'It speaks their language'

Course gives pastors and other leaders a new understanding of the church's role and responsibility in Bible translation

Participants at the Bogotá course enjoy informal discussion between sessions. Photo: Gwen Davies

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Bogotá, Colombia — 'You have to come hear this! You have to come!'

In August 2024, Myriam Rodríguez was invited at the last minute to attend a course being held at a conference centre in Bogotá. The course was called Language and Translation in the Mission of God (LTMG)—and it caught her imagination immediately.

With topics like ‘Language, Culture and Identity in God’s Mission’, Myriam had initially thought the course might be more apt for her daughter, Paula, a freelance Spanish-English translator. 

Now, during a break between sessions, she was on the phone with Paula. Myriam was so excited about what she was learning, she didn’t want her daughter to miss out on a big opportunity.

“I love to study things about the Lord,” says Myriam, who found out about the course because she was hosting one of the staff in her home. “Whenever there’s a course that’s centred on Christ and the Bible, I love to go.” 

The Alliance’s LTMG course is no ordinary Bible study class, however. It’s a four-day deep dive into Scripture that reveals a fresh understanding of the who, how and what of God’s mission: 

• We communicate because we are image bearers of God, who communicates.
• Through the gift of language, we not only find relationship with our Creator, but we also bear his image as communicators to others, sharing his message. Our role in God’s mission arises from our being created in his image and our identity as his creatures. 
• The various languages and cultures that descended from God’s protective act in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel have become the vehicles for this mission—a mosaic through which his glory will be proclaimed into eternity. 

“From the first presentation, I was silent, absorbing it,” Myriam said. “No church service talks of these things, so the whole time I just kept on receiving, receiving, receiving.” 

All of this has huge implications not only for missions in general, but specifically for the ministry of Bible translation.

Course coordinator Silvia Zelaya (TRES) with instructor Vicky Infante (ALEM). Photo: Gwen Davies

Igniting a passion for God’s mission

The mission of God is a central theme in the Alliance, reminding us that the mission in which we are called to serve through Bible translation is not our mission but God’s. (See some reflective documents on our website.) That is fine as a theoretical concept, but the LTMG course has been particularly effective at providing a way for people to go deeper—grasping what that means at the heart level. It provides the ‘missing link’ in the academic and linguistic approach to Bible translation, getting at the spiritual core of why we do translation. 

The seed for this course was planted more than a decade ago when Bryan Harmelink, now the Alliance’s Director for Collaboration, began reflecting on how he and others were seeing God working through language and Bible translation. In 2015, Dr Michel Kenmogne, the incoming Executive Director of SIL International, invited Bryan to lead a group to explore the topic of language and the mission of God. Bryan enthusiastically accepted. And, something Michel said struck Bryan profoundly: ‘We’ve had decades of analysis of language without taking time to think missiologically about what language is and how God uses it in his mission.’

Also in 2015, Bryan met Marcia and Edson Suzuki at the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) University of the Nations in Hawaii. This led to several conversations about training YWAMers for work in Bible translation and then, to Bryan’s surprise, a request from the University of the Nations to develop a master of arts program in Bible translation. The first developed course centered on biblical-theological reflection on language, translation, and the mission of God. The course was first taught in October 2017 with the first YWAM cohort in the Masters of Applied Linguistics for Bible Translation.

Vanessa Rodríguez (AEL) takes notes while Gisella Greenfield (COMUNIFE Colombia) teaches. Photo: Gwen Davies

Fresh understanding

That is how the LTMG course taught in Bogotá last August came into existence—“Through reflection on how language is such an integral part of what God is doing in the world,’ Bryan says. ‘And that reflection has deepened and expanded.’

Through many iterations over the past seven years, the course continues to resonate freshly with each new group of people who take it. 

In Bogotá, expectant chatter filled the meeting room in a Roman Catholic convent-turned-conference centre. Twenty-four participants from more than 10 countries in the Americas gathered around tables lit by sunshine from the garden outside. They were translators, indigenous leaders, mission trainers, Alliance organisation leaders, training and mobilisation directors, children’s workers and the director of a seminary for indigenous students. Bryan led a team of teachers for the eighth offering of the course. 

On that first day, he reminded everyone that the group was there not just to learn from each other, but to learn from God. 

‘God himself has called each one of us to participate in what he is doing in this world. …’ Bryan said. ‘You have come here, perhaps by invitation of others. But your participation in the mission of God does not come from the invitation of a brother, sister, organisation, church. The invitation comes directly from God, through his Spirit.’

It set the tone for four days of what one pastor from a previous course said felt like a surprising blend of training course and spiritual retreat.

Course instructors and staff meet to prepare for the next day. Left to right: Douglas Baughman (Alliance Americas), Jose Oviedo (LETRA Paraguay), Ana Cristina Mejía (Alliance Americas), Cristiano Barros (ALEM) and Bryan Harmelink (Alliance). Photo: Gwen Davies

A shift in thinking

Bible translation movements emphasise the transformation of people through God’s translated Word. The LTMG course highlights this, but also reveals how God seems to be transforming the Bible translation movement itself. Bryan talks about the shift in Alliance thinking from partnering with churches in traditional ways—churches providing finances, administration of projects, etc.—to affirming translation itself as a ministry and responsibility of the worldwide church. (See Statements Regarding the Alliance’s Relationship with the Church.)

“Yes, we’ve acknowledged that we’re part of the church, but I think it’s so significant to affirm that Bible translation is a ministry of the church,” Bryan says, “and that we’re encouraged to come alongside the church in support of its ministries of initiating translation, of resourcing translation, of equipping people to do translation.”

He quickly adds that linguistic research and training in how to do Bible translation are still important. But traditionally, the way organisations have talked about translation has tended to be highly technical. Thus. it has been viewed by churches as something only the ‘experts’ do. 

The LTMG course is intended to break down this barrier.

‘For a lot of the pastors and church leaders who participated in the course,’ Bryan says, ‘it “speaks their language”.’ 

A previous participant from Venezuela told him: ‘The reason I am taking such careful notes is because I’m preparing my sermon for Sunday. And this is the kind of thing I can share with my congregation!’” 

Brian McLemore, Vice President of Translation for The Bible League, said LTMG materials are already impacting training for church planters. Prior to the course and conversations with Bryan, they had begun with the question, ‘What is your vision for your church?’ Now they encourage leaders to first consider what vision God has for their church. 

‘That has impacted us in a big way—something simple, perhaps, but very profound’, Brian said. ‘Hopefully we can continue … helping them to capture not just concepts, but also the winsome and impactful style of reflection that you all have developed.’ 

Participants in a breakout small group discussion prepare to return to the main hall. Photo: Gwen Davies

Passing the torch

In December 2019, Bryan Harmelink taught the LTMG course in Singapore for participants from many Asia-Pacific Alliance organisations. The next in-person course was in Mexico City in early 2020, just before the pandemic. Later that year, several participants, on their own, organized local online sessions to share what they had learned. Several months later, they helped organize and teach an Americas Area-level online course for more than 70 participants. 

“It was a great experience seeing their amazing creativity in the way that they were able to contextualise the material for the course,’ Bryan says. 

Gisella Greenfield was one of those early facilitators. She is a mission trainer with a master’s degree in linguistics, but attending that LTMG course in Mexico City helped deepen her foundational understanding of missions. Now she helps teach the course to others.

‘It opened my eyes to a reality that I hadn’t understood before. My life was transformed, my theology was transformed,’ she said. ‘I’d always known that God spoke and things were created. I hadn’t seen the depth of us being able to speak as a marker of his image in us.

‘I also had some intuition of the connection between Babel and Pentecost’, she added, ‘but through the course I was able to see God’s goodness and mercy in intervening in Babel, but never giving up on his original goal of reaching every tribe, people and tongue.’

Gisella also developed a deeper understanding of Bible translation’s importance.

“Through the course I acquired Biblical truths to see the power of Bible translation to lead people to Jesus ….,’ she said. ‘Without Bible translation, how can someone receive the gospel in a meaningful way? Furthermore, we have been sent to make disciples. How do I disciple someone without a Bible he or she can understand?’

The LTMG course has been adapted into shorter versions offered at seminaries and pastoral training courses, and with church and denominational leaders. It is even being adapted as a multi-week Sunday School class to help children understand God’s mission to the world, how Bible translation factors into that and how they can participate. 

In May 2025, the four-day version of the course will be offered in Romania to Wycliffe Romania staff. Wycliffe Romania leaders are looking for ways to better communicate with churches about Bible translation and how God is moving globally. They hope churches can gain a biblical-theological understanding of, as Bryan puts it, ‘how our language, our identity and our creation in the image of God and participation in the mission of God’ fit together.

Mónica López, one of the course instructors, confers with Bryan Harmelink during the course in Bogotá. Photo: Gwen Davies

What comes next

Talks are in progress about the next phase of this course. Bryan says: “One of the aspects of that discussion is, yes we’ve had pastors and church leaders as participants in various courses, but we really want to look at how we can have this training embedded in the church.” 

The goal is that as more people are trained to teach the concepts in a discussion-based format, an understanding of the role of Bible translation in God’s mission can be shared more widely. Many of the new ideas that have been infused into the development of the course have come from people who have taken it. 

‘That’s one of the amazing things,’ Bryan says. ‘Like the development of the children’s materials based on this course. That was not my idea. I never would have thought of that. Participants in various courses and discussions started doing it on their own, because they saw the value of that in their context, and so we’ve come alongside them in this initiative that they’ve started.’ 

It’s what he means when he talks about the material being embedded.

‘It’s actually perceived as “Yes, this is a ministry of the church to help our congregations, our people, better understand that Bible translation is just not this academic activity that takes place somewhere, but it’s actually part of communicating the gospel in other languages for those who have not had the opportunity yet to actually hear the Word of God in their own language.”’ 

‘A real adventure of faith’

On the last day of the Bogotá course, Myriam emotionally told the other participants how it had impacted her. 

 “The Lord in his providence allowed you and me to be here,” she said. “It wasn’t in my plans, but I’ve seen his providence, and his grace in all of you, to be able to share with people from different cultures that I never had met before.”

The church she attends is known for a focus on in-depth study of Scripture, “but in the 20 years that I have been attending that church, never have they taught this,” she said. ‘So, I am left with a yearning for how people can understand such important things, because we are only in a small nucleus that is my local church.’

But the message has caught fire—much to Bryan’s amazement.

“It’s been a real adventure of faith and very humbling and exciting to see the interest that people have,” he says. ‘… And that’s very gratifying at this point in my career to see God is bringing others who he has equipped to continue this, not just this course, but this way of thinking about translation and its place in what God is doing in the world.’

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Story: Gwen Davies and Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance

Photos: Gwen Davies

Alliance organisations are welcome to download and use photos from these articles.

Want to know more?

If you are interested in learning how Language, Translation and the Mission of God might benefit your particular organisation and context, please email us at info@wycliffe.net and we will put you in touch with Bryan Harmelink, the Alliance’s Director for Collaboration.

See also:

New Directions for Bible Translation Training

I'm finally understanding that translation is all about people'

In Brazil, a vision takes hold

A funding opportunity for Alliance organisations and partners

Videos

'My theology was transformed'

A Broader Perspective

Impacting Hearts & Communities

'You have to come hear this!'

Leaving a Legacy

More Perspectives on the Course's Impact