Scripture Engagement

Dear Magsatabat, One thing I didn't do, was to list the advantages and disadvantages of recording audio first (before the print version is released). The advantages are: It makes the books available in a very useful way. Various partners can use them for their ministry Changes will need to be made to the style of some sentences as you make the recordings. For instance, word order changes might need to be made. These can then be included in the print version, so they match. If you release the print version first you have zero flexibility for making changes while you are doing the audio recording Audio is arguably less threatening than print (less 'official'), so can be released without causing any problems It doesn't take much time to record e.g. Genesis, whereas the whole Old Testament will take months You might need permission for the OT before you start the recordings The disadvantages: You might not be able to use a professional actor (though you could, if you can us...

Many years ago I had some friends at university who were against Christmas. 'It's not in the Bible,' they argued. Well, possibly. The festival at least is not actually in the Bible. So how did we come to celebrate Christmas and Easter in the ways we do now? Part of the answer is that we continued some practices from our previous, pagan religion. Churches were built next to sacred trees. The winter festival was redeemed and became Christmas, along with the Christmas trees, which might have come later, but are definitely not in the Bible. Similarly the spring festival was redeemed and became Easter, though this actually coincides with the Jewish Passover festival when a lamb was sacrificed in remembrance of the redemption of the people Israel from Egypt, (John 19.14 cf . Exo 12ff). What my friends were against is the mixing of our previous paganism and our current Christianity into one, syncretistic modern day religion, with all of its feasts and fasts. I would argue that we ...

I just had some training on these four levels that businesses use to evaluate their priorities: Tier 1: Mission Critical Tier 2: Very Important and Strategic Tier 3: Meaningful but not Essential Tier 4: Lower Priority and Often Externally Initiated So, what, in the world of Bible translation (BT), is mission critical? Many would say, "Translating the Bible!" I would actually put that on level 2, very important and strategic. At the level of mission critical is Scripture engagement (SE). Meaningful but not essential would include certain computer programs we use, such as Paratext, which is essential to some but not, for example, if you are involved in oral storying or oral translation (HearThis, or Render are more useful). At level 4, lower priority, would be all the stuff we have to do to a) stay in the country where we are carrying out our ministry b) organisational requirements like archiving data (not the same as having an online backup of it). We need to have a discussion...