'Reach.' project draws 155 free Bible requests in Austria

A Christian outreach project in Vienna, Austria, has paused its pilot after drawing far more interest than expected, with 155 people requesting a free Bible in just two weeks.

The project, echt. (reach.), launched in late March and attracted 213 people, 90 per cent of them under age 30. The team has temporarily halted the pilot to respond to everyone who had reached out directly.

echt. uses Instagram to connect local church members with people who express interest in the Bible. Anyone can request a free Bible by sending a direct message to @echt.bibel, and volunteers monitor and respond to inquiries and orders.

The echt. team prepares the project’s advertising, materials and training, while volunteers from local congregations answer the messages. Photo: Gerhard Weiner

People who initially contacted echt. shared the account on their personal Instagram accounts by tagging friends and family in posts and sharing to their Instagram stories.

During the first two weeks of the project, the team received about 15 photos of people posing with their new Bibles, said Sebastian Wöber, who leads the echt. volunteer team and works as a producer for Hope Channel Austria. One woman sent a video of herself unboxing her Bible and thanking the team, saying she believed God had led her to the Instagram account.

The project offers free Bibles through its Instagram account, @echt.bibel. Image: @echt.bibel on Instagram

Before echt. found online success, it was initially designed to be an in-person community of young church members. The meetings were attended by approximately 40 people per month, so Wöber and the echt. team chose to move online

"We expected maybe 15 Bible orders that turned into 150, just three weeks before the Austrian [Executive] Committee was about to vote about the continuation of our project," he said. "So you see, we can only be thankful that God provided at the right moment."

Young church members can often connect more naturally with people their own age, Wöber said. Photo: Christoph Tarita

“After two weeks, we had to stop the pilot program because too many people were writing to us, and we ended up having sleepless nights [trying to respond to everyone],” Wöber said. “We needed more volunteers and a stronger structure for reliable follow-up.”

In September, echt. had 41 active volunteers. By early October, 120 more people registered for training.

Preparing the volunteers includes about three hours of online training and approval from each volunteer’s pastor. They work without a fixed script, following an approach Wöber described as “listening, taking questions seriously, using understandable language, and allowing people to explore faith at their own pace.”

“I see church members who deeply love Jesus but struggle to connect with others through traditional forms of outreach,” Wöber said. “Having worked in media throughout my adult life, I see so much potential in other ways of sharing the gospel, through media, art, or simply a conversation in a messaging app.”

The echt. team prepares advertising, social media content, technical systems, materials, and training, while local volunteers provide personal contact and ongoing support. Bible packages are prepared centrally and shipped by the church’s publishing house.

On October 6, echt. received funding approval from the regional mission board.

With the necessary volunteer and financial support secured, the echt. team plans to relaunch the program in the coming weeks.

The original article was published on the Hope International news site.