Open Bible Stories
From Door43
Jesus "taught them by telling many stories" Mark 4:2 (NLT)The goal of the Open Bible Stories project is this:
A visual mini-Bible in text, audio and video formats, 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.
Find out more, from the Distant Shores Media blog:
- 0 - Not Started
- 1 - Draft Phase
- 2 - Review Phase
- 3 - Text Complete
- 4 - Audio Complete
- 5 - Video Complete
- The Creation - The creation of the universe and all living things.
- Sin Enters the World - The temptation and sin of Adam and Eve.
- The Flood - How God destroyed the world with a flood.
- God's Covenant with Abraham - God's promise to Abraham to bless all people of the world.
- The Forefathers - The story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Moses and the Ten Plagues - God delivers His people from slavery.
- God Frees Israel from Egypt - God's feast and final victory over Pharaoh.
- God's Covenant with Israel - God forms a covenant with the people of Israel.
- The Promised Land - The Israelites sin, are punished and finally enter the Promised Land.
- The Deliverers - The young nation of Israel is led by deliverers.
- God's Covenant with David - God promises the Messiah will come from David's family.
- The Divided Kingdom - The nation of Israel is divided into two - Israel and Judah.
- The Exile and Return - God sends Israel and Judah into exile because of their sin. Judah returns.
- The Prophets - God sends prophets to proclaim the Word of the Lord.
- The Birth of Jesus - Jesus is born.
- John Baptizes Jesus - Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.
- The Good Samaritan - A story Jesus told about loving your neighbor.
- The Rich Young Ruler - Jesus teaches a rich young ruler about true wealth.
- Jesus Walks on the Water - Jesus shows his power over nature by walking on water.
- Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Man - Jesus shows his power over demons by healing a demon-possessed man.
- Jesus Feeds 5,000 People - Jesus shows his power over nature by multiplying food.
- The Story of the Farmer - Jesus uses a story about a sower to teach about peoples' hearts.
- The Compassionate Father - A story told by Jesus about the love of God.
- Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead - Jesus shows his power over death by raising Lazarus from the dead.
- Jesus' Betrayal and Crucifixion - Jesus is betrayed and crucified.
- Jesus' Resurrection - Jesus rises from the dead.
- The Beginning of the Church - God pours out the gift of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
- The Growth of the Church - Christianity spread quickly after Pentecost.
- God's New Covenant - The New Covenant that God completed through Jesus.
- 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.
Photoshop
- Picture clean-up - Our biggest need is to get the scanned images of the artwork cleaned up. Tape marks, dust, etc. all need to be removed and a cleaned-up copy saved (file-clean.jpg). Then the picture needs to be cropped to a 4:3 ratio and a copy of it saved (file-clean-4-3.jpg). Finally, the picture needs to be cropped to a 16:9 and saved (file-clean-16-9.jpg). These cropped versions should not be resized or scaled, just cropped at the highest resolution possible.
- Image layering - The second need is to cut up the cleaned up scale images into virtual layers for use in the Open Bible Story videos. See this article for more details.
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.
- 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 this article and 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:
- 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.
- The text of the story is combined with illustrations on the page for that story.
- The text of the story is then recorded as an audio file and made available to stream or download.
- The audio files and images for each story are combined to create a video that is available to stream or download.
- 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.
