"God does not carry out mission by commissioning a roster of individual contractors, instead, he adopts a family and incorporates them into his family business of blessing the world." —Michael Goheen
Church Planting
“When churches are dependent upon the care of foreign superintending missionaries any graces which the new Christian community shows can be ascribed to the influence of the foreigner and his direction. Only when the non-Christian population is face to face with a change in their neighbors and an...
by Aaron Crider, with a response by Steve Sanford
This writing was provoked by the book Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes, where former Bible translator Daniel Everett tells about his life and language work among the Pirahá people in the Amazonian...
"Bible translators quite rightly get excited about the Bible. However, we need to constantly remember that Jesus did not write a book, he called a community. The purpose of the Bible is to equip and shape that community to be the people that God wants them to be. The community is the purpose,...
“Bible translation is not an optional missions strategy; it is essential. It is assumed, as we have seen, in central missions paragraphs of the New Testament, and many language groups long for not just part of God’s revealed word but for the whole Bible — both New and Old Testaments. Oh, how...
Suppose you are sent to a people who have never heard the Gospel. What would be your plan from the day you arrive? What sort of projects would you undertake?
Follow this story of two men, both assigned to unreached areas.
Mr....
“When you read in reports of troubles and opposition, of burning up books, imprisoning colporteurs, and expelling workers, you must not think that the Gospel is being defeated. It is conquering. What we see under such circumstances is only the dust in the wake of the ploughman. God is turning...
“That Jesus requires his disciples to observe all that he commanded—not just some easy-to-understand concepts in a foreign language—further suggests the enterprise and necessity of Bible translation.” —Chris Tachick
Discovering the Indigenous Church Planting Principle
Steve Sanford tells how the Joti (HOE-tee) believers, after being taught the Scriptures about communion, came to him saying, “We’re planning to do that eating-and-remembering thing.”
“May I join...
Discovering the All-Nations Vision
The Bible shows that God desires to dwell among His people and display His glory through them. After Adam’s fall, all the way to Revelation 22, we see our Creator’s passion to dwell once again with humanity,...