Scripture Engagement

Last week Rocco recorded this podcast, which is an interview with me about Bible translation and Bible impact. It includes the question, "Is Christianity geographically dependent?" If you want to find out the answer, please watch the video! Please watch it on YouTube and like and subscribe to his channel! #thetruthovertrendpodcast

What do translation advisors need to know about Scripture engagement (SE), and why? Let's look at the 'why' first: Translation advisors (TAs) are often involved in day-to-day exegesis. They help mother-tongue translators (MTTs) prepare drafts. The MTTs they work with might not know Hebrew or Greek. The TAs then take part in the team check of that draft, which involves other MTTs in the project as well as the TA. Sometimes they are also involved in the coordination of the translation programme. They are very busy people. So why do they need to know about SE? Because: The translation is ultimately for an audience that has felt needs that are not being addressed by the translation programme. Analysing and meeting (or helping to meet) the felt needs of the audience should be the first priority of any mission worker, including TAs. Only about 30% of completed translations are well used. The initial set up of the programme needs to take SE into consideration (it's no good wai...

At a forthcoming workshop, I have the privilege of offering a face-to-face three-day training track about Scripture Engagement (SE), teaching some principles and working together on real life issues you may face in your project or region. There will also be a mini SE training track on SE research. In some Bible translation circles it has been taken for granted that Bible translation on its own, or Bible translation plus literacy, will solve all of a community's Scripture access problems. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. There are many factors, including illiteracy, multilingualism, fear of persecution by the majority group, lack of knowledge of the background to the Bible, and problems with distribution (or the Bible being distributed in an unhelpful media or format). Specialists in Scripture Engagement help those involved in the wider Bible translation movement such as exegetes and programme managers explore some of the different things that help or hinder people...

I was in an interesting discussion full of anthropologists the other day. They were discussing syncretism. Most of them were of the view that outsiders cannot decide which practices are syncretistic and which are not. It has to be a decision made by local believers. This is because only local people can create indigenous theologies, that is, interpret Scripture according to the local worldview(s).  Not only that, some practices need to be tolerated in the short term, as we trust that new believers will gradually mature, and realise that those practices need to be weaned out of their lives. This can take time, perhaps years. Outsiders can, however, help local believers through the process of deciding for themselves which practices need to be rejected, which can be accepted, and which need to be modified according to (local formed) principles from Scripture. For example, ancestor practices, which my PhD thesis was on, are often continued by people after they have come to faith. They...

A community's worldview is a description of its perspectives on the world (the spectacles through which it views the world), and its underlying beliefs and assumptions behind its cultural practices.^ These are often called presuppositions, as they are held, but rarely stated. One simply way of comparing worldviews of different groups is to ask some basic questions, such as: Who am I? Where am I (what is the world like)? What is the problem? What is the solution? For instance, a secular-materialistic worldview would look something like this: I am the random product of a genetic process that began with the formation of basic forms of life such as amoebas, and continued until human beings came into being via the process called 'evolution'. I am in the world that was formed by the big bang. This possibly occurred as the result of a massive singularity, though there are several other current theories about this. Scientists can trace the big bang back to the first few nanosecond...

Image by Juanita Mulder from Pixabay In the TV show 'Top Gear' one of my favourite parts of each episode was the 'star in reasonably-priced car' where the Stig would race round the track and a star (e.g. Tom Cruise - good name for a car prog) would try to beat his time (and all the other stars who had recently raced). In Bible translation, according to Hill, Gutt, Unger, Floyd & Hill,* we are often driving the equivalent of a Land Cruiser, rather than a reasonably-priced car. That is, we want to do a full Bible translation (BT) and produce a print Bible, with all the extras, a full audio recording, and several videos (perhaps of the gospels). This is all very well, but what might actually be needed is the reasonably-priced car.  The authors then go onto explain two approaches to Bible translation and Scripture engagement (SE). This approach encourages communities to consider producing products that meet their needs in the short term. This will allow them to focus ...

Outcome Harvesting is a way to find concrete data on actual changes that have taken place within a community. From a Scripture engagement perspective this might be an investigation of changes that have taken place in peoples' lives (transformation) as the result of a project being in place and/or products being produced and programmes being implemented. So, let's imagine an actual project. There have been two 'wings' to this project. The first is the Bible translation 'wing', producing products like Scripture portions (in both print and audio format, and they have a Bible app too). The second is the Oral Bible Storying 'wing' that has also produced products (audio recordings of stories) but is mainly a programme. The question is, what impact has this project had, overall? The usual procedure is to train local workers to interview people, using participatory methods, to find out how much they have engaged with Scripture as the result of this project. The...

I was just in a presentation,* and the presenter shared a slide about the Scripture engagement (SE) impact chain, which I thought I'd pass onto you fine folks! Here it is: The point is, to have community transformation, you need to have individual transformation. To have individual transformation you need eyes and ears either reading or listening to Scripture. To have eyes and ears reading and listening you need people being reached with those materials in print or audio format (or video, which combines both). To have those materials you need to develop them in the first place. That's the SE impact chain, in a nutshell! Now, the clever amongst you will have spotted that you can't just produce materials, therefore. Neither can you just produce materials and distribute them, as that's only two steps along the SE impact chain. To have community transformation you need to make sure the whole chain is working as it should. As the picture of legs on the side shows, that means...

This is a response to some recent posts about the importance of Bible translation in fulfilling the Great Commission. Yes, there is much truth in that, but more is needed. It really helps to have Scripture impact (or 'engagement') the top priority, the 'car' as it were, with translation the engine that sits beneath the bonnet. Not all drivers need to know all the details of the engine, but they need to be able to control the vehicle. The most important thing is to be able to get from A to B (see point 2), rather than knowing how the engine works. These are the ten reasons to make Scripture impact a priority: To help people flourish in their communities. There are all kinds of needs that need to be met for people to flourish. One is clean water. Another is good sanitation. Peace (lack of war), and freedom of religion. Access to education etc. etc. For a community to truly flourish they also need access to the Scriptures in a language (or languages) that they understand a...

Many of you will have heard of asset-based community development (ABCD). How can Bible translation programmes be asset based, rather than deficit based? The best way to look at this is a comparison table: Deficit based Asset based Driven by outsiders Driven by the community Outside funding Community funded Done to meet a need Done to help the community grow Quality control done by a consultant Community checked and approved Control from outside-in Lead by stepping back Products not accepted? Products are accepted Little engagement Engagement with products Scientific Organic Not sustainable Sustainable Of course many translation programmes these days are neither one nor t'other, they are somewhere between these two extremes. Nevertheless, this illustrates a point, and shows that the current ...

The prosperity gospel is widely practised throughout the world, and hugely popular in Africa. It has also gained a foothold in Europe via certain modern movements that emphasise the 'health' aspect of 'health and wealth' teaching i.e. the idea that God doesn't want anyone to suffer, but for all to be healed. We are probably all familiar with TV evangelists who ask us to give, and God will reward us by giving back. The proof that it works is the large house they themselves live in, and the executive car they drive. The trouble with this teaching is that it does not line up with the overall message of Scripture. The so-called proof texts used by prosperity teachers are often taken from the Old Testament (nothing in and of itself bad about that), turning descriptive teaching (a description of what God did then) into prescriptive ideas (God wants that to happen to everybody). "God made Abraham prosperous. He wants to make us prosperous too!" Now, there are a l...

  Videos are a great way of getting Bible stories out to people, including children. If the audience is literate, it is often a good idea to include subtitles with videos. Even if they are functionally illiterate, it might make sense to include them, so as to encourage growth in literacy amongst the group. In YouTube it is possible to add these later in YouTube Studio. You can also allow others to add subtitles for their language, if you wish. For social media platforms like Facebook it is often better to hardcode the subtitles onto the video. If you are using a program like Shotcut this is not possible. You have to download another program that has this option e.g. Filmora (though this needs to be paid for) and Kdenlive (free and open source). If you want a program that is easy to use, go for Filmora over Kdenlive, as the former has a really nice user interface. The reason we want to include subtitles is that people sitting on a bus, or in a waiting room, or somewhere like that...

The argument in chapter 2 of Leading Change is that over time organisations tend to get complacent. And not just organisations but the managers within them. Managers are good at keeping to the status quo. Leaders are good at initiating change. We often have too many managers and not enough leaders. Managers get promoted to leadership level, which excaserbates the problem. On top of that, it is important to introduce any change stage by stage (see table on p21). Some leaders introduce change too quickly. They jump straight to the later stages, not realising that the earlier stages establish an atmosphere ready for change. Once changes have been implemented it's important to make the new way of doing things the standard, so the corporate culture has absorbed the new way of working. How does this apply to SE? We need leaders to champion the idea of all programmes and activities being SE programmes and activities, with translation embedded within those programmes. They need to implemen...

Sometimes in a corporate organisation there are issues with the structure and mentality that can get in the way of change taking place. Scripture engagement is all about seeing change happen in the lives of people and communities as they engage with God through the Scriptures. Therefore some of the books about theories of change are helpful to us as we investigate issues within our family organisations. Here is a list from John P Kotter's book, Leading Change , p 16: Allowing too much complacency Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition Underestimating the power of vision Undercommunicating the vision by a factor of 10 (or 100 or even 1,000) Permitting obstacles to block the new vision Failing to create short term wins Declaring victory too soon Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture All of these can be an issue in our family of organisations. Here's why: We allow ourselves to believe our own propaganda about the importance of peoples...

Many Bible translation projects have exegetical advisors (EA). In some parts of the world they work with a cluster of languages, giving exegetical (meaning of the Hebrew and Greek) advice to translators working in several languages (some regions call them translation advisors). In Eurasia area we often have exegetical advisors working on one language. The usual expectation is that they learn to be able to read this language, and can speak the language of wider communication (LWC) with the team, if the team know it. If not, they have to use the local language with the team. That works with traditional translation projects. Many projects these days are using a method called Oral Bible Translation (OBT), where only aural and oral methods are used. The translation is only transcribed at a later stage of the process in order to keep track of key terms, and in case the consultant requests the translation in some kind of written format. The EA is expected to give input to the team about the b...

We all now the importance of community checking (or testing) a translation. This is where members of the team (but not the translators) go out into the community to test a translation, to see if it is understood, often using Katy Barnwell's ' 10 Ways of Testing Your Translation .' If you haven't read it yet, do read it now. Community Checking and Scripture Engagement So, what is the connection between community testing and Scripture engagement (SE)? There are several things that can be said about this: Community checks are a good way of gaining legitimacy or acceptance of your translation amongst the community. They've had input, so now they have had their say, their feel they own the translation It's not about a product it's about a process - building relationships with the community which will lead to SE Some of the methods of community checking overlap hugely with SE, namely Listening to Readers (or to those giving their voices to audio recordings), Tell ...

So, I was just chatting with an arts specialist I know, and we were discussing how the arts help with Scripture engagement (SE). I told him that the arts help fly truth under the radar. He went a step further, saying, "Local arts speak directly into people's hearts." Now, that got me thinking. How often do we, in the Bible translation and SE world, talk about how hard it is to get the truth into people's hearts? There are all kinds of barriers: The message might not be contextualised enough, so it doesn't seem relevant or interesting They might not know enough background of the Bible to understand the message It might be in the wrong language (they might not know the prestige language very well) If it's in print, they might not be very literate Even if it's taught, it might not be taught in the right way -  orally , using oral-preference learner techniques of communication i.e. stories, memorisation, show me then let me do it myself (with input), then let ...

When discussing Wayne Dye's Eight Conditions of Scripture Engagement , it's common for people in the Bible translation world to say, 'That's one of those conditions we can't do anything about.' Unfortunately there are a couple of these: Condition 6: Spiritual Hunger Condition 7: Freedom to Commit to the Christian Faith Actually it's not true. Let's have a look at how these can be addressed by teams. Condition 6 can be addressed by looking at the felt needs of the community, and by contextualisation. Condition 7 can be addressed by contextualisation. So... Felt Needs Sometimes a community will have various struggles to do with finance or health or their collective self esteem. These can be addressed biblically, which means coming up with Kingdom goals or biblical values to replace those that are unhelpful. I heard of one community where they were continually hungry, because they could not produce enough rice to feed themselves. Developers came in and help...

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 ...