International (MNN) — What happens when Christians understand how to make disciples, how to plant churches and how to translate the Bible into their heart language? Triple-threat dynamite!
Dane with unfoldingWord says in 2024 they forged new partnerships with three disciple-making movements and church-planting movements in the global south.
Because of these partners’ reach and because of how unfoldingWord tools will equip them, this will have far-reaching impact on the spread of the gospel of Jesus!
Partners with massive reach
One of these new partners is in Southeast Asia. “We’re talking more than 1,300 churches representing more than 10 million people. [The leader] is going back [there], he told me personally, to fire up his whole network about engaging in church-centric Bible translation,” says Dane. (More on church-centric Bible translation here.)
Another new partner is a church-planting movement in South Asia. “[This is a movement] where in the last five years, they’ve planted 1,000 house churches with about 50,000 new believers. They’re doing church-centric Bible translation there for those new believers to reach out to their communities,” says Dane.
One brother from South Asia told Dane that language is truly the key to reaching the region for Christ. He told Dane, “You come in to them (a new people group) and you try to start talking about the gospel, [and] they say, ‘Oh, that’s foreign religion.’ But when you can come in with Bible stories in their language, it just immediately opens the door.”
How unfoldingWord tools will strengthen the Church
Dane says that disciple-making and church-planting movements drive Bible translation — they create the demand for it, if you will. That’s because when new believers realize God speaks their heart language, they want to translate Scripture into that heart language. unfoldingWord seeks to provide them all the tools they need for this critical work.
By adding Bible translation to disciple-making and church-planting movements, it will strengthen the global church in amazing ways.
“You’re not just producing a Bible. You are integrating Bible translation into the theological growth of the church, and that just makes the roots of the church deeper,” Dane says.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
There’s every reason to expect God will do incredible things — because He already has. Here’s the track record of one longtime unfoldingWord partner ministry in South Asia:
“They were able to translate the New Testament for 104 people groups, and they did it in two years, using unfoldingWord’s translation core software and some of our other tools and resources.”
Sounds impossible, right? It’s not. It’s only one out of many stories unfoldingWord could tell. Consider how you could join this exciting movement of God through your prayers and partnership!
“If transferring the capacity for Bible translation from the West to the global south and the rest of the world fires you up… If open licensing, if new technology, if innovative ways to approach Bible translation fires you up, then one way to get involved is to give today,” Dane says.
Give toward unfoldingWord’s year-end campaign by visiting their website here.
“We call [the campaign] ‘Endure’ because when churches have God’s Word in their heart language, they endure,” Dane says. “When they don’t have it in their heart language — when they have to operate in just a second language — the church often doesn’t survive past one generation.”
Header photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.
