Scripture Engagement

If some people have started speaking the language of wider communication, we in the Bible translation world are often affronted. 'Why would they desert their mother tongue for such a (boring?) language? We must encourage them back to the true path!' After all, we have believed our own publicity about the need for Scripture in the so-called heart language (people often have several of these). So, why is it people start speaking these lingua francas ? Often it's a desire for education, self-improvement, and for a better job. Their parents may have put them in a school where the LWC was used. It's not that the children dislike their mother tongue, they just see it as the language they spoke to Mummy and Daddy before they started school and learnt their grown up language. What should we do about this? Try and encourage them to revert to their mother tongue? That would be like trying to make water flow uphill. Instead we need to recognise the language shif...

We often think we can leave Scripture engagement until our product is finished in its entirety. We translate the whole Bible or New Testament, then about six months before it is published we hit a large panic button, which connects us to the Scripture engagement department. 'Please come and make sure our Bible is used!' It's as if we still think there is a cavalry that might come over the hill any minute armed with magic Scripture engagement advice and techniques to rescue us! Instead it's better to plan SE into the project from the beginning: Make sure you are engaging with the whole community, or at least key members of it (church leaders, linguists, journalists, good speakers, elders, elder women, parents, the youth, children... ) Try to use participatory methods if possible. You can use appreciate enquiry ('What do you like about your community?') and also find out what the needs are. Involve a wide spectrum of community members Include arts in y...

I had a chat with Graham Tomlin one time at New Wine after a seminar he led, and he really helped me regarding the New Testament teaching about predestination. His comment was this: that we are chosen in Christ . So what does that actually mean? In the Old Testament Israel was God's chosen people. You were saved in Israel   e.g. from the last and worst plague in Egypt, as long as your family had slaughtered a lamb and smeared the door jambs and lintel with its blood. As followers of Jesus we are saved in Christ . This is an eternal salvation. This means we are part of God's chosen people, which consists of those who are in Christ. We (as a whole) are predestined to be saved in Christ. Read Ephesians . Two groups are in focus, Jews and gentiles. Those who follow Jesus from either background are saved by grace. Our salvation has been won by Jesus the Messiah/Christ (Christ is the Greek for Messiah). This means it is Jesus who is the chosen one, first and foremost. Tha...

Translation consultants are often seen as the 'experts', coming in to a project to 'check' their work and improve it. There is a danger that we are continuing colonial practices by doing this. So, here are a few suggestions (this is not a comprehensive list) of ways to reduce this power gap. Learn from the team. It's their language, not yours Have a humble attitude Make an introductory statement such as 'I am not here to criticise your work...' Encourage the team to discuss any problems/issues in their language, rather than yours. You can always ask for a summary of their discussion. Stay locally with believers in the area (not in a hotel) Give positive feedback when they are seeing local support come in for the project, whether financial or other Praise their translation - look for good aspects, not only things that need improvement Mentor a local consultant to take over from you Ask them for their feedback at the end of the consultation (ways y...

The other day a colleague of mine heard her pastor preach a sermon saying something like, 'Mission isn't about going somewhere else, it's about reaching people here at home!' We have also heard the same from mission boards here in the UK. 'We want to focus more on local mission.' Why the switch from overseas mission to local mission? I think there are several factors we need to consider: Our God is too small, to paraphrase J. B. Phillips. We believe God can help us reach folk in our neighbourhood, but the idea of going somewhere completely different, with another culture and language, seems too far fetched. Also, deep down we may believe that, actually, they are OK with their beliefs and practices, and we have little to share with them. This is tantamount to believing that each region has its own god, and ours is only in charge of the local patch. We have believed the lie that short-term is better than long-term mission. This has turned mission service ...

Can we be saved by law? Paul says many times that we are saved by grace, not law. He even says Christ is the end of the law: Since they [Israel] did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:3‭-‬4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.10.3-4.NIVUK. There are two things we need to think about first, before we jump to conclusions on this issue: 1. The word nomos 'law' could refer to several different things (Gal 2:19 illustrates this point) 2. The word telos 'end/culmination/goal' also needs interpreting On the first question, Paul, in Romans 10, is likely to be referring to the Mosaic law, with its regulations to offer sacrifices and so on. We cannot be saved by keeping all of the teaching of the Torah. Neither are Jews saved simply by having this teaching. Having a Bible doesn't s...

Another point I made in my blog on syncretism in the Western church is this: 'A kind of intellectual belief in evolution that makes us want to believe any advance is good, not only in technology, but also in morality, world view, spirituality, and so on. There is no biblical basis for this. In fact the Bible tends to view many so-called 'advances' as moves away from God. For example, when the people of Israel asked for a king, so they could be like other nations, the prophet Samuel (in 1Sam 8 ) told them very clearly what that would mean for them, and it wasn't an upgrade!' At the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century there was enormous optimism in Western culture. We seemed to be making many discoveries, documenting all known life-forms, and progressing at a tremendous rate in terms of scientific progress. Underlying much of this optimism was a belief on evolution - not just evolution of species but evolution of civilisations. We believed th...