I will never forget attending The Orange Conference for the first time. You know you are going to hear dynamic speakers. You expect to demo engaging content. What I was not prepared for? How MASSIVE the conference was. People were everywhere. Not only did it make for an exciting buzz throughout the conference, it was encouraging to see thousands of fellow church staff and leaders worshiping as one heart and voice. Orange Conference is a BIG conference!

Recently, I got to visit the Museum of the Bible under construction in Washington, D.C., for the very first time. It blew me away! No, unfortunately it does not open until the fall of 2017. I was stunned just by the size of the building! This is not an average museum. This is a BIG museum.

Museum of the Bible will be the tallest building on the southwest side of the U.S. Capital (just three blocks away). The glass levels on top of the brick building you see here will tower over the other buildings. You will have an unobstructed view of the Capitol and the National Mall from the top of Museum of the Bible!

Here is just how BIG Museum of the Bible will be

• The Museum of the Bible will be 430,000 Square Feet. This is as big as the new Facebook headquarters that made all kinds of news.
• This is not only a large area of space for a major company, this is a bigger museum than almost any other museum! For reference, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum is one of the most attended museums in America and is featured in the film A Night At The Museum. Museum of the Bible will be over 100,000 square feet larger than the exhibit space in the Smithsonian!
• Each floor at Museum of the Bible will be, on average, the size of one Hobby Lobby store. So imagine eight Hobby Lobby stores stacked one on top of the other and you get Museum of the Bible!
• It will take you 45 minutes to an hour just to walk around the perimeter of all the floors in the building. That doesn’t include any time walking in the middle of the floors to see the fascinating exhibits. Wear athletic shoes!
• From the bottom of the basement to the top of our building, Museum of the Bible is 170 feet tall. For reference, the Statue of Liberty is 150 feet tall. Lady Liberty can reach her arm up all she wants, but she cannot quite reach the top of the Museum!

Museum of the Bible is going to be BIG. It is currently the largest museum under construction anywhere in the world. We have BIG hopes for it. I hope you will help us grow a big following of prayers, financial supporters, and future museum attenders!

Just this week, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, hosted a special preview of Museum of the Bible at Saddleback Church in Los Angeles. If you would like for us to bring you a similar experience at no cost, visit museumofthebible.org/church.

When were you surprised at how big something was? Did you imagine Museum of the Bible was going to be this big?

Michael McAfee serves as the Director of Bible Education for Museum of the Bible. Michael’s role is to serve faith communities by traveling to speak at churches, Christian colleges, Bible conferences, and other opportunities.