What did your life look like twenty years ago, in 1993? That was the year we all first gawked at the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park and watched agents Mulder and Scully investigate aliens in The X-Files. Computing giant Intel was showing off its brand-new Pentium processor. If you were particularly tech-savvy, you might have been chatting with people around the world on Usenet, or maybe even browsing one of the several hundred new-fangled “web pages” that were starting to catch public notice.
But 1993 was also the year that a college student named Nick Hengeveld completed a little school project for a computer science class: Bible Gateway.
That makes 2013 Bible Gateway’s 20th anniversary!
Twenty years ago, Bible Gateway lived as a simple tool for searching a few public domain Bibles. Nobody involved in Bible Gateway’s early years could ever have imagined that by God’s grace, Nick Hengeveld’s “little school project” would one day reach millions and millions of people all around the world in dozens of languages. Nor would anyone have guessed that Bible Gateway would grow to feature hundreds of Bibles, audio Scriptures, devotions, and more.
In the months to come, we’ll be celebrating Bible Gateway’s history, and looking ahead to its future. Here’s what you can expect to see in the months to come:
A new BibleGateway.com. Building on everything we’ve learned about how people use Bible Gateway, we’ll launch a redesigned website to make it easier to use. Bible Gateway fans will be excited to hear that it will introduce a number of features they’ve been asking for: user accounts, note-taking and other study tools, a cleaner interface, and more. We’ll share more details about the new website as its launch approaches.
Insight from leading Christian thinkers. We talked to some of the sharpest Christian writers and thinkers about the state of Bible engagement in 2013, and will share those videos here at Bible Gateway.
Continued improvements to the Bible Gateway mobile app. We know that for many of you, your mobile device is one of the primary ways you read and interact with God’s Word. We’re continuing to add new features and improvements to our mobile app. In particular, we think you’ll be thrilled with how the mobile app will interact with the new BibleGateway.com.
Retrospectives on Bible Gateway’s history. Bible Gateway was present in the earliest days of the “world wide web,” and has grown along with the internet in general. We’ll share articles and interviews that explore the ways Bible Gateway has evolved over the years.
Goodies! It wouldn’t be a birthday celebration without a few prizes and giveaways, would it? Watch our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed for chances to grab some birthday loot courtesy of Bible Gateway.
We are continually humbled and amazed at the ways that God has used Bible Gateway to share his Word with the world. We’re grateful to the partners (publishers, individuals, and countless ministries in between) that have worked with us through the years to make Bible Gateway what it is. And we’re immensely grateful for each and every person who’s ever used our site or mobile app to look up a Bible verse, find a moment of inspiration, settle a nagging theological question, or kickstart a Bible reading habit. So join us in the months to come as we celebrate what God is doing through Bible Gateway and its users!