(OutreachMagazine) During their time at Multnomah Bible College (now Multnomah University) in the early 2000’s, Jon Collins, Tim Mackie and their future wives regularly had dinner together during which Collins often raised probing questions about biblical topics like the book of Daniel. Mackie, a theology nerd, would offer helpful insights, then he would pique Collins’ curiosity with the knowledge that there were deeper questions he wasn’t asking. Those initial conversations began to forge a close friendship between the two men.
Mackie graduated a couple years ahead of Collins and spent the following decade in grad school at Western Seminary and the University of Wisconsin with a focus in Hebrew and Semitics. But when he would come home to Portland to visit, the pair would pick up their theological conversations right where they had left off.
“I wanted to do theology, but I was timid about writing and producing it myself,” Collins says. “I knew enough to be dangerous, but the internet is a cruel place.” So he talked Mackie into the idea of drawing from their frequent theological discussions to make videos that explain the Bible.
The Bible Project was born.