I love reading Christian books.
I picked up this addiction/passtime whilst on the student committee at my Christian Union in Manchester. Some lovely people in UCCF had this wonderful phrase which they said to us all the time:
Leaders are readers.
Because of this encouragement, and the catchy phrase, I read and read and read during my last couple of years as a student.
And I grew so much by reading so many great books. Digging Deeper, Cross Examined, The Fight, A Call to Spiritual Reformation were so important in jumpstarting the process that got me where I am now.
But what if leaders aren’t readers?
Or, rather, what if leaders can’t be readers?
What if they’d like to be, but there are few helpful Christian books, if any, in their own language?
This is the sad reality for so many leaders in churches and IFES groups around the world.
This is why I am so excited about coming across this on the internet.
Gospel Translations is an organisation that seeks to get good Christian literature translated into different languages so that they are freely available to as many people as possible.
And they can only do it when normal Christians from all over the world work together to translate these books. Those who help don’t do a whole book on their own – one Christian might translate a small chapter, whilst others do the rest.
These guys stick their finished work online. And other Christians in different parts of the world publish these finished translations and yet still others distribute it to Christians that wouldn’t have been able to read the books in the original language.
But this will only work when normal Christians like us get involved!
So, let’s get involved! All you need to be able to do is understand English to a reasonable level and be from a native speaker of another language! Is this you?
If it is,
Go check out their Facebook page and to their website and get stuck in!
In Our Joy, by John Piper, recently translated and distributed to church leaders in Myanmar (Burma)
Even better if local believers are taught to the level that they write their own, and believers throughout the world support them so it can be published and distributed. Much writing doesn’t translate culturally or stylistically. Btw, how do they acquire translation rights?
I thought this post would be about doing church for the non-literate (orality, etc.) or visually impaired – we’re exploring both in church at present.
Posted by étrangère | May 1, 2010, 6:32 pm