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Thu 16 May 2013, 19:51The latest edition of the Orality Journal is available for download on the International Orality Network website.
Contents:
Literacy, Orality, and the Web - Gilles Gravelle
What oral communication can accomplish in Bible translation projects that print communication alone cannot.
Church Planting Movements among Oral Learners - Pam Arlund
Case studies of using orality strategies in church planting movements.
Using Rituals to Disciple Oral Learners: Part 1 - W. Jay Moon
What can we learn from the powerful effects of rituals from cultures and how can rituals be used for meaningful discipleship.
Contextualizing the Gospel in a Visual World - Clyde Taber
In a media saturated world, how do we contextualize Kingdom stories for the new generation?
Inside-out Stories - Marlene LeFever
When a ministry retools, what are the outcomes?
Mind the Gap: If This Is Your Land, then Where Are Your Stories? - A. Steve Evans
What and where are our stories that help us claim the land?
Ten Mistakes of a New Bible Storyteller - J.O. Terry
Wisdom from a storytelling practitioner.
Story Proof: The Science behind the Startling Power of Story - Tara Rye
Book review [more...]
June 3-8, 2013 (USA) and July 7-12, 2013 (UK)
Arts for a Better Future (ABF) is a one-week workshop that trains participants to spark local, Scripture-infused creativity that moves communities toward the kingdom of God.
The training content follows the 7-step process contained in Creating Local Arts Together: A Manual to Help Communities Reach Their Kingdom Goals (2013, William Carey Library). Participants join in a condensed application of this flexible model to an existing cultural context. They then develop plans to implement principles for encouraging Scripture engagement through the arts to a community in which they work.
ABF focuses on discovering all artistic forms of communication in a community, and then helping local Christians communicate Scripture in these forms by a process of critical contextualization. The workshop is drenched in warm, artistic personal interaction with other people and God. A wide range of people interested in increasing the penetration of Scripture into a group have benefited from ABF: missionaries with artistic gifts, cross-cultural ministry strategic planners, pastors, worship leaders, people interested in developing multicultural worship, artists of all kinds, and others.
Sponsored by the International Council of Ethnodoxologists, SIL International, Pioneer Bible Translators, and the World Arts program at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (and All Nations Christian College for the UK event).
Upcoming ABF workshops:
Dallas - June 3-8, 2013 (Registration ends May 15). See here for more details.
England - July 7-12, 2013 - See here for more details.
Videos:
England 2011 - http://tinyurl.com/AiMvideo6
Dallas 2012 - http://tinyurl.com/ABF2012video [more...]
The Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF) is a coalition of ministries working towards the goal of giving every unreached person a chance to encounter Christ and His kingdom in a compelling, contextualized fashion through their personal mobile device by 2020.
On the MMF website you can find reports and presentations from the Mobile Ministry Forums of recent years, as well as a blog and mobile best practices. [more...]
Mobile Advance's mission and vision is connecting the unreached with the good news and church of Jesus Christ through the device that connects them with the world- the mobile phone.
At their website you will find:
- Resources to help you to get started and advance in mobile phone empowered ministry;
- Research, reviews, case studies and strategy papers that will help you and the Church to advance into new, more powerful realms of mobile phone outreach;
- A community of like-minded “world Christians” who are using the mobile phone to help bring the gospel to their neighbors and friends. Some of these people have faced the same issues you are facing and have answers you need. Others may be facing barriers you can help them overcome.
Abstract:
"The need for the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular to enable people read the Bible in their mother-tongues started in the third century BC in the ancient city of Alexandria in Egypt. Since the first mother-tongue translation – from Hebrew to Greek – many vernacular translations have been done. As of 2009, Bible Agencies in Ghana have translated the full Bible into 13 and the New Testament into 20 languages. The question is, are the mother-tongue translations of the Bible being used?
"The study which was conducted in Kumasi, Ghana, in 67 congregations of the Mainline, Ghana Pentecostal, African Indigenous and Charismatic Churches, and some New Religious Movements, in October-November 2009 reveals that 55.5% of the respondents had the Bible in eight mother-tongues in the Kumasi Metropolis; people from ages 41-60, constituting 77.2% of the respondents read the mother-tongue Bibles most; only 12.8% young people read the mother-tongue Bibles; 34.1% of the respondents read the mother-tongue Bibles daily; 32.1% at least thrice a week; and 33.8% once a week, perhaps only on Sundays when they carry the Bibles to their respective churches. Even though this research was limited to Kumasi, it serves as an eye opener as to whether Christians are using the Bible translated into the various Ghanaian languages. This research is significant in that it is the first of its kind in Ghana, and others can build on it." [more...]
"Much effort and funding is invested every year by many organizations to provide vernacular Scriptures to minority peoples. Are these Scriptures being used? What factors affect their use? We have anecdotes and rumors, but very little real research.
"Over the past few years, a small research team has been developing a questionnaire instrument that can be used widely to gather data on how frequently audiences are exposed to the Scriptures designed for them. The instrument also explores whether the necessary pre-conditions for use of vernacular Scriptures are present: Are people even aware the Scripture products exist? Can they get a copy or listen to it? For print products, are they able to read in the vernacular? Scripture isn’t really available to people if these conditions are not met. The instrument has been tested in Eurasia, Cameroon, and Togo. This paper provides findings from the Togo research."
Download this article from The Bible Translator website. [more...]
The State of the Bible 2013 report contains the findings from a nationwide study commissioned by American Bible Society and conducted by Barna Research.
From the report:
"Americans overwhelming (77%) believe morals and values are declining in the U.S. The most-cited cause for the decline is a lack of Bible reading. As in previous years, the survey found that the Bible remains a highly valued, influential force in America. But beliefs about the Bible and its role in society are becoming increasingly polarized—particularly when the data is examined by age group.
"The research also uncovered a significant disconnect in belief versus behavior. While 66% of those surveyed agreed that the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life, 58% say they don’t personally want wisdom and advice from the Bible and about the same amount (57%) read it fewer than five times per year.
Key Findings:
- 1 in 6 people reported buying a copy of the Bible in the last year
- 80% of Americans identify the Bible as sacred
- Americans have plenty of copies at their fingertips—with an average of 4.4 Bibles per household
- 56% of adults believe the Bible should have a greater role in U.S. society
- But actual Bible reading and perceptions about the Bible have become increasingly polarized, with 6 million new Bible Antagonists in the last year alone
- More than half (57%) of those ages 18-28 report reading the Bible less than three times a year or never."
Data, analysis and infographics are available for download from the American Bible Society website. There are also links to the 2011 and 2012 reports. [more...]
The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL) now offers an online version of its popular Scripture Engagement Strategy and Methods course (AA5355).
This graduate level course is taught by Scripture Engagement pioneer, Dr. Wayne Dye with Tim & Lynley Hatcher serving as assistant teachers. Those taking this course learn to understand the following:
- factors affecting Scripture engagement including – partnership, sociolinguistics, translation, anthropology, missiology, digital/non-digital distribution, orality, ethnic arts, and alternative media, and more;
- analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an active Bible translation program;
- selecting and planning the most appropriate methods for individual contexts.
The online version is the same content as the January four-week face-to-face course, LD5355 Scripture Engagement Strategy and Methods.
August 16 - December 13, 2013 – twelve weeks (one week break, November 19-23); twelve total hours per week.
Find out more about admissions at: http://www.gial.edu/admissions/gateway-admission
Cost ~$1400 credit / $700 audit
Course materials are all accessible online. For those with limited connectivity, course materials can be mailed or hand delivered in advance of the course. Thus, anyone can participate.
Within this interactive course, participants will need weekly internet access. We can accommodate those with only email access. Participants must be able to send and receive text file email attachments in order to interact meaningfully with instructors and fellow students. [more...]
This course is designed to equip participants to work in a role within a language community that facilitates and encourages the use of Scriptures. It is normally taken together with the preceding Language and Culture Acquisition course.
By the end of the track, participants are able to:
- Relate to relevant church leaders; able to recognise church and religious factors affecting Scripture Use (Church & Community Relations)
- Recognise sociolinguistic, socio-cultural, worldview, translation factors affecting SU; able to develop contextualised Bible studies which address specific needs in the community (Culture & Contextualization)
- Explain Bible translation processes and personnel, understand the role of context in communication, & develop relevant Bible background materials (Translation & Comprehension)
- Develop relevant SU products with Publisher, PowerPoint and Audacity (Materials Development)
- Encourage translation teams in understanding the role of both orality and literacy in Scripture Use & advise on different audiovisual media options and Bible-based literacy programmes (Orality, Literacy & the Arts)
- Help others market SU products effectively, both in the design of the product and its promotion and distribution channels (Marketing & Distribution)
- Persuade others about SU; able to present the history of Bible translation in the country (Advocacy)
- Suggest appropriate strategies for a given situation, including appropriate products and programs for their use, recognising the value of partnership with other organisations & understand the Results Based Management approach to project planning (Developing Strategy)
- Evaluate the different funding options (Funding)
- Plan a SU workshop with the choice of appropriate subjects, valuing the training of trainers (Training)
- Access a range of available SU resources (Resources)
- Chose a culturally appropriate story set and master basic techniques for crafting and telling stories from Scripture (Chronological Bible Storying)
- Carry out practical research on the use of Scripture products & identify at least one particular area of interest for further research (Research).
More information is available from Redcliffe's LTL website. [more...]
Brian Schrag’s Creating Local Arts Together manual has both a stirring and exhilarating effect as the reader envisions the possibility of a community’s arts used for the purposes of God’s kingdom and, at the same time, is thorough and informative with respect to the research process involved in getting to know the arts and worldview of a community.
The manual contains seven sections which correspond to the seven steps of Creating Local Arts Together. They are:
- Meet a community and its arts
- Specify kingdom goals
- Select effects, content, genre, and events
- Analyze an event containing the chosen genre
- Spark creativity
- Improve new works
- Integrate and celebrate for continuity
Gunnhild Bremer has written a review of the book (downloadable below) which includes reasons why it is useful for Scripture Engagement practitioners. [more...]