A Brief History of the Wycliffe Global Alliance

“Missions always must unfold within the context of and the anticipation of, God’s work, which He alone initiated and which He alone can bring to final completion. This perspective if properly understood, should not render us passive or our work inconsequential. Rather, it puts all of our work within the larger and more ennobling context of God’s action and the certainty of final outcome.” (Timothy Tennant, Invitation to World Missions, A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century., p. 123.)

The privilege of participating in God’s mission also gives us the privilege of “the certainty of final outcome.”

“My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offering will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations.” Malachi 1:11

The Wycliffe Global Alliance exists to further spread His name and to bring Him glory. And, the Alliance exists because His name is growing among the nations. Tracing the history of Wycliffe gives us a glimpse of what God has been doing to bring the nations to Himself.

Another Garage Story

Amazon, Google, Apple, HP, Disney, Harley Davidson…and Wycliffe all have something in common. They each started in a simple garage.

Wycliffe began with a desire to serve the practical needs of Bible translation personnel and linguists working among minority peoples. In the 1940s, most of these personnel were from North America and were working in Central and South America under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now SIL International). As their numbers grew, the need for a “home office” became apparent. This office could handle much-needed accounting services and also help engage people in the United States in prayer and other forms of involvement in Bible translation.

Leonard Livingston Legters and Edna Legters, summer 1939.

Cameron Townsend and L.L. Legters, the founders of SIL, had, in the 1930s, started a “Camp Wycliffe” (named after John Wycliffe, an early advocate for Bible translation into English) to train linguists and translators. But they had no idea how the name and work would grow and spread. Their original plan had been to train translators who would serve under other established missionary societies. But by the early 1940s, friends of the work strongly recommended the formation of a society specifically focused on Bible translation.

William G. Nyman and Etta Nyman at their home in Glendale, California. Bill Nyman was Secretary-Treasurer of Wycliffe and SIL from 1943-1960.

In 1942, Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. was created. Its headquarters was established in California, in the small garage apartment of Bill Nyman. Nyman, an experienced businessman, served as a volunteer and donated this apartment. All of the funds that came in for the ministry went directly to field locations, with the exception of the five percent that the personnel had agreed were needed for an office secretary’s salary and office supplies. As the translation teams multiplied, the office grew too and eventually moved into larger facilities. Soon, Wycliffe Bible Translators was not only meeting the needs of teams in the field but was also actively promoting the needs and work of Bible translation.

Expanding Beyond the USA

Britain, Australia and Canada

In the early 1950s, SIL began to offer linguistics training courses in England and Australia. These courses, with names like “Wycliffe Institute of Linguistics,” served mission organizations that were eager to access SIL’s knowledge and training. The courses also created interest among prospective missionaries who were attracted to Bible translation as a ministry.

Wycliffe UK: From tiny beginnings, like this phonetics class under canvas, Wycliffe has gone on to train cross cultural workers with many agencies working around the globe.

This interest gave rise to the formation of Wycliffe Bible Translators in these countries. Each organization was incorporated within its own country, but in the late 1950s and the 1960s, Wycliffe Bible Translators of Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada were also accepted as “divisions” of the U.S. corporation.

Europe

In the early 1960s, the vision for Bible translation in the languages of minority peoples spread throughout Europe, and European churches began sending out a new workforce from Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, followed by the Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

In the early 1990s as Eastern and Central Europe opened up, still more came. Those who had lived in the former Communist states knew what it was like to be without God’s Word, and they were eager to help others hear the Word in their own languages.

Asia

Through the 1980s, Asian countries began to join this worldwide movement for Bible translation. Japan, Singapore and South Korea led the way with others following. By the turn of the century, nine Asian nations were contributing to the worldwide Bible translation movement.

National Field Organizations

Campus of Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) - Nairobi, Kenya, in 1984.

During the 1970s and ’80s, a number of national organizations (called at the time “National Bible Translation Organizations”) developed under the guidance of Wycliffe’s partner SIL. These organizations sponsored Bible translation and applied linguistics work in their own countries. Many also engaged with the Church in their countries, serving as advocates for mother-tongue Scripture use and recruiting personnel and prayer support for Bible translation work.

Wycliffe Bible Translators International

Until 1980, the Wycliffe organizations emerging around the world were all called “divisions.” They were subsidiary organizations of Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. in the United States. Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. served not only as the representative organization for the U.S. public but also as the umbrella organization for the worldwide family of “divisions.” Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. was the early face of Wycliffe International.

In 1980, Wycliffe Bible Translators International was incorporated as a separate corporation from Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. Organizations that had been divisions of Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. became divisions of Wycliffe Bible Translators International, and Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. (now also known as Wycliffe USA) went on to focus on its role of relating to the U.S. public.

In 1991, the decision was made to restructure Wycliffe International. The term “division” became obsolete, and the Wycliffe organizations became self-governing member organizations of Wycliffe International. Wycliffe International would be governed by its member organizations, meaning that each voting member organization was entitled to two votes on matters pertaining to Wycliffe International, irrespective of size or experience.

This restructuring had significant consequences. Member organizations became fully self-governing and responsible to develop and shape their organizations and their policies according to cultural and national concerns. Wycliffe International’s role became one of facilitating, of providing standards and guidelines, of making recommendations, and of giving global direction and support. Wycliffe International would no longer write policies governing the member organizations.

During this same era, the historic structure of Wycliffe International and SIL International’s interconnectedness also began to shift. Through much of their history, they had a shared board, and members of one organization were also members of the other. In 2008, Wycliffe International and SIL changed their structures to incorporate separate boards. They are now distinct organizations with separate boards. The organizations still share a close and highly valued partnership, but each is also exploring new partnerships with other organizations that work with or as a part of minority language communities. Each organization makes its own unique contribution while also working in unity with its partner organizations. Many Wycliffe organizations continue to second much of their personnel to SIL, and Wycliffe International and SIL work together on a number of strategies.

In 2008, Wycliffe International began a new journey with a new board, executive director and Global Leadership Team.  The new leadership began to look at how God was at work in his Church worldwide and how Wycliffe could best participate in His global mission.

Wycliffe Global Alliance

In February of 2011, Wycliffe International became Wycliffe Global Alliance. The new name represented what and who Wycliffe was becoming. Further restructuring continues as the Alliance seeks to be a welcoming community of reflective practitioners, good stewards, and participants in God’s mission through Bible translation movements and related ministries. Our desire is to create an environment for increasing partnerships and the participation of God’s Church worldwide so that all may have the opportunity to know Christ through His Word and His people.

 

05/2025 Global

Special Report - May 2025

.

Read more

05/2025 Global

‘We’ve come very far, very fast’

A tech observer outlines what AI will mean soon for workplaces and ministry

Read more

Global

Tech pioneer: Christians ‘have to show up’ for AI

Silicon Valley pioneer Pat Gelsinger was CEO of Intel Corporation until December 2024. Quickly realising his career in technology was not finished, he joined the faith/tech platform Gloo in early 2025 as the executive chair and head of technology. He is also a general partner at the venture capital firm Playground Global. Gelsinger was instrumental in the development of cloud computing, Wi-Fi, USB and many other everyday technologies. He estimates his work has touched 60 to 70 percent of humanity. Here are highlights of his keynote talk at the 2025 Missional AI Summit. You can watch his entire talk here. Pat Gelsinger (left) is interviewed onstage by Steele Billings. Both are with Gloo. Watch the full interview here. Is technology good or bad? Technology is neither good nor bad. It’s neutral. It can be used for good. It can be used for bad. … If you think back to the Roman roads, why did Christ come when he came? I’ll argue the Pax Romana and the Roman roads. … The greatest technology of the day was the Roman road system. It was used so the Word could go out. Historical example I will argue Martin Luther was the most significant figure of the last thousand years. And what did he do? He used the greatest piece of technology available at the day, the Gutenberg printing press. He created Bibles. … He broke, essentially, the monopoly on the Bible translations …. He ushered in education. He created the systems that led to the Renaissance. That’s a little punk monk who only wanted to get an audience with the pope because he thought he had a few theological errors. I’ll argue (Luther was) the most significant figure of the last thousand years, using technology to improve the lives of every human that he touched at the time. How today compares to the dawn of the internet AI is more important. AI will be more significant. AI will be more dramatic. … This is now incredibly useful, and we’re going to see AI become just like the internet, where every single interaction will be infused with AI capabilities.  In the 75-year-or-so history of computing, we humans have been adapting to the computer. … With AI, computers adapt to us. We talk to them. They hear us. They see us for the first time. And now they are becoming a user interface that fits with humanity. And for this and so many other reasons that every technology has been building on the prior technology, AI will unquestionably be the biggest of these waves, more impactful even than the internet was. On the need for AI development to be open-source It is so critical because we’re embedding knowledge, embedding values, embedding understanding into those underlying models, large language models and every aspect that happens. It must be open, and this is part of what I think is critical about us being together here today. We need to be creating trusted, open, useful AI that we can build humanity on.  On the need for Christians to help build AI systems We have to show up as the faith community to be influencing those outcomes, because remember what happened in the social media. We didn’t show up, and look at what we got. So are we going to miss this opportunity for something that’s far more important than social networking with AI? Where it truly in the models embeds every aspect of human history and values into it? We have to show up, team. What we do with large language models is far more important because truly we are choosing how we embody knowledge of all time into those underlying models. They need to be open. They need to be trusted. What Christians must bring to the process If we’re going to show up to influence AI broadly, we have to show up with good engineering, good data, good understanding, good frameworks. How do you measure things like ‘Is that leading to better character? Is that leading to better relationships? Is that creating better vocational outcomes? Is that a valid view of a spiritual perspective?’ We need good underlying data associated with each one of these. And for that we’re actively involved. We’re driving to create that underlying data set. Because we need to show up with good data if we’re going to influence how AI is created. How should this work? For the AI systems we need to create good benchmarks. If I ask about God, does it give me a good answer or not? If I ask about relationships with my children, does it give me good answers? We need to create the corpus of data to give good answers to those questions. And, armed with that good data, we need to show up to influence the total landscape of AI. We want to benchmark OpenAI. We’re going to benchmark Gemini. We’re going to benchmark Claude. We’re going to benchmark Copilot.  This is what we’re going to do at Gloo, but we want to be part of a broader community in that discussion so that we’re influential in creating flourishing AI. Technology is a force for good. AI that truly embeds the values that we care about, that we want to honour, that we want to be representing into the future and benchmarking across all of them.   Oh his role with Gloo We are going to change the landscape of the faith community and its role in shaping this most critical technology, AI, for faith and flourishing. That’s what we’re going to do at Gloo and we need all of your help and partnership to do so because if we don’t hang together, we’re not going to influence the outcome, right? ‘Here am I, Lord’ I don’t think I’m done. … You and I both need to come to the same position like Isaiah did. Here am I, Lord. Send me. Send me. Send us. That we can be shaping technology as a force for good. That we could grab this moment in time. This is the greatest time to live in human history. We’re going to solve diseases. We’re going to improve lives. We’re going to educate every person in poverty. We are going to solve climate issues. We are going to be using these technologies to improve the lives of every human on the planet. We are going to shape technology as a force for good. Here am I, Lord. Send me. ••• Story: Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance Translated with ChatGPT. How was the translation accuracy? Let us know at info@wycliffe.net. Alliance organisations are welcome to download and use images from this series.  

Read more