The Patriarchs - The story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
6.    Moses and the Ten Plagues - God delivers His people from slavery.
7.    Passover and Crossing the Red Sea - God's feast and final victory over Pharaoh.
8.    God's Covenant with Israel - God forms a covenant with the people of Israel.
9.    40 Years Wandering before Conquering Canaan - The Israelites sin, are punished and finally enter the Promised Land.
10.    The Time of the Deliverers - The young nation of Israel is led by deliverers.
11.    God's Covenant with David - God promises the Messiah will come from David's family.
12.    The Divided Kingdom - The nation of Israel is divided into two - Israel and Judah.
13.    Exile and Return - God sends Israel and Judah into exile because of their sin. Judah returns.
14.    The Prophets - God sends prophets to proclaim the Word of the Lord.
15.    The Birth of Jesus - Jesus is born.
16.    John Baptizes Jesus - Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.
17.    The Good Samaritan - A story Jesus told about loving your neighbor.
18.    The Rich Young Ruler - Jesus teaches a rich young ruler about true wealth.
19.    Jesus Walks on the Water - Jesus shows his power over nature by walking on water.
20.    Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Man - Jesus shows his power over demons by healing a demon-possessed man.
21.    Jesus Feeds 5,000 People - Jesus shows his power over nature by multiplying food.
22.    The Story of the Sower - Jesus uses a story about a sower to teach about peoples' hearts.
23.    The Compassionate Father - A story told by Jesus about the love of God.
24.    Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead - Jesus shows his power over death by raising Lazarus from the dead.
25.    Jesus' Betrayal and Crucifixion - Jesus is betrayed and crucified.
26.    Jesus' Resurrection - Jesus rises from the dead.
27.    Pentecost - God pours out the gift of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
28.    God's New Covenant - The New Covenant that God completed through Jesus.
29.    The Gospel Spreads - Christianity spread quickly after Pentecost.
30.    Jesus' Return - Jesus promised that he would return to earth.

We need your help!

The Open Bible Stories project is a work-in-progress and needs help from people like you. Read on to find out more about the project and how you can be part of it.

Draft a new story

You can help draft the text for a new story:

• Pick a story from the list that is Not Started and has a    in front of it and click the link.
• Make a list of the main points of the story on the page.
• Retell the story in your own words and as a spoken story, using only the main points of the story.
• Review the story and compare it with the Bible text to be sure all the important points are covered.
• Simplify the language as much as possible, like you were telling the story to a 5yr old child.

The best way to do this is to work with a few others - it makes the work go faster and is way more fun! A resource that is very helpful is http://typewith.me - create a new document on it and share the link to others. Many people can see and edit at the same time. When you're finished, copy the text from the document to the page on Door43 and save your work.

Review a story

For stories in the list that are in Draft Phase    or have already been drafted and are in Review Phase   , you can help by:

• Checking for completeness - all the key points of the story need to be included, but the additional details of some stories may not be included (or in summarized form), in order to keep the finished story to 5 minutes or less of audio.
• Checking for accuracy - we want to be faithful to the Biblical text but using language that is easily understandable.
• Checking the story for "naturalness" - the story should be easily understandable when hearing it is read out loud.

Other ways

• Translations - Can you translate the text of the stories into other languages? Jump in or contact us if you need some help getting started.
• Illustrations - We can legally use thousands of Bible story pictures and need help finding the right ones for use in the Open Bible Stories project. Can you help? Contact us for more details.
• Audio - Want to record the stories as audio? We need high definition audio files of every one of the stories and if you can help, please do!
• Video - We have an urgent need for help turning audio files and illustrations into videos that are easily rendered in other languages. We are designing a simple browser-based video editor that will make this possible, but we need help! If you are a videographer or could help develop this tool, please contact us for more details. Thanks!
• Programming - We need help improving the usability of Door43 and expanding the functionality of the Open Bible Stories project. We also need help developing mobile applications for people to access the Open Bible Stories. Find out more on the Development page!

Who is it for?

Open Bible Stories is a project to serve the global church, many of whom have never heard the stories of the Bible. Those who can speak English will be able to listen to the stories and then use the English version as a source text to help translate the stories into their own languages, for use in their own language versions of Door43.

A key part of the approach we are using is to get the content from Door43 onto mobile phones all over the world as soon as possible. We are designing mobile phone applications that play the media files for stories that are completed, and also include "help us translate this story" for stories which have not yet completed. So we plan to make the mobile strategy part of the strategy at the very beginning.

How is this project different from others?

The key features of the Open Bible Stories project are:

• Unrestricted - You are legally free to translate, adapt, re-purpose and use these stories for any ministry purpose, anywhere, without needing to ask permission - you already have it!
• Built by the global church, for the global church - Instead of using a "book publishing" model for creating Open Bible Stories, we are inviting the global church anywhere in the world to work together to create it over the Internet. (Wondering how we can maintain the quality of a crowd-sourced discipleship resource? Find out here.)
• In multimedia formats - The stories will start as text resources that will then be recorded as audio files and eventually made into mobile phone-friendly video formats.
• Chronological order - The stories are arranged in chronological order.
• Short - Each story is reduced to its key components so that it can be told in less than 5 minutes.
• In simple language - The stories in the English version of the project use English that is understandable by second-language speakers of English (and is also suitable for children).
• Intended to be translated - Not only are there no restrictions preventing these stories from being translated into other languages, we are actively encouraging people to help translate them into every language of the world.

How can you tell what the status is of a given story?

Each story is given a status to indicate where it is in the development process. The levels used are listed here:

   0 - Not Started

   1 - Draft Phase

   2 - Review Phase

   3 - Text Complete

   4 - Audio Complete

   5 - Video Complete

How is the project being built?

The list is below and you can also check out the first storiy: The Compassionate Father

Here's how we are building it:

1. For each story, we'll condense the text of the story to it's key themes so that it is less than 5 minutes in length. This may be done by retelling it in our own words then cleaning up the text so that it is easily readable and sounds natural when spoken.
2. The text of the story is combined with illustrations on the page for that story.
3. The text of the story is then recorded as an audio file and made available to stream or download.
4. The audio files and images for each story are combined to create a video that is available to stream or download.
5. The stories (text + audio) will be made into mobile phone applications that anyone can install and listen to or read on their mobile phones

Resources

These are some resources that can be used in this project:

• The Bible in various versions - Remember that using copyrighted content without permission is illegal! Copying headings or passages is not legal, but using various Bible texts and versions to do the research is.
• Open-licensed resources (like this) can be used and should be attributed accordingly.
• http://typewith.me - for concurrent editing of a story by many people.