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Strange places to see scripture – would anywhere be wrong?

  • by Peter B

Since 1883, Abram Lyle & Sons Ltd have been using a picture of a dead lion accompanied by a quote from Judges 14:14 to sell syrup.

This might seem strange to some people but isn’t the only place you might come across unexpected Bible verses. Almost 30 years ago the city of Tagbilaran in the Philippines passed a local law requiring that a Scripture be painted on the back of all tricycles. Even when not officially required, Bible verses appear in a number of unexpected places.

Read More »Strange places to see scripture – would anywhere be wrong?

Designing for users with accessibility needs

  • by Peter B

“most churches don’t intentionally exclude people with disabilities. But because the world is, by default, a poor fit for people with disabilities, the church is also a poor fit, unless we intentionally include people of all abilities.” – Ryan Faulk joniandfriends.org/the-largest-unreached-people-group-youve-never-heard-of

We encourage church and mission leaders to think not only of mission among those with a disability, but to recognize, affirm and facilitate the missional calling of believers with disabilities themselves as part of the Body of Christ. The Cape Town Commitment II-B-4

Sadly we can end up excluding many people, unless we are intentional about doing more to include them. Read More »Designing for users with accessibility needs

Planting “Gospel Seeds” Through Business Cards

Over the last year or two, during my infrequent visits to southern California, I began to notice a change in the ethnic mix of the men that gather early each morning in the parking lot of the Home Depot near our mission agency’s home office hoping to get work for the day. Typically the men had all been Mexicans, but I noticed newcomers that I suspected were Haitians. 

Five years ago I tracked down the available Scripture resources in Haitian Creole and loaded them onto some “BibleBox” WiFi hotspot units for some Mexican believers reaching out among thousands of Haitians that ended up “stuck” in Tijuana, Mexico on their trek north. Now, for those with smartphones, directing Creole speakers to the Haitian Creole page* within the www.ScriptureEarth.org website seems to me to be the best option. They can have free access to 6 full-length Scripture movies**, the text of multiple translations of the New Testament, audio recordings of the NT in 3 different Creole translations, and a variety of audio recordings produced by the Global Recordings Network.

Read More »Planting “Gospel Seeds” Through Business Cards

Translating the Bible Into Action

Translating the Bible into Action (2nd Edition)

  • by Peter B

Translating the Bible into Action has become a key resource for anyone interested in helping people discover the relevance of the Bible in their lives, especially in terms of newer translations in minority languages. This new edition includes new chapters and updates that take into account new opportunities and changes in technology in the last 10-15 years. Written in an accessible way for use with churches, most chapters can be introduced and explored in an hour or two. The book provides recommendations and links to further articles, many of which are available on https://scripture-engagement.org/ and https://www.ijfm.org/

Read More »Translating the Bible into Action (2nd Edition)

Using QR Codes to share Bibles and resources

Not all promotion of websites and apps is online. One of the great resources distributed at the recent EMDC gathering was a simple key chain from CityBibles. Being a QR code you can even just scan the picture of it above to access their online app which provides scripture resources in over 80 languages. In addition to the Bible their are videos and a kids app. If the language you are looking for isn’t on the site the page quickly points you to YouVersion, Faith Comes By Hearing and Global Recordings Network.

Read More »Using QR Codes to share Bibles and resources

Does your church link to an online Bible?

Does your church help people to find Bibles?

  • by Peter B

Church websites are often quite good at telling people about service times, linking to sermons, and even giving information on how to hire rooms in the building. Sadly, in my experience not many are very good at helping people access the Bible. Perhaps they assume that anyone who can find the church website can also search online and find a Bible.

But perhaps this is a missed opportunity to highlight that the Bible is essential to the church, and that the church leaders actually do want people to read it for themselves.

Read More »Does your church help people to find Bibles?

Psalms that Sing

A group of Old Testament consultants are developing a series of aids to help translators prepare oral/performance and written translations of psalms that incorporate characteristics of local poetry and which will result in several products – both an exegetically-accurate written translation as well as a number of oral performances of the psalm or portions thereof.

For each psalm, there are four stages to the process, which moves from oral to written to performance. The hope is to capture the creativity of the translators through first preparing an oral translation and performance-excerpts, and then for this translation to be honed (to bring it closer to the Hebrew in terms of accuracy) after a careful study of the exegesis of the text.

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Catching up on what you missed, or what you meant to read/watch/listen to again

  • by Peter B

In 2020 the global pandemic forced us to cancel our live “EMDC” media distribution consultation, and develop a whole suite of online options providing information, training and community, to workers involved in Bible translation and other forms of service amongst ‘minority language communities’ – speakers of the languages that have been at the end of the queue when it comes to receiving scripture and other resources.

Read More »Catching up on what you missed, or what you meant to read/watch/listen to again

Caring for Your Mind and Soul in Digital Ministry

by Aaron Myers – Director of Digital Outreach for Crescent Project

A few years ago a friend of mine asked me an interesting question. We were talking about the urgency to see the day when the billions from unreached people groups have an opportunity to respond to the gospel and be connected with a follower of Jesus.  Jesus came after all “to seek and save the lost”, He told us that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”, and his final instruction to His disciples – and to us – was to “go and make disciples of all nations”.  With nearly 3 billion people in the world who have not yet had an opportunity to hear the gospel, urgency is desperately needed.  

Read More »Caring for Your Mind and Soul in Digital Ministry

MOSES

  • by Nicolas

Medical Outreach for Scripture Engagement Sustainability (MOSES): A Case Study on the MOSES methodology in South Asia

Submission for the 2021 Bible Translation Conference

 After decades of tireless sowing by pioneers around the globe, national movements to translate the Scriptures into non-dominant language groups have truly sprung to life in the Global South. With hundreds of translations being published in the last twenty years, recent data shows that many of these Bibles do not have much of an audience. In many cases, the problem has become people-less Bibles rather than Bible-less peoples. Our team was convinced that the remedy to the lack of demand for the book is to introduce people to the Author. The Medical Outreach for Scripture Engagement and Spiritual growth (MOSES) approach adapts the Leader Source spiritual formation program design methodology to working with local stakeholders to build bridges to the Bible through God encounters that meet the felt needs of the community.

Read More »MOSES

Great New EMDC Resource

All of effective Eurasian Kingdom initiatives are built on two key elements: 1) Effective Communications 2) Effective Collaboration – How we work together. Long-time EMDC champion, Phill Butler, is an acknowledged expert in these fields.  His book, Well Connected, the global “bible” of partnership and network development is now in a dozen languages.  Phill has just completed a great new resource website with 140+ articles and 30+ videos on these topics. 

Read More »Great New EMDC Resource

5 Steps to Engage with the Bible

Category : Scripture Engagement
 
You might ask, Why employ a Scripture engagement process? Simply reading the Bible doesn’t automatically result in a person’s loving God and others. Reflecting on a Bible passage after reading it is imperative for spiritual growth. Similarly, reading a math book doesn’t mean you understand the math or are able to use it. You must engage and try the calculations. Therefore Scripture engagement serves to make passages more personally meaningful to you so they can result in godly living.
Here are some steps to help you prepare to engage with God’s Word.

Scripture Engagement Research Initiative

Here are the latest resources on the Scripture Engagement website:
Scripture Engagement Research Initiative<   Mar 03, 2022 10:53 am

A multiagency research program of Dallas International University

Dallas International University (DIU), in collaboration with SIL’s Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship, has launched the Scripture Engagement Research Initiative (SERI). The SERI program hosts a series of large grant-funded Scripture Engagement research projects. Research topics are proposed both by participants and by the SERI leadership. Participants can serve for short periods of time or as part of a longer-term assignment.

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What makes a good oral Bible story

Story group in West Africa

What makes a good oral Bible story? There are many ministries that develop oral Bible stories, and they have varying approaches on the process of developing an abbreviated and simplified story from a biblical passage(s).

Good story development follows four principles embraced by many in the story community of biblically faithful to the textual Bible passage(s), orally reproducible (meaning that that story can be easily learned and told by others), naturally told and the story is appropriate to the culture, often expressed in the use of key terms understood by the local community. In addition, a good oral Bible story based on a Bible passage(s) has a plot or story line that keeps the listener interested and engaged. The actual storyteller can also influence the quality of the story experience to the listener

When developing an oral Bible story, a ministry may embrace common elements practiced by other story practitioners (e.g., testing the story with those who don’t follow Jesus) while having nuances (e.g., use of technology) in the story development process that is unique to the ministry.

So what makes a good oral Bible story? Two important aspects are fidelity to an established process and people embracing the story.

Read More »What makes a good oral Bible story

Unaddressed Trauma

To attend the session on this subject go to https://emdc.online/list

or if you miss the session,  the video of the emdc online session may be found here https://emdc.online/archive/687

Unaddressed trauma creates barriers to hearing, understanding, and accepting the love of God. In other words, trauma can keep someone from truly hearing the gospel and creates barriers to spiritual growth. If we are concerned with sharing the gospel and planting healthy and reproducing churches, we must pay significant attention to trauma. We must equip and empower lay people with the basic tools they need to address trauma safely, responsibly, and effectively. As lay people learn to use these tools, healing multiplies alongside the Good News.

Healing cannot take place in 7 or 10 simple sessions – it is an on-going journey. From entry into a community to leadership development, it is important to help communities establish environments where healing community, faith, and purpose can flourish. Comprehensive frameworks that integrate a trauma-informed approach into church planting strategy provide structures that allow for lay people to be trained and for healing to happen over time appropriately, in a healthy way, and in a way that multiplies. A trauma-informed approach should take the following steps:

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Which kind of translations make more impact? 

  (photo credit: esperanzatolentino.wordpress.com)

Which kind of translations make more impact?

This is a good question.  It is also a complex issue and more than one set of parameters comes into play. That is, there’s more going on here than “literal vs meaning-based.” Long ago David Landin did research in Bolivia to see which indigenous Bibles were being used there 10 years after completion. Answer: the ones with the hymns in the back. And in those, it was the hymns that were being used, not the translations themselves.

One key factor that has proven true over the years is whether or not the local church leaders (pastors, evangelists, teachers) choose to use a new translation or not. If the local and regional church leaders do not show support for a translation, it will likely fade into obscurity. This is why nowadays many projects begin by contacting local and regional, even national church and denominational leadership in order to hear from them what kind of translation is most desired by them for their people. And continued conversation with these leaders is fostered all along the life of the translation project.

Read More »Which kind of translations make more impact?