The Eight Conditions of OBT Scripture Engagement Research research seeks to discover the kinds of Scripture Engagement activities and perspectives OBT organizations and teams prioritize and to share this information with other OBT practitioners. The goal is to empower OBT teams to learn from other OBT teams about effective Scripture Engagement activities and perspectives.

For the last year, the Scripture Engagement Research Initiative (SERI) of Dallas International University has been researching Scripture Engagement activities in dozens of Oral Bible Translation (OBT) projects across the globe. They have named this project the Eight Conditions of OBT Scripture Engagement Research. They interviewed directors, strategists, and field personnel from around the world. The Eight Conditions of OBT Scripture Engagement Research employed key informant interviews with OBT leaders in various organizations followed by snowball sampling in which they asked these leaders in the field to recommend any other experts or field personnel who were contributing noteworthy Scripture Engagement activities and insights. They researched OBT projects from 15 organizations in 30 countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. This report tells the fascinating story of how OBT programs in various regions are addressing the ultimate goal of Bible translation – spiritual transformation through engagement with the Word of God.

Key Findings

• Creativity: OBT teams are displaying a remarkable level of creativity and energy to grow the successful use of translated oral Bibles. The OBT approach has required significant design and adaptation from previous approaches to Bible translation. This inventiveness appears to be catalyzing creative momentum in other areas. OBT personnel are contributing wonderful, fresh thinking related to Scripture Engagement (SE), and these innovations deserve recognition and further discussion.
• Local Ownership: Local ownership was the most frequently identified element in the Eight Conditions of OBT Scripture Engagement Research. OBT leaders and field personnel from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific all prioritized high levels of community ownership as a prerequisite for effective OBT programs. This finding mirrors the centrality of local ownership reported in other SE research.
• Difference between Scripture Access and Scripture Engagement: Many OBT teams recognized that more is needed for successful Scripture Engagement than basic Scripture Access. These teams went beyond typical discussions of modality, listening groups, and story sharing to include discussions of multilingual complexity, theological questions local communities have about Bible translation, addressing felt needs, and ministering in resistant contexts. We use Wayne Dye’s Eight Conditions of Scripture Engagement framework to organize this discussion. We chose to use this framework because of the wide range of SE issues raised by OBT teams in this research. The framework provides simple categories for discussing the perspectives recommended by OBT practitioners.
• Multimodality, Arts, and Social Scripture Engagement: This was the most extensive category in this study. OBT is setting the pace for the wider movement in multimodal approaches. The innovations that stood out in this research include unique approaches to audio listening groups, highly creative applications of internalization, and the natural integration between OBT and the arts. This research discovered many examples of OBT teams creatively expanding the standard OBT toolbox beyond its typical use.
• Areas of Needed Growth: While OBT teams are practicing very healthy activities influenced by some aspects of Scripture Engagement, most projects represented in this research have not addressed other important areas of Scripture Engagement. Not every team is sensitized to the whole breadth of issues affecting Scripture Use. It is critical for OBT teams to learn from each other’s strengths and explore the broad range of issues that can either empower Scripture Use or limit it if neglected.

You can download the report from the Scripture Impact Research Initiative website.