WBS Strategic Planing
By William Bush | WBS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
For over a year, the World Bible School team has been dreaming BIG. What can WBS accomplish for God and His kingdom within the next five years? Our staff and board of directors meditated deeply on our purpose statement, “to share Jesus with the world by motivating and equipping a global network of Christians to use interactive Bible studies effectively.” First, we recognized – we are NOT the church. While we are made up of people who are members of the church of Christ, WBS as an organization is not a church of Christ. We were created to be a support for Christ’s church. But our organization has no right to replace what Christ established for His church to be and do.
This is why it is important for us to remain true to our role and purpose: To motivate and equip churches of Christ to do what He has called them to do, to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). WBS wants more souls to be taught the Gospel. But that is not this organization’s job, It is YOURS as the body of Christ! So what can WBS do to help motivate and equip you?
Here’s our vision:
Equip the church of Christ to reconcile the lost As WBS constantly pursues the restoration of New Testament Christianity, we seek to be an effective source within the church of Christ for evangelism tools and discipleship opportunities which connect His church with millions of souls wanting to study the Bible each year.
Motivate the church of Christ by renewing the brotherhood to ACTION! For ACTION! Media to provoke Christians worldwide to pursue evangelistic action and practice the pattern Jesus and the apostles established for His kingdom in the New Testament. So, how do we plan to do this?
WBS Postal
Starting this year, WBS will be conducting a thorough evaluation of congregation’s Postal programs. If congregations are struggling to find or reach their Postal Students after international postal shutdowns, we can share some alternative solutions such as WBS Online and Ocean Bridge. We also want to find ways to promote, strengthen and encourage congregation’s programs who are having success with their postal programs. If you or your congregation need help, we would love to talk with you. Please reach out to us at help@worldbibleschool.net or call our office at 512-345-8190.
WBS Online
In 2025, nearly 300,000 souls registered on WBS Online – the most in WBS history. By 2030, we are striving for 750,000 Students to register Online annually. This is going to take YOUR help. We want to challenge Study Helpers and congregations to partner with us in Online Student recruitment. Our goal is by 2030, for congregations to help recruit 150,000 of the 750,000 annual Students. Here’s how you can help!
Within the WBS Online platform, we offer a feature called “Connect.” From here, individual Study Helpers and congregations can generate “Connect Campaigns” which creates a custom URL (web address). If someone registers through your Connect Campaign, you get an immediate notification and can adopt them as your Student. You can also elect to pass them to the general Student Board for anyone to adopt. Learn more at worldbibleschool.net/connect.
Many Study Helpers and congregations are already using this feature in a number of ways. Here’s some ideas: offer free WBS Bible studies on your congregations website or live-stream; print and share fliers and handouts (available within Connect) offering free Bible studies within your benevolence ministry, back-to-school programs, truck-or-treat, and similar community outreach events; partner with your congregation’s missionaries to recruit Students overseas; encourage members to offer a free bible study to their friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, waitress/waiters and anyone else they meet. Yes, we also hope our generous donors can help us expand our $484,000 digital advertisement budget, which offers free Bible studies through online ads around the globe, but we also believe when we partner with the Lord’s church to directly recruit Students in their local and mission communities, God will bring an even greater harvest.
This year, our developers are reengineering the backend system of WBS Online to support the increasing number of Students and Study Helpers. These changes will not directly impact how Students and Study Helpers navigate our apps and website. However, once completed, will notice improved page load speeds and several bugs fixed. This new system will also serve as a foundation for future upgrades and improvements which have originated from your feedback. Once completed, Study Helpers will have the processing power and capacity to grade Students’ lessons collectively by the MILLIONS!
Ocean Bridge
This year, we plan to release the Ocean Bridge Portal. The portal will make it much easier for congregations to upload and download the Student’s scanned answer sheets. No more complex naming and file systems. The portal will be able to automatically read each Students’ answer sheets and make sure they are sent to the proper congregation or service center. It is our prayer that the portal will help us reach our goal to connect Study Helpers with over 250,000 Students by 2030.
Mathetis
We have many exciting plans for Mathetis:
- In 2026, we will be launching our the latest Mathetis Originals course and Bible class curriculum “Questioning Jesus.” The course has been especially crafted to help reach out to those who have fallen away.
- By 2030, it is our goal to offer 100 interactive Biblical study courses which will include new Mathetis Original courses, all of the WBS Bible Curriculum courses and new author partnership courses.
- In 2026, we are evaluating how Mathetis can be helpful to congregations internationally. This includes researching the cost and opportunities to create Mathetis for other languages, such as Spanish.
- We have several new web and app development plans for Mathetis, which include new features to encourage deeper study and interaction within your groups, improved navigation and usability and new features driven by AI technology.
Check out our latest features on Mathetis by downloading the app in the App Store or Google Play or by visiting mathetis.org.
Student Retention & Follow-up
We are not only focused on partnering with you to increase Student recruitment. To truly make disciples, God calls the church to baptize them into Christ and live a life of faithfulness to Him. Here are some ways we hope to equip the church to do so
- By 2030, we want 50% of Students who complete the first course in WBS Online or Ocean Bridge to reach our fifth course in the Master Series, “Born of Water and Spirit”.
- To increase retention, we will be improving the Online Students user interface and study experience, making it simple and intuitive to start and continue studying our courses.
- We will be developing multiple study options for WBS Students such as reading, listening or watching a video across our platforms.
- Improving the Study Helper, Coordinator and user interfaces, we will make it simpler and more intuitive to respond and connect with your Students.
- We are seeking to expand our network of Follow-up volunteers who can connect with Students locally who are seeking to become a Christian and join a local congregation.
WBS Study Edition Bible and Bible Curriculum
New exciting projects and resources to be shared soon:
- Releasing the new WBS Spanish Study Edition Bible in 2026
- Updating the Master Series by adding a new course “The churches of Christ Greet You” in January 2027 and transitioning “Live a Life of Love” and “Family of God” as advanced courses. Postal and Online WBS Students will still have access to study these courses with their Study Helpers.
- Publishing a new advanced course “Building a Christian Marriage and Family”
- Adding all available translations of the Master Series courses to the WBS Library (wbslibrary.org). This includes: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Telegu, Swahili, Russian and more!
- Creating audio/visual versions of our WBS Bible curriculum to be consumed as Mathetis courses, podcasts, videos and audiobooks.
ACTION! Media This past year, ACTION! has grown to include:
- ACTION! Magazine – a quarterly magazine with numerous articles on relevant topics to aid our evangelistic efforts written by a variety of brotherhood authors and WBS staff. It also includes encouraging stories, helpful tips and WBS updates to help motivate and equip you for evangelism.
- ACTION! Digital – email magazine sent twice a month with specialized digital content highlighting WBS updates, success stories, biblical articles, evangelistic tips and more.
- ACTION! Podcasts – multiple podcast series such as One More Chapter, a theologically rich podcast for deep Bible study, and Together In Mission, a podcast hosted by our President, Brian Rex Davis, sharing news, success stories and updates from around the globe.
We will be continuing to establish these new and renewed media outlets to edify and encourage the brotherhood to take ACTION! in evangelism. 
To subscribe or learn more, visit worldbibleschool.net/action.
