This is the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network. How do we reach our world? With the good news of Jesus Christ. Many of you have been hearing these really cool.
30-second messages about sending resources. Bibles, study guides. Yeah. Wonderful tools to help people grow in Christ across the world in their languages. We're so excited for the partnership with David C.
Cook and their ministry to do this. And we have the CEO of that ministry with us right now, Bill Reeves. Brother, it is great to catch up with you and thank you for all you're doing to reach our world, man. Stu, thanks. It's great to be on with you today.
And I appreciate you giving us an opportunity to talk a little bit about what we're doing.
Well, I got real excited when my buddy David called me, who works with you guys, and told me about this stuff. I thought, wait a second, I thought those guys like published books and did music. And I said, what's this business about providing amazing spiritual tools and resources? For for outreach and kingdom growth. Around the world and all kinds of places where they can't even afford these things.
I said, What is going on here? And he told me, and man, we're so excited. About that, and I wanted to kind of back up a little bit and obviously talk about that and invite more people to participate because there's nothing closer. to the heart of God than reaching the nations. With the good news of Jesus Christ.
But how did you get into all this, man? Because you're. Your resume, man, it reads like a best-selling autobiography, brother. You've been in Christian music at the highest levels. You've been a part of some huge platinum records.
You've been a part of publishing, Veggie Tales, all these great movies, the Love Dare book, and the different working with Tim Tebow and all these things. Tell us a little bit about. What brought you to the Lord and got this excitement going? Thanks for asking. Honestly, Stu, I'm a product.
of these products is what it really boils down to. Uh a young man and my parents. Took me to church as a young man, and I gave my heart to Christ when I was just an elementary school. But the real pivot moment in my life was a youth pastor who poured into me in my teenage years and introduced me to contemporary Christian music. And so I began consuming that and just felt as I was.
In my high school years, going into college, that God was really calling me into the business side, the behind-the-scenes person. to help develop the products, the very products that had made such a difference in my life. That my role and my personal mission is to tell people about Jesus through media.
So I Took that love for Christian music. It has morphed through the years, as you noted, into. All different kinds of media, whether it's music, whether it's books, whether it's film, whether it's podcasts, whether it's live concerts, live events. Wherever I can go plug in and find great creative people who God is gifted with great creativity, I love being behind them and behind the scenes, helping get that product out to the world because there's a lot of Bill Reeves out there who are now consuming that product that I also think their lives can be changed for the kingdom. Yeah.
Ask you, how can we think as older men about that The current Bill Reeves, the next generation, who's 15, 16, 17, 18 years old. How should we be thinking? In terms of giving ahead, so sometimes we're so consumed in our Own world and challenges and issues and our own problems, maybe we forget that, hey, there's a whole generation coming up that needs Jesus. That's so well said, Stu. I think for me.
Uh a practical answer to that is uh There are um On my teams, both now and in the past, I've always tried to have a younger employee, somebody who. Has a real grasp on how the product is being received, how the product's being distributed. And we listen to those. We listen to those insights, we listen to those opinions, and that has been really helpful through the years, especially you mentioned I have produced a lot of films through the years. And while I shepherd things like the budgeting and the marketing and the.
making sure the content's theologically accurate. A lot of the people on my marketing teams were younger people who understood how. Consumer trends were shifting towards a different way of reaching the movie consumer. And I think there's so much of that that we've got to pay attention to. Listen to our kids, listen to our grandkids.
They're on the front lines of it. Yeah. Love it. And I wanted to, it kind of takes us into this current project. Tell us how this came about, this special outreach of equipping folks with this amazing Bible that's geared toward young people.
How was this birth? I want to, you know, because a lot of our listeners have participated and they've been praying for you and supporting them, but I wanted them to hear firsthand. how it started and and kind of where things are right now with it. Absolutely.
Well, if you want to know the origins of this, you have to go back almost 50 years to 1977. And there, David C. Cook developed a product that was a comic book Bible. called the Picture Bible. And that book, believe it or not, we still have it in print today, all these years later.
But it was a bestseller for us. It basically told the narrative of the Bible from beginning to end, but more in more comic book form. Of course, theologically. Uh accurate, but in a way that that was very picture heavy. Yeah.
Fast forward about 30 years after that was developed, so 20 years ago. And David C. Cook decided that that needed updated.
So they hired a A graphic artist who had been very involved in working for companies like Marvel and other really high-quality creative. And brought him in his name Sergio. Sergio came in and he basically took all the art from the picture Bible. And brought it up to date with more um I don't want to say photorealistic, but more modern adaptations of that comic book style. And that became the Action Bible.
The other thing that happened in the process was not only was there a long history with the picture Bible, so there was some trust with parents and grandparents.
So that when we rolled out the action Bible, there was already a level of trust and comfort that what was between the covers was going to be safe for their kids and their grandkids. But I'll hand it to David C. Cook. I've been there a little over two years, so I can't take credit for any of this, but the teams before me did a wonderful job. of sticking with it.
keeping it in front of the retailers. And what happened, and Stu, I know you'll appreciate this, several years ago, as many of your listeners know, a lot of the Christian bookstores closed down.
So we as publishers had to pivot to how do we get the product to the Christian consumer now?
Well, a lot of Christian consumers shop at Walmart, shop at Target, shop at Costco, shop at Sands, shop at Amazon. And so we pivoted and began to make the Action Bible available in those distribution outlets. And that's really where the acceleration took off. Last year, the Action Bible, meaning the year we just finished, 2025, the Action Bible was, I believe, the number one selling Christian book on Amazon. If it wasn't number one, it was number two.
It sold almost a half a million units. Wow. And this product's, in essence, 50 years old. Yeah. And so it is reaching people all over the world.
in ways that to your question earlier. None of us could have really planned. Right. God intervened with this great product. A company stuck with something for a long time.
When's the last time you heard that, Stu? You know, when it's willing to give something. a long period of time to develop, right? But because of that patience, Because of that investment.
Okay. People in the United States, but all over the world in over a hundred different translations. are hearing the gospel of Jesus through this incredible product.
So tell us about, for folks that don't know this Bible, I've seen it, man, it's. It's great. Give everyone a little snapshot of it and what they can expect and why it's so. Really weapon. I mean, the word of God is a sword, but why it's so strategic to send to places in all these languages?
Well The The easiest way to describe it is it's a hardcover book. It's the trim size, the size of the book fits nicely into an elementary schooler's hands. When you open it up, it's four-color on the covers. It's four-color on the inside.
So it's bright, it's vibrant. uh there's a lot of literally taken from the name action you you see a lot of action Um I think for anybody who's taught children through the years and tried to get them into reading God's word. Certainly, one of the challenges that they face at times is the children thinking that it's boring, right? Because it looks like black letters on a white page. And what are these little thin pages?
I don't want to tear them. This is heavy paper. Pictures that illustrate what's on the page, what's written on the page. And so it's sort of the old, as we say, When we talk sometimes about living our lives out in front of people, show people, don't always tell people. This book is very much indicative of that.
We are showing people the gospel. There are words, there are key texts, key verses. Those verses, the words in the action Bible are pulled straight from scripture. They're not paraphrases.
So they are actual scriptures in the action Bible. And it takes you from Genesis to Revelation through the entire word of God.
So it just makes it interesting. And again, back to something you referenced really early, Stu, in our conversation, which is. The importance of reaching the younger generation is so critical. Because if we don't reach them, then there is no future for the church, right? If we just expect them to listen to a few little children's Christmas or children's songs in Sunday school, and then when they're 25 years old, show up and buy a Max Lakato book.
or a Francis Jam book. There's a big gap in there that we can influence their lives. The action Bible is our attempt to do that in a way that will draw people into loving God's word. We encourage everyone just to go to your website, davidccook.com forward slash radio. To send, you know, 35 bucks or whatever that God wants to put them on their heart, 3,500.
But every gift helps get that Bible into the hands of a young person. across the world where Resources are limited, and you all have connected, you all have wonderful. Affiliates and surrogates in these other countries, don't you, that have been very gracious in helping get this out there. Yeah. We do.
We have an employee on our executive team whose title is Chief Global Officer. In his job, his name is Jonathan Brown. Jonathan has spent almost 40 years of his life. taking products Outside the domestic United States to other countries around the world. And we're blessed to have him.
Through that and some of his team, we're building deep relationships in Latin America and South America. We actually have an office in the UK about an hour south of London where we have 12 staff members whose job it is to take all of our product created here. And take it out around the world. The other thing that we see Stu is: you know, we sometimes can be naive to think that only God is moving in the United States. God's moving all over the world, and our team globally, part of their task is to find where God's moving globally and bring that to the United States.
And so there's, There's product flowing both ways in our global system, but the action Bible is by far our number one product globally. I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk, my special guest, Bill Reeves, CEO of David C. Cook, just a real Renaissance man in all kinds of areas of publishing and music and Christian movies, and from veggie tales to working with Tim Thibault on stuff. Bill, just what a, it's encouraging to me.
That you could run off into the celebrity status, you know, superstar Christian, but you have poured your heart into Christian. Creating something or being a part of something that's going bigger, that's giving ahead. That long after you go to heaven, people are hearing the gospel and are going to join you there. And partly it's through this powerful Bible.
Now, you guys have put this Bible out there.
So, effectively, if I wanna make sure I understand this. You have developed strategic channels to get this Bible to all kinds of countries, many communist countries. all across Latin America and other parts of the world. You have the relationships. You have the Bible, they have the channels, the churches are hungry for this.
You just need listeners. And friends here that would say, hey, I want to support that. I want to send the action Bible. To someone who needs it, especially to transform a whole new generation. Of young people and souls.
Is that right? And how would you suggest that our listeners get involved and really get behind this thing? Yeah, thanks, Stu, for asking that. We're a unique organization. We are a nonprofit.
We are 501c3. We can accept tax-deductible donations. And as you mentioned, you can go to davidccook.com and there's a donate button that you can see there and your dollars will go to do that.
Now, at the same time, we are also a commercial operation.
So we don't actually. Need donor support to keep our operations going. We do that through the sale of our products, our music. We own David C. Cook.
So we have authors like Francis Chan. We publish books for the Chosen television series. We also own two music companies, Integrity Music, where we provide a lot of songs for the church that your listeners sing on Sunday mornings. We also own Fair Trade Services, which on that label is Phil Wickham and CeCe Winans and Mercy Me. They're all part of the Cook family.
But We are able to sell those products, make Some margin on them that we then turn around and put back into developing new products to share the gospel. Where your donors, where your listeners are helpful as donors. is that what we don't Always have the money to do is to create new translations or give out copies of the action Bible and translations we already have. That's where your listeners can really help us. Is if they'll donate, that money will go towards helping things like.
The Action Bible in 100-plus translations being given out to kids in backpacks in Nigeria hearing the Word of God in their heart language. That is where your donors can help us. And all of their gifts are completely tax-deductible. And I appreciate you asking that, Stu, because that's how your donors can help us enjoy our mission of taking the gospel around the world through media. Yeah.
Amen. And so the simple, just your website, davidccook.com. You've got this forward/slash radio to get them to the donation part. They can give any amount toward toward this effort. Of impacting someone.
You know, it's funny, people see the headlines of what's happening in Venezuela, for example, and all this, the crazy stuff happening in Cuba, Colombia, these other countries around the world. This is a way, isn't this a great way, Bill, for us to say, hey, I can do something about that. You know, I'm not going to go jump in a tank, right, and roll in with the boys, but I can send something even more powerful because the word of God, I mean, how have you seen the word of God change lives, brother, since you've been doing this? Oh, man, Stu, how long you got? I mean, you know, whether it's back in.
Starting in Christian music, then as you mentioned, I worked for VeggieTales for a number of years and have just seen so much impact in kids' lives through that brand. I worked with Max Lakato for a number of years on his Hermie kids series, saw impact there. I have seen it through Christian music, through Christian film. The impact of media in people's lives cannot be overstated. And We, I've been really blessed to see that.
You know, if your listeners, you know, why are they listening to you and I right now? Because you've provided through the radio network. through online reach. an ability for them to be fed in their spirit. With God's word, right?
And why did they choose this over something else that the mainstream offers them? Right. Why did they choose this over listening to a secular radio station today? Because it feeds their spirit. God blesses them through what you're doing and the radio network's doing.
Yeah. The same is true of other media formats. Book publishing is one of those things. And it's a media format. And so what we've seen with the action Bible is exactly what you're talking about.
Countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Central America. A great example is a lot of places where the gospel would not be welcome in Africa. We are able to take the Action Bible and give it. To kids as part of their education in a way that's non-intrusive to the government. But the gospel gets to these kids where we could never go over there and set up a Christian church in some of these places.
But the action bobble gets there. And that's what your listeners would be supporting. If if they are willing to give some resources to help us with that mission. Bill Reeves, CEO of David C. Cook, man, you're a breath of fresh air, brother.
I just thank you for the impact. You know, so many people. I think may not realize it now, and I don't even think I realize it. Because every time I read your bio, I'm like, wait a second. Or every time I talk to David about you, like, wait a second, he did that.
Wait, I love that group, or I love that song, or that movie, or that book. But thank you for doing this. We got to reach the world, folks. God is, listen, God is not willing. That any should perish.
That all should come to him. The Lord God has a heart for the nations. You start getting on that track with the Lord and sharing the gospel right here, across the street with your neighbor, and then around the world, across the world. To, you know, through ministries like David C. Cook, through the, you know, distributing this Bible to kids that don't even have a Bible, man, this is going to be a game changer.
So, Bill, we're pumped. We're grateful, man. And I want to give your website one more time: davidccook.com forward slash radio. Does that sound right? And what would you challenge folks one more time on just on having a generous heart towards supporting this?
Yeah, thank you for that website. And if you have any trouble with that, just davidccook.com. We'll also take you where you need to go. Yeah, I, you know, Stu, for me, I think sometimes we bury our head in the sand and we just say, we just wave the flag of, oh, Jesus, please come back and, you know, take us away from all this bad stuff. And you know what?
One day he will. But what if that's not for a long time? We're called to do something here on this planet to impact the world for him. And not everybody can stand on a stage and sing. Not everybody can write a best-selling novel.
Not everybody can produce a film. Not everybody can get on radio like you guys do so well and share the gospel. But what you can do is you can use the resources God's given you, your time, your finances, things that will definitely make an impact for those of us who have been called to be out here on the front lines of this.
So I appreciate you having me on. Thanks for shedding a little bit of light on the action Bible with your audience. And I'll look forward to being with you sometime soon, Steve. Truth to the blood. Yeah.
