In some ways this sounds like a wiki, but quite honestly a wiki is a collaborative editing environment and for this application a touch of social networking combined with a semantic database to handle the multitude of different types of searches which would also seem to be needed. This pushes both Drupal and Wikimedia to its limits and beyond. Any ideas for a CMS?

Where do you think you'll start with your project in your current conception of it as it stands? Have you gotten to check out CCEL Worldwide Study Bible at http://www.ccel.org/wwsb/, as they utilize a by topic approach? You might also look over http://religion-online.org/, they have a by topic breakdown, though they still present the resources as full documents. A third site you might find interesting (I don't know how tech oriented you are) is http://www.semanticbible.com/, in their words "Semantic Bible is an emerging exploration of new applications of markup and computational linguistic technology to the study of Scripture, with an emphasis on practical tools that encourage understanding and personal transformation." Anyway I hope this helps.

Anyone else out there with similar passions for the Global Body of Christ?