Executive Director Stephen Coertze's Closing Remarks, Global Gathering 2024

Monday, 4 November, 2024, Johannesburg

Friends, as we reach the last portion of this incredible, joyful time together, I have a question for you: What do we sense God telling us? Do we have a collective vision as we return to our own contexts? Or, to put it more simply: How do we leave here different than when we arrived?

On Thursday, we as organisations in the Wycliffe Global Alliance, together with our invited guests, started Global Gathering 2024 with great enthusiasm and expectations. We soon discovered that our being together provided a powerful picture of the global body of Christ worshipping our great God together. As in the video with the starlings moving in unison and creating breathtaking formations, we could only wonder how God viewed our being together over these last few days. What is the picture that he saw? In such a diverse community of people, gifts and callings, only he could unite us all on equal footing.

We are bound together by our Alliance Vision statement that we desire to see in­di­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties and na­tions trans­formed through God’s love and Word in their lan­guages and cultures. We have further nuanced our vision over the past 5 days by focusing on our Alliance values.

The first of those values is Community, which was our theme for Day 1.

Right from the start of Global Gathering, we were reminded by Pastor Simon that friendship is for free, because God paid for it. This is a friendship based on Jesus’ model of humility, sacrifice and reconciliation. Over the course of this week, we witnessed a hunger and desire among our Global Gathering participants to collaborate from a perspective of friendship within the Bible translation movement. May we all proceed together in a posture of humility and inclusion, paying particular attention to voices that have not been heard in the midst of power dynamics.

Day 2 was filled with reminders of a second value – that the church is central to God’s mission. We noted the Alliance Board statement affirming that Bible translation is the ministry of the church. Can we ever forget the invitation by Pastor Marcos Agrippino from Brazil that Bible translation agencies must come home — come back to the church, and to take the church with us to the ends of the earth? We were reminded that God has created and called his church for his mission, and that Christ proclaims that he will build his church. We were challenged to work as part of the church in our ongoing response to Bible translation.

Day 3, Saturday, emphasised our constant Alliance focus, the translation of God’s Word. Yet, as one of our participants reminded us —  we should not get so caught up in the work and progress of Bible translation that we miss the true content and power of God’s Word.

In our various discussions we discovered that there are multiple developing approaches that can assist the ministry of Bible translation. Then came Saturday evening. Will we ever forget the illustration of one of these approaches when we celebrated with the ensemble ‘ALIVE in Kaaps’? Perhaps the best way to describe this incredible evening was holy joy. We witnessed how Scripture put to music can be used for evangelism, liturgy, worship, restoration of dignity, healing and transformation.

As part of our Sabbath rest on Sunday, Day 4, we acknowledged another value — the Glory of God among the nations. During Sunday morning’s worship—particularly when people came to the microphones to exalt God, pray or sing in their own languages—the space between heaven and earth felt especially thin. It was as if we were touching heaven, and God was touching us. As we celebrated Sabbath together, this joyful celebration provided a vivid reminder that God is present every bit as much in our rest as in our work.

Earlier Sunday morning, some of us met with a few of our Indonesian friends. They were clear in their minds — that their calling into Bible translation was not just for the sake of the existing church, but that God’s glory will be revealed throughout the nation of Indonesia.

In a later meeting yesterday, some of my team and I had the privilege to meet with colleagues who are right now leading Alliance organisations in the context of war. The one question that keeps resonating is this: How long, O Lord? When will this come to an end?’ We are reminded of our organisation in Sudan which has lost everything. Let us continue to pray for this context.

And that brought us into the value for today, our final day together — Dependence on God. We are reminded of our own fragility, as we serve our omnipotent God.

What are the issues in your organisation that remind you – maybe sometimes painfully – that you can only succeed through the grace of God? In this broken, uncertain world, this ministry can only be fulfilled in complete dependence on God.

And then, there has also been an overarching value for this Global Gathering, one that relates beautifully and completely to the other five values. This value is Christlikeness. We have seen it not only in the content of our table discussions and stage presentations, but throughout each day all around Birchwood – through your gentleness, your sincere humility and your many acts of kindness to each other and to the Birchwood staff, this was demonstrated. How has this value of Christlikeness spoken to you through what you have seen, heard and been a part of?

So – let me ask the question again: How do we leave here different than when we arrived? How has our time together helped shape your vision for your organisation? As an Alliance, made up of multiple Bible translation movements within the body of Christ, the success of Bible translation ministry will depend to what extent we grow together in Christlikeness.

Further, in boldness we will hone newly discovered approaches to Bible translation — to ensure quality and timely translations that lead to transformed lives. We will remain focused on training and equipping Bible translators; improving consultancy to ensure quality translations; we will advocate for whole Scripture translation - both testaments; as for the church and its central role in Bible translation, we will come home, and we will take the church with us to the ends of the earth. And we as an Alliance will help each other to effectively serve as each of our organisations is uniquely gifted by God to provide leadership, influence and service in Bible translation movements.

Back to Thursday: I referenced the throne, crown and sceptre as metaphors of power, and encouraged us to rather align with the metaphors of the cross: the crown of thorns, the broken vessel, and the seed that dies in the ground.

With this in mind, I want to introduce us to the concept of bold humility. I will read from Daniel, chapter 7. HAve a glimpse with me of the throne room of God.

“As I looked,

“thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened."

The kingdoms of this world were stripped of all power. As this was happening, Daniel saw something else, in verse 13:

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

He was given authority, glory and sovereign power over all nations and peoples of every language. And the kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

In Matthew 28, Jesus proclaimed, “all power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go …and make disciples”. For this reason, we can approach our ministry with utter boldness. But for the same reason—because all power belong to Christ and he sends us into his mission, we must also approach our ministry with humility. If we can find the balance of this bold humility, we will see nations transformed.

As we go forward, I think of the wise words spoken Friday by my colleague and dear friend Bryan Harmelink: We are not trying to change the Bible translation movement. We are just trying to respond appropriately to the changes we see in the world, and how God appears to be working.

Let us join him in his mission. And may what we have learned and experienced together in Global Gathering 2024, be a marker for our conversations and our development in the years to come.