Podcast: Inside Crossway’s Plan to Give Away One Million Bibles (Anthony Gosling and Randy Jahns)

November 08, 2023 by: Crossway

This article is part of the The Crossway Podcast series.

Crossway’s Global Ministry Efforts

In this episode, Crossway’s Anthony Gosling and Randy Jahns discuss the One Million Bibles initiative and Crossway’s work to distribute Bibles all around the world, explaining the overarching goals of the project and highlighting the unique challenge of getting so many Bibles to such hard-to-reach places.

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Crossway is providing Bibles to one million believers in need around the world. Join us in our effort to raise support by December 31, 2023 for the distribution of 150,000 Bibles. Would you partner with us to support the global church? Learn More.

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Topics Addressed in This Interview:

01:00 - What Is the One Million Bibles Initiative?

Matt Tully
Anthony, Randy, thank you so much for joining me today on The Crossway Podcast.

Anthony Gosling
Wonderful to be here, thank you.

Randy Jahns
It’s a pleasure, thank you.

Matt Tully
How would you summarize Crossway’s One Million Bibles initiative?

Randy Jahns
Maybe I could take that. It’s something we’re really excited about, and I think it goes back to things like the preface of the ESV Bible, which quotes words that are read as a Bible is handed to a new monarch in Britain’s coronation service. I’ll just read that: “This book is the most valuable thing this world affords. Here is wisdom. Here is the royal law. These are the lively oracles of God.” Obviously, we believe this about the Bible. It’s the most valuable thing. It’s God’s word in written form. It’s the most valuable thing in the world. We’re blessed, obviously, in our area of the world to have access to the Bible in so many forms—easy access—but we’ve heard through our ministry partners and as we talk to people around the world that the need for Bibles is great, even among pastors. So just imagine trying to live the Christian life without a Bible, or even worse, imagine preaching or teaching or leading a church without a Bible. But that’s really the sad reality in many places. So we’ve heard estimates that as many as 70% of Christians in Asia and Africa and South America don’t have ready access to a Bible. And so that breaks our hearts, but we also begin thinking, Is there something we can do to help with this? So, obviously, as publishers of the ESV, the English Standard Version Bible, we really felt moved to try to make a small dent in this issue. So we set the goal of a million Bibles. What if we could provide a million ESV Bibles to Christians in the Global South who might otherwise not be able to either find one or obtain one or afford a Bible of their own? So it’s a big goal for us, but probably a small dent in the great need around the world. But we thought, Let’s take this step. So our goal really isn’t primarily a logistical thing. It may be easy to just put a million Bibles out there, but our goal and prayer is really about the impact that a Bible can have in the hands of an individual person. So a lot of prayer, a lot of focus, a lot of work going into this initiative, but we’re really encouraged by the responses that we’ve received already. And so this is a big thing on our horizon.

Matt Tully
I’m just struck by how, as Christians living in America or anywhere in the West, it can be easy for us to just not appreciate the incredible value of a Bible, a simple Bible that we hold in our hands. I’m sure most of our listeners have multiple Bibles in their homes that they could grab at any moment. But that’s just, as you said, not the case for so many Christians and even church leaders around the world. And I want to explore a little bit more about the need of Bibles in just a minute, but Anthony, I wonder if you could speak to how this particular initiative—the One Million Bibles campaign—fits together with Crossway’s broader identity as a non-profit? I think many people listening might not be aware that Crossway is a non-profit ministry dedicated to many core things that relate to this campaign. Could you speak to that a little bit?

Anthony Gosling
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Matt. Since Crossway’s inception in 1938, we have been committed to publish gospel-centered, Bible-based content that will honor our Savior and serve his Church. That’s what we’re here for. That’s the whole reason why Crossway exists. So we seek to help people understand the massive implications of the gospel and the truth of God’s word for all of life, for all eternity, and all for the glory of God. So one thing we say within global ministry is that our purpose, specifically, is to resource the church to the ends of the earth. We are a publishing ministry with a gospel focus. Yes, we are publishers, but we are publishing with a purpose in order that people will receive that word of God in their context. And I think it is worth just dwelling on the fact that we are so used to having Bibles. Can you imagine not having a Bible today, not being able to have a devotion this morning, not being able to read it in a meeting, not being able to have it preached even at church because the pastor doesn’t own one? As Randy said earlier, that’s just a concept that is just completely different for us than it is for the majority of believers who are in that situation. So if our heart is to bring gospel-centered material to the world, then it very much fits with the fact that we’re a not for profit organization, that we can focus our resources on delivering the word of God to those people wherever they may be. We are not restricted by stockholders, shareholders—the need to make a certain amount of money for someone else. We can actually reinvest everything that we receive in and go and do that. So we can literally put the Bible into the hand of an individual who could not afford that Bible in any other circumstance. So it very much fits with the whole reason why Crossway exists.

Matt Tully
And the stories that we hear that maybe we’ll get into are just so exciting and compelling when you hear the impact of a single Bible on somebody’s life. Randy, maybe just before we get into some more details about the why and the how of this campaign, can you just give us a quick summary of where we’re at with this big multi-year effort to distribute one million Bibles?

Randy Jahns
We are making progress. Already, generous donors have given enough to print and deliver 390,000 Bibles to date. We have those going to seventeen countries. So these are study Bibles, children’s Bibles, text Bibles. So 126,000 have been delivered already. They were delivered this summer. And we have an additional 264,000 that are on order for delivery in January. So those are all allocated and will be ready to go by then. By the end of December, we hope to have funding in place to cover an additional 150,000 Bibles. And if all of that happens, we’d be more than halfway to our goal, by God’s grace. So I hope that this will just be the beginning, that we’ll go way past that million mark and this will be something that continues on for years. But I’m encouraged that we’re making progress like that.

07:35 - Is There Really a Need for More Bibles?

Matt Tully
Let’s talk a little bit more about the need for Bibles around the world. I think it can be easy for many of us, probably myself included, to assume that living in the 21st century, where the world is so globally connected and where even in non-Western countries the standard of living has increased dramatically over the last decades and there is just way more prosperity and availability of resources than ever before in the history of the world. And so the question could be, Is there really still a need for just basic access to the Bible? Wouldn’t Christians anywhere have some access to God’s word if they wanted it? Is that not the case?

Anthony Gosling
It’s certainly true that there probably never has been more Bibles available in the world, either physically in the Bible that you can hold in your hand and read or through some sort of digital means. So I think it’s fair to say that that is true. But it’s also true that there are many, many, many millions of Christians that do not have that opportunity because of where they live and their circumstances. They cannot afford to have that physical Bible, or they do not have the means to receive it digitally. So obviously, we’re the publisher of the English Standard Version, an English language Bible, so we’re focused on English-speaking parts of the world with this project. But even then, there are many, many millions of people who can speak English either as a first, second or third language, and read English as that language, but yet still can’t have the Scriptures. In some countries, the cost of a Bible is so high compared to their income that it would actually mean sacrificing food and other basic needs for weeks in order to be able to afford a Bible. And it’s just not physically possible. You’d actually have to fast for weeks on end in order to have that money, and cause your family to do the same. Well, that’s just not a viable option for these people. So there is no way that they can ever afford to purchase one, even if one exists in their location. There are other places that are so remote that access to a Bible is difficult. There is not a Christian bookstore. There is not an online distributor.

Matt Tully
There’s no Amazon saying it’s delivered.

Anthony Gosling
There is no Amazon. There may be the river Amazon, but there is no actual company of Amazon to provide that need. So local outlets and infrastructure for purchasing just don’t exist in so many places in the world still. So the initial distributions that we’re focusing on is on countries with large English-speaking populations, a good church, and a ministry network, but also the challenges mentioned above in what I’ve said, in the sense that India and several African countries just don’t have the infrastructure. So we’re actually relying on people perhaps traveling into the bush for miles on the back of a moped or a cycle, or carrying it out to a village in order to present the Bible to that person who could not receive it in any other way. And that is what’s happening. Through the ministry relationships that we have, we’re actually seeing that occur. So we want to emphasize this is not about filling up a warehouse somewhere in the world with lots of Bibles and say, Hey, we’ve distributed all these Bibles! It is about putting it into the hands of that believer who has no other way of owning a copy.

Matt Tully
It’s that last mile that we care about; getting it actually to the individual Christian.

Anthony Gosling
Absolutely.

Matt Tully
Are there any other specific places—you mentioned India and places in Africa—are there specific countries or regions around the world where this need for Bibles is particularly acute?

Anthony Gosling
Yeah. I think it’s fair to say Africa is certainly one of those. Africa is a continent that has an enormous number of Christians. It’s a growing Christian population. There is a real desire to have God’s word but not the ability to do so. So that is certainly one of those areas. And there are places in Africa that are pretty well supplied, but there are equally places that are able to speak and read in English but don’t have Bibles. One of the interesting ones is Fiji. So we’re actually sending Bibles to Fiji with just a few people on each island. But the community structure is such that often the head of that island is also the pastor. Whether he’s a believer or not, he’s the one who is expected to lead that group. And very, very often they don’t have Bibles, they have no resources, and they have absolutely nothing in which to do that with. So it becomes a non-biblical situation. And so we’re actually providing a lot of Bibles to the Fiji Islands, and then we have the network in order to provide that. And sometimes—I talked about someone walking into the bush—well this one is on the back of a boat—a little dug out canoe that is taken from island to island to island, and they’re literally distributing Bibles like that. Think about the impact of that. Suddenly now the pastor or the head of that community has a Bible, his people have Bibles, they can read English, and now they can actually study the Scriptures and begin to grow in the truth of God’s word, rather than they have a belief in Jesus in some description but they don’t really know him because they have never had his word.

12:31 - Distribution Challenges

Matt Tully
You mentioned the remoteness of many of these places and having to travel by boat or moped or something. Are there any other major distribution challenges that we tend to face when it comes to getting Bibles into the hands of Christians?

Anthony Gosling
Yeah, absolutely. If you think about it, if we are printing and producing a Bible, how do we get it to that person from wherever it’s printed to the person that’s in that remote place? Well, first of all, global shipping. They are relatively high cost. You need a means to get it from the ship into the port, and out of the port. There are often local infrastructure issues. There can be issues with customs or just corruption in a particular country, which means you cannot break that Bible out of that position until you’ve paid someone some money or something like that. So there’s all that sort of thing. We had an issue just recently where one of our large shipments was delayed due to the rainy season beginning and the roads just going into mud and washed out, so the trucking was difficult during the rainy season. That’s just a real issue. But once they reach our trusted partners, who are then going to help with the distribution, their challenge is then to deliver it to those who need it most. And as we’ve said, there’s not one particular process that will work there, but it’s very personal. It is literally Bible by Bible, village by village, community by community as those Bibles are taken there. And that’s why we’re so reliant on our ministry partners who have those connections but they just lack the resource. We give them the resource, and then they find ways to deliver these.

Matt Tully
I had a tour of a Bible-printing facility here in the States a few years ago, and I think one thing that people don’t always appreciate is how even hard it is to print a Bible, just given how many pages there are and how thin the paper is. How does that play into maybe the difficulty with this? I think sometimes people could think, Well, why don’t they just print Bibles in-country and skip all of the logistical headache of transporting across the sea? That’s not always an option, though.

Anthony Gosling
No, it is not. And one of the issues—let’s particularly focus on Africa—is there are no Bible publishers in Africa. They don’t have the technical facilities, neither do they have the raw materials in order to do that. And as you say, think about a Bible. Pick a Bible off your own shelf and look at it. It’s an unusual book. One, it’s very big. It has very thin paper in order to keep the size of the Bible manageable. Well, all those things are specialist productions that just don’t exist in so many parts of the world. In fact, it’s not that easy to even begin to produce a Bible before you even think about delivering it to wherever it’s got to go. So you’re right. There is a whole process to consider there. And it begins at that production point. And even there we’ve been working with our printers in order to find an inexpensive way of producing a Bible that is manageable in size, is readable, has an accessible font, and yet is inexpensive, in terms of delivering it to that person who’s going to receive it.

15:32 - The Who and the How of On-the-Ground Ministry Partners

Matt Tully
You guys spoke a little bit about the importance of the on-the-ground partners that we have in these different places—pastors and church leaders and other ministries. What does that partnership look like, and how do we find people to work with and how do we coordinate with them on these distribution efforts?

Randy Jahns
Well, over a lot of years of ministry around the world we’ve developed some relationships and an extensive network of contacts—ministries, educational institutions, churches, missions, publishers, friends like that. So when it comes to a project like this, we’re able to put the word out there and say, Here’s what we’re able to provide. Give us creative ways that you could deliver these through your unique networks and get them into the hands of people that we’re hoping to reach. And so we’ve got this network that we’re working with. We try to balance the allocation among many partners. So we’ll ask them for proposals, and those have to be sometimes whittled down, and we’re looking to get these evenly spaced in various places in the world. Obviously, we have limits to the total number that we can produce at a time, and so there’s a little bit of negotiation and back and forth on that. But we certainly couldn’t do this work without local churches and pastors and ministries. They’re on the ground. They know the situation so well. We rely on them very heavily. And so it’s important that these are trusted friends and partners. As Anthony Gosling said, it’s a very personalized and thoughtful kind of distribution. We don’t want to just put Bibles out there, we could do that in mass, but to think about an individual getting it, it’s really important to focus on that personal impact—an impact of a life rather than just the number of Bibles we could give away.

Anthony Gosling
Just to give you an example of what that actually looks like, one of our most trusted partners is Rafiki, who have institutions in ten different countries in Africa, and they are helping us with distribution. So one of our Bible distributions reached their center, and there was a guy there that was helping them unload the container. And he asked, “What am I unloading?” And it was explained that there were Bibles. And he said, “Well, I’ve actually never owned a Bible. I’m a believer, but I’ve never had my own Bible.” So it was rather lovely. They actually took a Bible out of one of the boxes and handed it to him and said, “You now own a Bible.” It’s that granular. It’s that personal. That specific person now, in that country, now has a Bible that didn’t, and he can now take it back and read it to his family. And the impact of that, by God’s grace, will be significant. And then multiply that out. If we’re thinking of a million Bibles, then do that a million times. And what is the impact of that on individuals and families and communities because they now have God’s word? It’s something they want, but couldn’t have before.

18:38 - A Sustainable Initiative

Matt Tully
The impact of one Bible on generations could be so big. I’m sure all of us could think back on our own family histories and think of how God’s word in different seasons has maybe led to someone’s salvation and had this ripple effect throughout generations. A big issue today when it comes to charitable giving around the world and trying to help people who need different kinds of things—whether it’s food or water or, in our case, Bibles—is the issue of sustainability. The issue of trying to not just address the immediate need right in front of us, but to actually think longer term about how we can encourage sustainable solutions to these problems or needs around the world so it’s not always, frankly, a Western person coming in and providing for that need. How does Crossway think about that dynamic, in terms of our partnership?

Anthony Gosling
That’s a really good question. I think it’s an important question to consider and answer, and we’ve thought long and hard about this. Obviously, the need for Bibles around the world is greater than can be satisfied through giving away free copies. We have trade customers around the world who are serving their communities with Bibles, and we’ve spoken about that. There are opportunities to get Bibles into a lot of places, but just not a sufficient number of places that are perhaps more remote. In addition to the million Bibles we hope to provide for free, we’re working on creative ways to make Bibles available in those locations at even more locally affordable prices. So it’s not just about something for free, but maybe it’s more that that person could not afford a Bible because it’s two weeks worth of food; but they could afford a Bible if it was one day’s worth of food, for example. So how do we do that? How do we make that possible? So we can underwrite the cost so there is still a value in that Bible. It’s still purchased from someone. There’s the opportunity to sustain the Bible distribution within an area, and yet at a price that they can afford. So it’s really important that it’s not just about giving away for free, but how we can see that future generations grow and have what we’re used to, which is having the range of biblical resources that we can receive, that that would be true for them to some degree in the future. So sustainability is really, really important. We sort of looked at that and divided it out a little bit like this. There are places where there is just no potential Bible market at all. And we’re seeking to supply free copies into that situation. There are areas where a Bible market could exist, but the product would need to be provided for free to the partner, and then they would be able to resell at a suitable price for the individual in that location with very minimal margins. But at least it gives them the beginnings of the opportunity to then use that margin in order to purchase more Bibles or receive more Bibles so they can give more away. So you begin to generate the opportunity. Then there’s a place where a commercial market can exist, but the Bibles and the freight costs and everything that’s involved in getting that Bible to them needs to be subsidized, even significantly subsidized, but there is something there that can be actually built upon. And then finally, you get to a position where there’s a mature Bible distribution market that can afford to bring that Bible in from wherever it’s produced and then sell it. And so as an area may grow economically, the opportunity to establish a sustainable Bible supply grows with that. And we’re looking at each of those areas, and we’re seeking to supply each of those areas so that we’re being fair contextually to the opportunity that exists. It’s not just about free; it’s about sustainability. So I appreciate the question.

22:23 - What Bible Editions Are Being Distributed?

Matt Tully
And as you said, in doing that, ironically, through occasionally charging for a Bible, you can help to build out the infrastructure of that country by supporting Bible sellers and Christian booksellers there who are trying to make a living, trying to make this thing be able to last, even when Crossway is, perhaps, not involved. And that is the long term goal there. How does Crossway choose which specific Bible editions that we’re distributing?

Randy Jahns
For this particular project, we really just have provided a variety of editions, trying to keep in mind the recipients on the other end and what their needs are. So one of the Bibles is the ESV Concise Study Bible. It’s an excellent, portable, foundational, accessible study Bible for pastors and leaders, I would say especially, who maybe don’t have a theological education. So it has basic study notes and helps that explain what the Bible is saying; they’re not technical in that sense. So it just provides a level of theological education, maybe for someone who might not have any training. So we’ve also done a number of nice text additions with a hardcover or a synthetic leather cover. Some covers work better in hot and humid climates, and so we’re exploring options for that as well. Those are true issues in various places of the world. We’ve also focused on children’s and student Bibles. So these will have illustrations and helps. And when Crossway produces a children’s Bible, it’s a true Bible, not just Bible stories.

Matt Tully
Not just a paraphrase.

Randy Jahns
It’s the full Bible text but with helps and illustrations and other things that are age appropriate there. And I’m sure for the future distributions, we’re going to pick editions that meet the particular needs of recipients, and Crossway publishes a huge range of Bibles, so we have quite a few options to choose from.

24:22 - How Can an Individual or Church Get Involved?

Matt Tully
For a Christian living in the West who is listening to this podcast, what would it look like for them to get involved? How can they see what might be available for them to do to help out?

Anthony Gosling
I think the first thing we would say, and this is a priority for us, is to pray. Now that you’re aware of this sort of work that is going on through Crossway, to pray for us and with us as we seek to deliver the Scriptures to these people that we’re seeking to help through the receipt of them. So please pray for us and with us as we do that. And pray for the means to be able to provide the Scriptures in that way. You can also sign up for our newsletter and other reports that give information to some of the things that we’ve been speaking of. There are testimonies in there, as well as future opportunities to come alongside and partner with us in order to serve the global church. And then you can consider actually giving to Crossways ministry projects, and perhaps specifically the One Million Bibles campaign that is ongoing. And that could be done through Crossway’s website. There’s a “Donate” page, and you can actually get information about how a campaign is going. You can see ministry reports from the field on the impact of gifts already given, and that sort of thing.

Matt Tully
And we’ll be sure to include a couple links in the show notes for that “Donate” homepage where you can see all the projects currently in the works and even also the email newsletter that you guys send out. I wonder if you guys could speak to how pastors and churches could be involved. I think sometimes it’s easy to know how I, as an individual, could perhaps be involved, but what if I’m a pastor and I want to try to help mobilize my whole church to participate in this work?

Randy Jahns
We’ve had several churches involved in this in creative ways, but I would echo Anthony Gosling’s request for prayer. As churches are gathered for prayer, we would appreciate prayer for the ministry. Some churches have, for example, taken special offerings or they have given gifts earmarked in their mission’s program or outreach budget to support some projects. And so we certainly would welcome those, if a church would like to join us in these efforts and if it aligns with the things that they like to do. It’s almost like a church helping another church across the world, so there’s a real kind of fellowship in that and a synergy. Some churches are involved in international pastoral training or church planting efforts that align very well with what we’re doing. If they are, we’d love for them to contact us to see if there are ways that we could help equip and provide books and Bibles for that. Some churches have really good ministry contacts that we don’t currently have. We would love for them to share those with us. We would be happy to follow up on those and add them to our group of ministries that we work well with. Some churches have people who travel internationally. We’ve got this really interesting program called Crossway Equip, and this where we will provide books and Bibles for people who are traveling internationally and are willing to take a box of Bibles as their second suitcase when they go and deliver that to somebody over there. So it’s a really active program. We would invite anybody who’s involved in that kind of travel to get involved in that. And then last, I would just encourage pastors to sign up for our newsletters. We have quite a few pastors who are engaged with the work of Crossway, and they can be a communication conduit to their people too.

28:03 - What’s Next?

Matt Tully
That’s so helpful. What comes next after the One Million Bibles campaign is complete?

Anthony Gosling
Well, Bibles will always be central to our ministry, and we continue to want to provide for the various ways distribution is accomplished to those who need Bibles and books that are faithful to the Scriptures. As we said at the beginning, a million is not going to solve the problem, but it’s a beginning, and we would be looking to extend this over time and continue to find ways that we can partner with our various ministry partners around the world in order to accomplish that.

Randy Jahns
I thought it would be really encouraging to share a story that I heard just yesterday. One of our partner ministries sent me a video clip of a pastor who is in a very difficult part of the world. And he received an ESV Concise Study Bible from one of our distributions. And so this distribution happened in a setting where there were other pastors there, and so he spontaneously stood up and gave an exhortation to the group. And so I’ve recorded it as best I can hear from the video, and I’ll quote it. He said, “As I hold this Bible, I’m thinking about the people who invested the money and time to help the gospel expand. This is a commitment they have made to me and my family, that this Bible would end up in my hands. I see this as a challenge and encouragement to continue with the preaching of the gospel, that the Bible will come alive for all of us.” And it’s just so encouraging to hear a person, an example, of one of those, whom we hope will be one of a million people, who receives a Bible, and what transformation can happen in their ministry and in their personal life. It’s great that he mentioned there as well people who’ve invested time and money. That’s all of us together—those who give, those who are working at Crossway to provide for our ministry partners on the other end. It’s a great, great partnership altogether. And I think we can just take great joy in what the Lord’s doing already and look forward to what he will do in the future.

Matt Tully
And it truly is a partnership in the gospel, for the sake of God’s glory and the good of his church. And as you said, it will go beyond the One Million Bibles campaign. This is something Crossway is committed to long term. Anthony, Randy, thank you so much for joining me today on The Crossway Podcast, helping us to understand a little bit more what the One Million Bibles initiative is all about.

Anthony Gosling
It’s been a joy. Thank you.

Randy Jahns
Thank you, Matt.

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