Articles for Further Reflection

Reflection on Vision 2025 by Albert Fung [2021]
Albert Fung, the Executive Director of Wycliffe Taiwan, reflects on the impacts of Vision 2025 for the Bible translation movement, and especially on the ongoing journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

A Word About the Alliance Covenant by Dr. Stephen Coertze [2021]
In a season when most Wycliffe Global Alliance organisations have signed our Covenant / Statement of Commitment, Executive Director Stephen Coertze explains more fully what action this means and what it does not mean.

Leading in the Certainty of Uncertain Times by Dr. Susan van Wynen [2020]
This research focused on the potential for Christ-following leaders to develop a theological and missiological posture in response to the current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world context. This research looks at how the attitudes and actions of the corporate world have influenced those of Christian organisations and Christian leadership. The corporate world primarily focuses on strategies for overcoming the challenges of the VUCA environment, but this research explores how Christ-following leaders might benefit from looking more deeply at what VUCA represents, rather than merely accepting and reacting to it.

The Future of the Bible Translation Movement Survey by Dr. Kirk Franklin and Susan van Wynen [2020]
During the last two weeks of April 2020, an online survey was offered to the directors of Wycliffe Global Alliance organisations. The purpose was to identify what the Bible translation movement could look like during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a means of determining how Alliance organisations were affected, thus far, by the crisis and it offers a glimpse of how leaders are thinking about and preparing for the future.

A missiology of progress: Assessing advancement in the Bible translation movement by Dr. Kirk Franklin [2020]
How do we know what God considers progress in the Bible translation movement and what milestones are theologically significant in the coming decades?

Leading in Global-Glocal Missional Contexts: Learning from the Journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance by Dr. Kirk Franklin [2017]
The journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance is an example of how some paradigm shifts are influencing leading in mission. Since Christianity is both an agent and product of globalization, its beliefs have spread from one source to another, crossing religious, linguistic and cultural contexts. As a result, there are polycentric or multiple centres of influence since Christianity has homes within a diversity of contexts. This carries with it various implications including how partnering in mission needs to be deconceptualized through greater emphasis on friendship.

A paradigm for global mission leadership: the journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance by Dr. Kirk Franklin [2016]
Developing leaders with a global mindset—how globalization and the mission of God help shape the path forward. Doctoral thesis by Kirk Franklin, Executive Director of the Wycliffe Global Alliance 2008-2020, published by the University of Pretoria, South Africa, February 2016.

Polycentrism in the missio Dei by Dr. Kirk Franklin, Dr. Nelus Niemandt [2016]
As Christianity moved farther away from the Christendom model of centralised control to other models of structure and leadership, other paradigms have been proposed along the way. However, one possibility, called the concept of polycentrism, has not been considered with any significant effort.

Funding God’s Mission: Towards a Missiology of Generosity by Dr. Kirk Franklin, Dr. Nelus Niemandt [2015]
This article focuses on the question of identifying the missiological implications that arise in the raising of and managing of funds in God’s mission, particularly as the church continues its demographic shift from the West to the global South and East.

Missiological Reflections on Funding by Minyoung Jung [2014]
Mission agencies and many other nonprofit organizations have felt the impact of the global financial crisis. This situation calls us to seriously revisit and reevaluate existing funding systems. Our total dependence on God in everything, including funds, is probably the most prominent concept in Scripture.

Vision 2025 and the Bible translation movement by Dr. Kirk Franklin, Dr. Nelus Niemandt [2013]
This research focuses on one organisation withing the global Bible translation movement - the Wycliffe Global Alliance. The research explores the historical theological influences on the Alliance, the missiological significance of the translatability of the Bible and the missiological theological implications of Vision 2025. The aim is to determine how the Alliance has responded to these areas in light of the changing global church and mission context.

Missio Dei and Bible Translation by Eddie Arthur [2013]
"God ... has a mission in the sense of an overarching purpose, rather than an individual task to perform. His purpose across history is to restore the relationships which were there in the original creation."

Missio Dei and the Mission of the Church by Eddie Arthur [2013]
"The concept of missio Dei ... is essentially that the work or mission of the church is a subset of the work of God in the world, rather than something with an independent existence."

Changing Paradigms, Missio Dei and the Seven Streams of Participation by Kirk Franklin [2013]
Changing Paradigms, Missio Dei and the Seven Streams of Participation

The Wycliffe Global Alliance and Bible Translation Movements by Kirk Franklin [2012]
A series of 18 articles looking at the implications for the Wycliffe Global Alliance with respect to the church’s demographic shift from the West to the global South and East. These deal with major topics such as the missio Dei, missiological and historical foundations of Bible translation, mission strategy, and mission agency leadership.