Big vision, great progress
Bible translation under way in
every language by 2025
Much of the data showing the decline in the size of the Church of England has been gathered by the organisation Christian Research. In June 2005, as part of their efforts to help turn the tide, they organised a conference of larger Anglican churches in Swanwick. During an interview with Wycliffe International Director John Watters, Heather Wraight of Christian Research asked him to describe Wycliffe’s new vision and how Wycliffe had changed as a result.
Heather Wraight: I’ve always thought Wycliffe has a pretty clear vision…
John Watters: Our vision always has been clear—God’s word for everyone in their own language. Moreover, in 1999 the pace of Bible translation was faster than ever before. Yet even at that rate, it would be 125 to 150 years before work would start in every language where it was needed. We were not satisfied; we sensed that God was giving us a new vision: that this would happen by 2025! So we started praying towards this.
HW: That makes it sound very easy! This new vision must have meant a lot of changes?
JW: It did. Our vision had been re-focussed, and it started to direct our decisions.
We saw what God was already doing—building his worldwide church, with extraordinary untapped resources in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands. Obviously, we had to invest more resources than ever before in empowering and equipping Christians in these growing churches to do the work.
We resolved to do more than develop our own resources: we would make our experience, knowledge, expertise and funds freely available to everyone God was calling to this work, whether they were associated with us or not. The vision is greater than Wycliffe. Ultimately it's not about what Wycliffe will do; it's about making God's word's available to the peoples of the earth–by all possible means.
We determined to encourage creative, innovative people to develop new ways of working, recognising that our cultural ways of working are not sacrosanct.
We realised we would have to take risks in our organisation and be willing to fail; we would need to help any who might fail to get up again and continue the journey with us all.
HW: That’s quite a list, and it sounds excellent. But what difference has it actually made in the last five years?
JW: More than we expected!
The pace of Bible translation was fastest in the 1980s and 1990s, when 25-30 new projects were started each year. That would mean 125-150 over five years.
In contrast to the all-time record, in these past five years an average of 70 new projects have begun, 350 altogether. This is something we have never seen before.
At this rate our vision could become reality by 2042!
God has blessed in numerous ways, but the journey has only just begun…
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