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.
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.
(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.
Global Missional AI Summit The Global Missional AI Summit brings together mission-minded workers, Bible translators, and technology practitioners to explore the value artificial intelligence (AI)… Read More »Global Missional AI Summit
Join us at the Storytelling Café at EMDC Online! I recently went to the massage therapist because my neck was hurting and all I had on my mind… Read More »Bible Storytelling Cafe.
Imagine that someone was to say to you, “I’m involved in an innovative project.” What assumptions would you make about the project? Take a moment to be in that conversation and truly consider my question.
The word “innovative” will tip you off that they are working on something new. You may also assume that there is a degree of risk or uncertainty in the project’s outcome because it is new. It is also likely that you assume that the project involves some new technology, or an existing technology applied to a new domain.
It’s that last assumption that I would like to focus on for a few minutes. Why is it that we tend to associate innovation with technology? My guess is that we are simply used to seeing the two go hand in hand in our 21st Century world. There have been so many astounding advances in technology in the past 20 years that our brains are almost conditioned to join the two concepts together.
When Google launched Chrome they created a comic book to explain Google Chrome. After the U.S. government spent millions of dollars compiling the 9/11 Commission Report they had a problem – no one was reading the voluminous text. That is, until it came out as a graphic novel and catapulted to best-seller lists and the front of USA Today. Comics, it turns out, can be the language of choice to explain stories of significance.
Below and countless other letters and e-mails we receive attest to the fact that people need to understand the Bible. That is why the Comic Bible Society focuses on serializing and explain in a systematic, chronological and visual manner the whole testimony of the Scripture.
Read More »The Bible Explained
The Choice is Yours
Reach4Life is a comprehensive, Christian life skills program for young people — with a particular focus on identity, sexuality, and relationships — that brings about holistic spiritual and behavioural transformation. It is based on the idea that real comprehensive behavioral change is only possible once there is a spiritual revolution in the hearts and minds of young people.
Reach4Life is designed to inspire youth to plug into a relationship with God, the raw power of the Bible, the wisdom of saving lovemaking for marriage, the support of a local church, the beauty of a transformed life, and the opportunity to change the world one person at a time.
Scripture Engagement: Planning for the Journey
It’s not enough to translate the Bible. It’s not even enough to distribute the Bible. Our desire is to see real Scripture Engagement: people encountering God’s Word in life-changing ways. A three part series (3 sets of 10 one hour sessions) centred on Wayne Dye’s Eight Conditions for Scripture Engagement (below) will be hosted on EMDC.online early in 2022. These conditions are the ones at the heart of the EMDC.guide and Scripture Engagement courses taught at university.
Each one hour class will have 20 minutes of discussion. Update: Classes are now finished but stay connected for news of when this runs again!
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Fourth Edition – Revised for 2019
It is not hard to convince those involved in Scripture access and Scripture engagement of the value of listening to audio Scriptures. We want to assist communities in making strategic choices about how best to make them available and how best to encourage people to engage with them. One of the ways people listen to the Bible today is using a digital audio player. But since there are so many different audio players to choose from, how do we make a good choice?
This in-depth review (66 pages) compares a range of today’s digital audio players including the Proclaimer (from Faith Comes By Hearing), the Envoy 2 (from MegaVoice), the Audibible K1 (from Kivah Distributors), the Papyrus and The Torch (from Renew World Outreach), the Kulumi Mini and Lost Sheep from Hope Tech Global.
We exist so that local communities everywhere are engaging with Scripture in transformative ways.
We empower communities to make informed and sustainable decisions for their future. The journey isn’t ever a perfectly linear process – instead we come alongside communities as they try an idea, evaluate the results, and then take their next steps. This is more about the process than the products that may be created or utilized along the way. The journey through the site can be expressed in four general stages:
How to leverage the power of Facebook Ads to promote the translated Scriptures and other Scripture media This is a series of eight training videos, showing… Read More »Facebook Ads for Scripture Promotion
IMS Media Training & certification
IMS (SIL International Media Services) offers you a selection of core and specialized training modules to choose from, allowing you to be better equipped for the specific ministry context you are in.
If you are wanting to be certified as a Media Specialist, our obligatory four core modules are: Audio Production, Video Production, The role of media in ministry & holistic development, and Facilitating media. In addition to this, we offer a range of additional specialized courses for those seeking to become Media Consultants such as Dubbing biblical films, Using social media effectively, App building or Participatory radio drama.
Our training helps you…
Imagine: You live in a secluded village on an island in the Pacific. You have only ever known the religion and rituals of your community, but you know in your soul that there must be something more. You yearn for truth and peace. Once, a foreigner brought a book in the local trade language and tried to tell your people about God, but your heart language does not have a written form. Only a few of your family members and friends can read the trade language to a small degree. The book that the foreigner brought contained complex wording that made no sense even to them. You eventually resign yourself to the fact that if there is a God, He doesn’t care about you enough to speak His truth in your language.
…Until one day, your neighbor shows you an interesting device. Emitting from it are words you recognize. Your neighbor tells you that at last, because of this device, your community can hear God speak—in your language.
Faith Comes By Hearing strives to ensure that every last person has the chance to hear God’s Word, no matter where they live or what language they speak. To carry out this work, we employ a variety of methods in recording and providing Scripture to more people.
If I had to describe the audio processing team at Faith Comes By Hearing, I’d use the word precision. Much like a tool-machining company, audio engineers have to produce an individual product with extreme accuracy—again and again. They have to get each Audio Bible recording just right.
Every workday, the 20 audio editors buckle in at their desks, strap on their headsets, and enter the culture of another people group through their recorded words. But these aren’t ordinary words: they are God’s words, which were painstakingly translated into the community’s mother tongue.
The Greek New Testament has 138,000 words; the English has 180,000. What?! That’s a big gap. The New Testament might have a unique number of words for every language. Let’s take an average of 160,000 words. Since Faith Comes By Hearing has more than 1,460 New Testament recordings, that means audio technicians have already recorded 234 million words, more or less.
Words are essential in everyday interactions, education and business, and most certainly in spiritual matters. Because 50% of the world’s population can’t read at a level high enough to understand the Bible, the audio recordings produced by Faith Comes By Hearing are crucial to the salvation and spiritual growth of millions of people. This drives our need to be accurate. Each word matters.
An audio editor focuses on one language at a time. If all goes well, he can check the audio files, add music and sound effects, and complete the master in about three and a half weeks. As many as 30 languages are in the studio at the same time, and the team produces an average of 10 Scripture recordings a month.
How does an editor in Albuquerque follow a biblical text and recording in totally foreign language? Some languages use the Roman alphabet, like English and many other European languages. This makes listening and following the text relatively easy. Otherwise, audio processors refer to a transliteration of the recorded language, which changes the sounds of the words into Roman script. The editor can now identify if there is an extra word or if one is missing. Finding simple errors like these is an essential step in verifying the accuracy of a recording. The text also helps the editors place markers in the right location to add the background music and sound effects.
Quality control (QC) for Scripture recordings is built into the recording and editing processes from start to finish. It begins in the language community, where the trained director and technician constantly monitor the sound quality, the person reading, and background noise. Adjustments are made on the spot to ensure the highest sound quality possible. In the studio, Faith Comes By Hearing’s audio editors can remove some extraneous noises, adjust volume levels, eliminate pauses, etc. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to check the approximately 160,000 words in each New Testament recording.
But we’re not done yet. There’s one more person who does a final check in the QC process. He listens for balance between the volume levels of the narrator’s voice and the background music and effects. He checks to make sure every chapter is announced, and he spot-checks the entire recording to ensure we’ve produced the best possible Scripture recording for each people group. At last, the recording is formatted to play on the Web, the Bible.is app, and a Proclaimer.
As I contemplate the complexity of recording Scripture in every language that needs it, I feel a sense of awe. And I have a whole new appreciation for the audio editors. They experience a great sense of accomplishment when they complete each new language. One put it this way: “Having a job where the whole mission is to get the Word of God to the whole world is awesome and very fulfilling.”
It’s not a task to be taken lightly—they are responsible for handling God’s Word in audio with precision so that every person can hear the pure Word of God in their language.
Children matter! Jesus exemplifies and mandates that children be taught God’s Word. How can children be taught about the Bible in a way they will… Read More »Training Local Sunday School Teachers and preparing culturally relevant materials when there is no curriculum
