Wycliffe Bible Translators - UK 50th Anniversary

On 1st September 1960, 50 years ago today, Wycliffe Bible Translators was officially born in the UK.

The training of translators had been taking place in the UK since the early 50s, but 1960 was the year in which Wycliffe UK (named after John Wycliffe – an early Bible translator who wanted people to be able to learn about God in their own language) was formally recognised as part of this growing, world-wide family of translation organisations.

Back in 1960 the world population was estimated to be around 3 billion and the best guess was that there were about 1,000 languages that required a translation project of some kind.

Today the world population numbers close to 6.7 billion people with around 6,900 different languages in use. Currently Wycliffe, working in partnership with language communities and local organisations is involved in 1,300 Bible translation programmes while another 2,200 are waiting to start.

Over the 50 years, Wycliffe Bible Translators have had three different homes in the UK. They are now based on a 22 acre site just a few miles from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Students from around the world still come to the centre every year for training, many of whom graduate with Masters degree qualifications awarded by the University of Middlesex.

In addition to the training, around 350 personnel are associated with the UK operation, most of whom are working overseas. Eddie Arthur, Executive Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators in the UK says, “It is amazing to think that so many leaders in the world Bible translation movement have been trained and equipped for their roles in this quiet little corner of Buckinghamshire.” A small number of personnel are UK-based and working in support roles such as IT, personnel, finance or communications.

Wycliffe Bible Translators, the UK’s biggest Bible translation organisation, works with partners worldwide to ensure that every community around the world has access to a Bible in a language that they can fully understand. In more than 70 years of history they have been involved in the translation of 759 New Testaments and Bibles, reaching over 107 million people. Since 1999, Wycliffe has contributed to over 80% of translation projects started in Bibleless people groups. However there remains a massive need, as statistics show that there are around 353 million people from 2,252 languages still waiting for translation to begin.

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Andy Cheung teaches at King’s Evangelical Divinity School, a distance education Bible college and Seminary in the UK.

Don’t miss this opportunity to attend a conference exploring an increasingly polarising issue within Evangelical circles, together with its theological and missional impact, by speakers who between them have written and spoken widely on various aspects of the issue. Bookings are on a strictly first-come-first-serve basis, so book quickly to avoid disappointment.

Both instances are, of course, grist to the mill for some rather radical atheists who despise any expression whatsoever of faith. “Religion causes nothing but trouble” and “Religions are the cause of all conflict” are common slogans among such fundamentalist atheists (as opposed to the live-and-let-live variety), and indeed it is true to a degree (though often exaggerated) that some of history’s most bitter conflicts and society’s greatest cruelties have sometimes been partially religion-driven. Fundamentalist religion - whether Islamic, Jewish or Christian - has sometimes caused a great deal of trouble. To be sure, arguably some religions are more adversarial and driven by religious conquest than others, but even some who claim to be Evangelicals have, for example, targeted abortion clinics in the name of God.

But fundamentalist atheists who pin all the world’s woes on faith are denying a central point here. The fact is, some of the highly radicalised, strongly fundamentalist, frothing-at-the-mouth atheists themselves are no different from the very religious fundamentalists they abhor, whether Richard Dawkins’ hysterical charge of parents “indoctrinating” their children with faith (together with the tacit suggestion they ought to be stopped or their children taken from them), or the myriads of aggresive fundamentalist atheists driven by hatred of religion who go much, much further in their denunciations (check out the comments section after the odd religious comment or article in the online version of a newspaper like, say, the Guardian and you’ll quickly see what I mean). Ironically, such people are no different from the very religionists they themselves condemn for their views.

Elsewhere, too, other special interest groups likewise condemn people for not holding to the views they consider “moral”, “correct”, “decent” or “normal”, whether extreme climate change proponents, vegetarians, xenophobes, free-traders, socialists, capitalists, patriots, liberal elites, neighbourhood watch members and allotment growers, or whatever. There are, of course, moderate versions of all these positions (except possibly the latter two, where disputes have been known to get pretty serious :). But unfortunately, all human societal units are inevitably replete with radical, fundamentalist, we-know-best variety bigots. In short, those who want to tell others what to do.

In other words, such a mentality is far from limited to religion, and going back to where we started, “It’s human nature, stupid!” Some people just can’t help telling others what to do.

Originally published at www.calvinlsmith.com earlier in the week.

The Chicago Manual of Style—the basic style guide for most publishers—is now available in the 16th edition. If you’re an author, this is an important work to have on hand

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Some helpful links:
* Online paid electronic subscription information
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HT: Justin Taylor

Andy
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For accredited, online and distance education courses in Theology and Biblical Studies visit the King’s Evangelical Divinity School website.

The front page articles are often strange, containing typical ‘Anglican/Roman Catholic-speak’, and when reading them, I’m often driven to the odd ‘tut-tut’. For instance, in the issue for 5th December 2009, there was a piece by Marguerite Hutchinson about work. In it she wrote; ‘Some jobs might seem more obviously about serving God – joining the clergy perhaps. But those of us who are not called to such a vocation need not feel that our working lives are just wage slavery. There are few jobs which offer no scope for serving God.’ And later; ‘Working in itself is not as important as giving glory to God.’ Readers of this blog will know that I really dislike this compartmentalising of Christians into castes of ‘clergy’ and ‘laity’ (thank God that Jesus was ‘lay’!), and the dividing of the Christian life into ‘religious’ and ’secular’; both notions which, to me at any rate, do not sit well with the teachings of the New Testament.

After reading an article on June 30th 2010, I felt concerned enough to post a topic for discussion in the KEDS eCampus forum, just to see what our students thought. The writer of the piece in question seemed to me to be both theologically mistaken and also in danger of misleading people in the pews. Consider these statements for example; ‘As we eat and drink, we become the body of Christ’ (with reference to Holy Communion). And ‘In this new life, we are not in control, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we offer ourselves for God’s work.’ Several students joined in the discussion and, like me, felt that we do not become the body of Christ by taking part in Holy Communion services. Indeed, we could take part in endless communion services and be no part of the body of Christ. Rather, ipso facto, we become part of the body of Christ when we are ‘born again’ (John 3:3). And we (hopefully) do not lose control because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are still rational beings, responsible for our own actions and still able not to follow the leading of the Spirit if we so wish.

However, the current edition (issued Sunday 8th August 2010) is particularly worrying and I felt I should comment on it here where more folk might see it. The article this time is by one Richard Dormandy, who likens St. Paul’s penchant for writing things which may have shocked first century Jews with what he sees as modern parallels. For instance, he says ‘it’s tempting to cast Paul as one of the punks of his era’. He then moves on and suggests Paul was perhaps more of a ‘post-punk’ because his writings were more sophisticated than that which had gone before (as post-punk culture was supposed to be more advanced than the first wave). He then compares St. Paul’s use of (likely) pre-existing hymn sections (e.g., in Philippians 2) with modern music’s practice of ’sampling’. For this reason, he concludes that maybe Paul was more of a precursor of dub, or hip-hop. He concludes his piece; ‘Either way, he (Paul) was a cutting edge creative artist.

I guess what’s happening is that the writers of these things, having to find something ’spiritual’ to write about each week, at times invent this kind of spiritual mumbo-jumbo without feeling the need to refer to the apostolic doctrines, once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). In the latter example (of St. Paul as a hip-hop artist), the mumbo-jumbo seems to be augmented by a desire to appeal to ‘the younger generation’. Older people in the church often make this mistake and are more likely to cause young people to run a mile. There have been other Anglicans in the news recently trying similar things. A vicar has admitted to swearing in sermons and telling his congregation that they should go out into the world and do the same (including the use of the strongest swear words) in an effort to relate to today’s culture. And dear old Rowan Williams has this week pronounced that the dreadful new BBC sitcom, Rev, (about an inner city vicar) is ‘really quite good.’

But of all the things I’ve ‘tut-tutted’ over in Live the Word, Dormandy’s view of St. Paul as a kind of early practitioner of dub and hip-hop is especially distasteful, if not downright silly. It is typical of the kind of twaddle which constantly proceeds from the Anglican/RC church. But judging by attendance figures in the larger denominations, such silliness doesn’t seem to be helping to get ‘bums on seats’. (1)

Footnote
1). In the C of E, this phrase seems to be synonymous with ‘evangelism’.

Andy
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For accredited, online and distance learning courses in Theology and Biblical Studies visit the King’s Evangelical Divinity School website.

PRESS RELEASE
The Seed Company, the fastest growing Bible translation organization in the world, has unveiled an initiative to churches across the country — the Blank Bible Challenge. The campaign is designed to bring awareness for the need of Scripture translation for people groups that have never had God’s Word in their language.

According to the Center for Bible Engagement, 66 percent of Christians rarely or never read their Bible. Conversely, SIL International lists more than 353 million people who have no Scripture in their language. Roy Peterson, president of The Seed Company, states those two statistics spurred the organization to create this national challenge.

“Each year, 2.4 million people die without ever hearing the promises of God’s Word; yet, here in America, many more seem to take having a Bible in their language for granted,” said Peterson. “Our goal is to reinvigorate a love for the Bible nationally, so we can encourage churches to be connected with people groups internationally, which will enable us to translate the Scriptures into their heart language for the first time.”

The challenge officially kicks off in the fall. Pastors and church leaders from more than 34 states have already requested the Blank Bible Challenge preview kit found on its website at BlankBible.org, expressing their interest in engaging their congregations and deepening their love for God’s Word, while simultaneously helping an entire people group obtain the Scriptures for the first time.

Peterson believes the Blank Bible Challenge is an effective way to incorporate its vision for seeing God’s Word transform lives in every language in this generation, while also serving the goals of pastors here in the U.S.

“We want to help pastors and their people get re-engaged in the Word and become more active about fulfilling the Great Commission, and this unique challenge is something any church can do,” said Peterson.

To learn more about signing up your church with the Blank Bible Challenge, or to ask questions about getting involved, visit www.BlankBible.org. For more information about The Seed Company and its efforts to accelerate Bible translation, visit www.TheSeedCompany.org.

About The Seed Company

Founded in 1993 by Wycliffe Bible Translators, The Seed Company has become the fastest-growing Bible translation organization in the world with more than 600 projects underway or completed. The Seed Company was established to develop innovative ways to more rapidly, efficiently and accurately translate the Bible for people groups who do not have it in their heart language by working with local translators and leveraging emerging technology that is used in remote locations around the world. For more information, visit www.TheSeedCompany.org.

SOURCE: The Seed Company
MEDIA CONTACT: The Seed Company Shawn Paul Wood, 972-499-6614 Shawn.Wood@hck2.com

To find out more, visit The Blank Bible Challenge website

Andy
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For accredited, online and distance learning courses in Theology and Biblical Studies visit the King’s Evangelical Divinity School website.

Once again, I’m afraid my review is critical. The music has, if anything, moved further down the route of the outdated, middle of the road sounding pop song. There are hardly any traditional hymns left. It saddens me so much to see our great hymnody discarded in this way and strikes me as irresponsible and almost criminal. I felt so miserable and angry about this, that one night I couldn’t sleep and lay awake for hours, my mind running across the words of so many wonderful hymns; Love Divine, all Loves Excelling; O Love That Will Not Let Me Go; Tell Out My Soul, the Greatness of the Lord! And so on. What will happen to these and thousands more? Well, if we leave it to people who organise large Christian events, they’ll be forgotten, that’s what.

During the first week of the Keswick Convention, most people are grey haired. Whenever I got chatting to one of these saints, they’d often say that, like me, they didn’t know many of the songs being sung, and bewail the passing of traditional hymns. This naturally leads many to feel excluded as they stand staring at screens, mouths moving like goldfish as they try to sing the new songs. Unfortunately, the effort is often in vain as the words don’t always fit the music too well. But there are other problems, and these apply across the board I’m afraid, not just at Keswick.

Some of the words, for example, are trite and twee; some of the music can only be described as atrocious. Many of the modern worship songs are pitched so low as to be almost impossible for an average male voice to sing. I’m only too well aware that the reason for this lies in a politically correct notion of redressing the balance after many years of traditional hymns being in keys which were high for some women to sing. But this perceived ‘counterbalance’ has gone way too far.

There’s also an element of performance in this kind of worship, giving it the feeling of being part ‘concert’. At the front is a ’stage’ with all the theatrical accoutrements. The congregation are the ‘audience’. And part of the performance includes the current fashion for the band occasionally to take off between verses and play a solo without warning, leaving some of the congregation (audience) looking rather red-faced as they realise they’ve set off singing the next verse when they shouldn’t; (maybe just as they’re getting the hang of it?) This happened a few times during my trip to Keswick. I know it can’t really be so, but it did seem at this event as if those leading the worship were deliberately trying to confuse the congregation. And (to be even more pedantic) hearing ‘worship leaders’ taking breaths in the middle of such words as ‘up-on’ and even ‘Je-sus’ as I did last week, is absolutely cringe-inducing to anyone who knows the first thing about singing.

And why, at this and similar events, do we need to keep repeating choruses or last lines of verses etc., almost mantra like - even at random in the middle of songs, again in a seeming attempt to stymie the hapless congregation? ‘Let’s just sing that line again’ shouts the ‘worship leader’ over the noise of the band… and so we sing the line again… several times. This seems really odd. After all, most evangelicals would be quick to criticise what they see as ‘vain repetition’ in such things as Roman Catholic rosary prayers and many parts of the liturgy in the larger denominations. And even without this repeating of sections, some of the words of the songs are already painfully repetitious in themselves.

When I was eventually present at a service last week where a ‘proper’ hymn was sung (How Great Thou Art) we were treated to a doubled up ‘disco’ version which resulted in the melody being sung in half time, making it painfully slow. Conversely, on another day, Alleluia, Sing to Jesus was played so fast that it was almost impossible to fit the words in. Why can we not just sing the hymns as they were intended, and make the whole thing straightforward for the congregation? I guess the answer is that the organisers or those in charge of the music are under the misguided impression that if they make a hymn sound like a tacky ’80s dance record, then it will appeal to young people.

I really must stop this rant here. But before I do, just in case you’re thinking I’m some dinosaur who doesn’t understand, let me (without any intention of boasting) say that I spent most of my life as a professional musician, working mainly in pop music and for many years in the recording studio. I’m certainly not against modern music (well, not most of it!) What I’m really concerned about is giving God the best we can and glorifying his name (2).

Of course there are some good modern songs and hymns, and we should use them. But their use should be carefully balanced with the great treasury of hymnody we already have. At present, much of the latter is being dumped, despite (in most cases) being far superior, both musically and lyrically.

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Footnotes
1) I should add that I don’t like ‘worship’ to be seen as a separate part of a service (especially when it consists of dodgy music!).

2) Incidentally, it would also seem more honouring to God (in my humble opinion) to be presentably dressed. Are the scruffy clothes, ‘holy’ jeans, caps etc., really suitable? If we were visiting the Queen’s Garden Party would we dress this way?