 Peruse the pages of most church history books in search of the role of Bible translation in the church around the world, and you will discover that church historians have granted little attention to the positive impact of Bible translation upon the church’s development throughout the centuries.
Read between the lines, however, and you will notice that pioneer missionary endeavors amidst any given people group resulted in sustained and prolonged growth when Bible translation accompanied missionary outreach. Then go beyond book learning to the actual experience of planting churches within a tribal group, and you will be fully persuaded of the need for translating the Bible into their mother tongue.
In view of these paradigms, Bibles International has committed itself to "do Bible translation as a result of, or in association with, church planting." Our church-planting tenet orients our strategies and methodologies. We are a ministry from churches already established to people groups that have inadequate or no translations. From the inception of a church-planting project to the continued growth of the church, we support every aspect that would hold some relationship to Bible translation.
Granted, most Bible societies adhere to some blend of Bible translation and church planting. Most will avoid direct association with churches, lest they be perceived as preferring one denomination over another; they produce Bibles and let their products find their ways to the churches. Others produce Bibles and saturate a people group with free Bibles with the hope that some seed will fall on good ground. To every Bible society its nuance of approach!
Take this case as an example: Late BMM missionary Jim Garlow planted many churches amidst various people groups in a "semi-closed-door" country during the first half of the 20th century. Working together with Garlow and building upon his initial ministry, Paul Versluis developed a program by which nationals would receive adequate biblical education. Versluis soon realized that as successful as his ministry had been in this and other countries, it was inadequate without Bible translation. He founded BI. Today, BI is conducting many Bible translation projects in that country, and they all contribute to the stability and growth of the churches.
But when an opportunity was recently offered to us to start new projects amidst two people groups with scant church plants, Asia Coordinator Eric Elmer explained to a national (a seminary teacher educated in the U.S.) that church planting should accompany Bible translation even if it meant that believers from one tribe would go to evangelize another. To this the seminary teacher responded, "We are standing inside our own box, but now you are encouraging us to stand on our toes to look at the people groups outside of our box."
Do Bible translation as a result of, or in association with, church planting, and you will eventually receive testimonials such as was given by H.C. Stephen, head of the Association of Baptist Churches for the Simte tribe in Northeast India: "Before the Bible was published in Simte, there were few believers; now many profess Christ as their Savior. The number of churches has grown from 23 to 60, and the number of pastors has increased from 4 to 40." Let us wait to see whether the Simte church history book, if it is ever written, will pay attention to that.
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