A new Bible resource is unique in its scope, offering totally free photographs and drawings to illustrate Bible stories.

I personally cringe at some graphic depictions of scriptural scenes, which can be old-fashioned, religious and even creepy. Those from FreeBibleimages are not!

Paul Thompson tells the team’s story:

“It all began when a group of Christian men with a background in I.T., design, finance, marketing and management were either out of contract, redundant, or recovering from ill health. We met together in Farnham, Surrey (UK) for prayer and support.

We noticed that if you were teaching the Bible to any age-group, it was difficult to successfully google for images suitable to teach the sequential events in a Bible story. And if you could find them, they were not free to use. After research, we set out to create the Bible in pictures online.

All of those involved have since found work or a way of supporting themselves financially so that any funds we raise go into the creation, production of images and placement on our website for free distribution. Our story is one of many triumphs in the face of sometimes severe adversity.

We value the importance of the teacher/presenter in effective learning and we know how God uses these people to inspire others. We believe that that our low-tech approach – people explaining Scripture with visuals to help them – can be more effective than other solutions. We also know that images reflecting the historical setting and culture of the scenes will not date, and can be used by anyone anywhere to teach every age-group.

No restrictions

Our heart is for anyone, anywhere, to download sets of sequential Bible-story visuals without restriction, to use in teaching the Bible in their own style, language and culture.

For this reason we make all our resources free, with no obligation to give us any personal details, as we have many users in parts of the world where Christians are persecuted.

Our sources

In our journey with God on this project, we have found three sources for images:

1. Shooting actors against a green chroma-screen background and then digitally placing these over Middle-Eastern backgrounds.
2. Using high-quality film stills from Bible stories set in the Middle East.
3. Using illustrations, now out of print, and released to us under a creative commons licence for free distribution.

We have no overheads and everyone at FreeBibleimages supports themselves financially, giving their time as volunteers. All money raised goes into the expenses of shooting and producing images and placing them online.

Future plans

Funds permitting, we plans over the next year to:

1. Create sets of images about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus from film stills licensed by Big Book Media.
2. Finish sets of images on the life of Joseph and Elijah.
3. Begin shooting the Acts of the Apostles.
4. Post about 20 new sets of illustrated stories online.

The vision

To date we have users in 144 countries downloading and using our images in teaching the Bible. We are hoping more film companies will release film stills to us, and that publishers will release out-of print Bible story illustrations. Our vision is to get the whole Bible in images so that anyone at anytime, anywhere in the world can use them in their communication of the Bible.

Our philosophy is based on free web distribution rather than a typical commercial stockphoto model. Users often become involved in different ways to share the vision and provide the resources to make it happen. Although we are all from an evangelical background, we merely give users the Bible reference so that users can construct their own message – we do not introduce any denominational or theological bias. However, we provide a Story Planner showing thumbnails of the images, a description of what is happening in each scene, and space for them to write their own notes.”

Choose your graphics at FreeBibleimages.org and sign up for the newsletter.

What needs do you have for Bible story pictures? Add your comments below.

Michael Hyatt’s new book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World is receiving a lot of praise. Hyatt is the chairman of Christian Publishers Thomas Nelson. DJ Chuang says in his blog review that it is “hands down the best book I’ve ever seen about blogging and social media!”

Whether you are a non-profit or ministry looking to extend your voice, or an outreach team wishing to use social media to directly touch outsiders, this book is for you. Check this 9-minute interview with Hyatt ▸

If you’ve read it, what did you find helpful? Please add your comments.

This infographic by Hyatt is a taster for the principles explained in the book ▾

There’s more

Here are 3 more infographics which though business related, may contain insights for non-profits and ministries.

And check this key advice: 5 Surefire Ways to Never Get Noticed by Anybody.

Hollywood blockbuster Red Tails is inspired by the true story of World War II’s first African American fighter squadron, the Tuskegee airmen. It’s is a thrilling, action-packed film with the most realistic dogfights ever to hit the screen.

The movie tells the tale of the heroic 332nd fighter group of the U.S. Army Air Corps who overcame racial discrimination to become one of the most distinguished squadrons in World War 2.

Culturewatch ministry Damaris are offering a range of free resources, helping to use the film in talks, youthgroups, sermons, Facebook and social networking, or personal discussion.

Damaris are also producing resources for the digitally-remastered re-release of Chariots of Fire.

Join to get their free newsletters.

The significance of free mobile phone Bibles cannot be overestimated for these reasons:

• Christians can have access to a 24/7 Bible.
• In the Majority World, mobile phones may be comparable in price to printed Bibles, maybe even cheaper.
• In closed countries, Bibles can be hard to obtain, and it may not be wise to be seen to own one.
• Inquirers can privately download Bibles in a growing range of languages.
• Even many simple phones can download Bibles and other discipleship materials.

Below is an TechCrunch interview with YouVersion’s Bobby Gruenewald. YouVersion is the most widely-used mobile Bible, available in 100s of languages, and downloadable to all smartphones and tablets as well as older Java-equipped phones. Other options for older phones include GoBible and other resources. The ESV Study Bible is also a popular (though not free) smartphone app for iPhone, Android and Windows 7. Check also the resources of the Digital Bible Society – on CD for China, and SD card for Arabic and Farsi.

To help inquirers, there is surely a big need for mobile apps that actually explain the Bible to outsiders (Acts 8: 26-40), without jargon or assumed prior knowledge. There are very few books that attempt this. Are there any such apps?

Read more recent posts about mobile phone opportunities.

When people are seeking spiritual answers, why would we not try to listen to them and start engaging in the terms and language they are using, rather than defaulting to some standardizedformulaic gospel presentation?

Listening to the society around us is not optional. John Stott called it ‘double listening’. Tony Watkins has written on double listening in relation to popular culture.

Below, Sheridan Voysey explains some vital issues in understanding a country’s soul. This is one of a series of key video clips; please take time to follow the others on his blog.

Twitter continues to grow in usage and influence.

• New to Twitter? Couchable offers a particularly clear guide to using it.

• Tweeting Church: Good News in only 140 characters by Paul Clifford is a free ebook download on our book page.

• Twitter can be a key part of a church social networking strategy.

Two infographics

The first infographic displays remarkable stats and demographics. Incidentally, and amazingly, it shows that the item generating the most tweets per minute ever, was not some sporting event or national disaster, but a showing of the wonderful Japanese anime film Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Why are Studio Ghibli films are so good?

The second infographic gives a range of valuable brief tips.

Twitter 2012: The Freshest Statistics on the King of Microblogging Services by Infographiclabs

Graphic by CherylLawson.com

A questionnaire-based research study into social media evangelism by Christian Vision has just been published. CV’s Andrew Flynn comments, “It basically confirms that Christians are aware of the opportunity to evangelize online but need help in how to – but that they are already a lot more engaged relationally than perhaps we sometimes give credit for.”

View the results including a summary infographic.

This study highlights the need for training sessions – either as regional training days, or as church-based seminars.

In UK, regional training days are being held in various cities. If you are offering such training days in any country, we can add them here.

Ready-made curriculum?

There is also surely a need to create a ready-made social networking curriculum with downloadable materials, that any church or group could adapt and use for their own member training? If you are a church, what would you like such material to cover? If you are involved in social media training, how do you do it? Please add your comments here.

Learn more

Our page on church social networking sums up the potential.

Internet Toolbox for Churches is a remarkable growing resource to help churches understand and use social and digital media with outsiders in mind. Subscribe to the newsletter, listen to the podcasts, and follow Dave on Twitter: @ITDDave.

Helpful imagery for thinking outside the box

In the idiom of this 50-second video-clip, we need to escape the imaginary confines of the jar:

Cardboard testimonies are a highly visual, often moving, way of briefly sharing the story of God’s hand in people’s life stories. They are relatively easy to plan and film.

It’s another way of creating video shorts that can be shared in Facebook, Twitter, on a church web site, etc. Of course, just as in writing out a longer testimony for outsiders, avoid jargon and exaggeration or overclaim: read more.

• Watch more YouTube cardboard testimonies
• Sharing faith on Facebook
• How churches can use social media
• See our other recent posts about social networking

All colors are not the same! Use colors that match your message. This is second nature to graphic designers, but not necessarily for the rest of us. And in some cultures, colors may have a special meaning that we are unaware of.

The Psychology of Color by Tech King

Read more about color theory and design.

When you hear the word ‘church’, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? If you are like me, then you may think of your church building or some mega-church that stands out in your mind. If this was the case, and the church was just a building, there would be no place for social media as part of the church.

Thankfully, the true meaning of ‘church’ is the body of Christ and its goal should always be to reach the lost and care for those less fortunate. When the average American spends 23% of online time on social networks, a vital part of the church outreach should be interacting with the community through social media. What does a church interacting through social media look like?

1. Use social media to promote your church – By promote your church, I don’t mean post about how much better your church is than the one down the road. Promote your church by letting the community get involved through mission works, youth events, or sharing snippets of sermon podcasts.

2. Grow new relationships – If a first time visitor comes to your church, do you reach out to them and try to build a relationship? Treat your church’s social media the same way! Reach out to new fans or followers, invite them to visit, or perhaps just ask if you can pray for them.

3. Share the Gospel – At the end of the day the church should be fulfilling the Great Commission. If you believe God is truly in control of everything, then why not have faith that He can use social media to bring people to Him? While social media can be used as a starting point, I do want to emphasize that I believe it is important to become a member of a local church where you can grow your faith.

4. Find new community needs – Remember that your church can use social media to proactively-not just reactively. Ask your fans or followers for prayer requests and other needs within the community. By reaching out to your fans you will not only find new needs, but will also be able to show the love of Christ through the church.

Conclusion: If your church is part of the 40% of churches that don’t use any social media, I encourage you to start today! Not only can social media help to grow your church body, but it can help grow the body of Christ. Be personal when posting, grow new relationships, and be an integral part of your community on a daily basis, not just on Sunday!

This is a guest post from Michael Cornett, the founder of Church Website Design.Co, a Christian web design company that helps churches share the Gospel through websites and free social media training. Michael can be reached at support@churchwebsitedesign.co or on Twitter @website4church

• More resources on social networking
• Churches and social networking
• Please share your church’s story of using social media on our Comments section below