“從GOSP4EL全球的開源福音到Indigitous因地制宜的地極特使”一文刊登於今日華人教會

感恩，小弟承蒙世界華福中心邀稿，“從GOSP4EL全球的開源福音到Indigitous因地制宜的地極特使”一文刊登於“今日華人教會”2017年十二月號。並能參與2018年一月在香港舉辦的國際青年“使命門徒”培訓營會。之後更有機會與一些國際機構華人同工跟進探討培訓下一代領袖的課題，請多多指教、在禱告中記念。

“從GOSP4EL全球的開源福音到Indigitous因地制宜的地極特使”概要：
GOSP4EL全球開源福音的源起與理念，特點，動員華人參與聖經翻譯的新契機帶來GOSPEL - 全球動員，聯繫本土，開源分享，獨立持續發展，以福音信仰為基礎，所有信徒皆祭的全全 信徒動員。面對的困難，類似的平台Indigitous因地制宜的地極特使的介紹。（全文）

Project 2025: Stop procrastinate and think/do/pray for 25 things every day to achieve the goal of Bible Translation Vision 2025

I have a very long todo list, one of the the items is to put two blog in GOSP4EL blog every month. I'm sorry that I procrastinate a lot. And I try to make it up and make 6 post this month in March. This will be my 30 Day project of this month.
Yesterday, I thought about a project25 which I learned in Leadership Matter Courses. It is about to think about 25 reasons that you love your love one. I was thinking to implement this as my love to the Triune God. What is His Crazy Love to me? I just wonder how can I response to God with my experience and passion about Bible Translation in past twenty some years.  Thus, I started a list of  project 25 for a list of achieving Vision 2025 and beyond, which is to start Bible translation for those language group who have one, but don't have one yet. One of the simple thing is to start a github project for the language that need it. (I got a Pro-git free ebook from Amazon, yesterday)

Here is the list of my project 25, what is yours?

How can we response to God's Crazy love?

Crazy Love Project25 for V2025B  -- implementation
1. Set up a github projects for all the data about 1000+ bibleless languages, learning what are these languages.
2. Ask all people, especially Bible Translator practitioners and partners started their project 25
3. Set up a website call projects25 for V2025
4. connect the leadership of BT NGO, e.g. John Walter
5. sector the the languages for marketing purpose and make use of the marketing strategy to get the task done
6. develop the algorithm -- to achieve the Goals, the process chart, what options
7. identity the bottle neck -- obstacles, what are the obstacle, how can we tackle them
8. research about existing situation project 2025, how many languages
9. start one virtual project for one language, once every week.
10. projects -- how can I get a list of all the languages that still need
11. Vision 2025 for whole bible -- existing bible.
12. engaging untraditional human resources
13. connect the tip of the entity and Christian NGO
14. What do we learn from the history
15. what are the current projects that I can help to improve
16. What people/teams that I can coach/engage for the long term impact
17. How can we make good use of the snowball effect and think about 2025
18. Put a time frame,
19. What are the factors, being stuck. Too many meeting, talking and not many actions?
20. about 2500 days or 356 weeks from now, make a counter and alert the urgency
21. Start a FB group
22. Start a Tweeter
23. Writing a blog(That's what I am doing now)
24. identify what are the projects
25. Every day, Every week or every month Think about 25 ways or ideas that I can help and ask other to do so.
26. pray and ask other to pray.
27. Start a Trello board
28. Read the Vision2025 missional document in June 2016

You may think that I am crazy.  What I can only offer is 2 fish and 5 loaves? May the Lord accept my offering and make it plentiful to feed the 5 thousands langues groups.

Marketplace and laity ministry reflection -- cultural or theological?

Happy New Years! This is my first blog in new year 2018(Julian calendar).
I also wish you a happy and very blessed Chinese(lunar) New Year.

I was in marketplace pastoring/mentoring workshop last few days. It's very helpful for me to thing about a number of key concepts of marketplace ministry.

As mentoring and coaching is about asking questions. I am thankful about one of the presenters emphasized the importance of asking good questions during the conversations for pastoring and mentoring. Are we asking good questions about the subject matters of marketplace ministry/pastoring/mentoring?Are our understanding or the implementation of these concept and understanding of churches changed overtime?

What does it mean marketplace?

 I fear that marketplace is a cultural and social issue because of modernization and urbanization. In the pre-urban cultural context, like the Jewish culture and the gathering-hunting culture in Vanuatu, politics, religious, careers and kin system are all integrated together. The marketplace is only need when they move to a trading or urban setting.

If the Jewish system was a kind of ideal model of market place ministry,  is the priest system really separating from laity. What is the purpose of the priest is to bring relationship, rather than to create a kind of separation? Is the nature of  priest system paradoxical and/or dilemma?

What can we learn from the cultural perspective for modern Chinese in rural setting and traditional Chinese culture and ideology? If marketplace ministry is not to bring the wholeness of marketplace, family and religious but localized, what how would be the global and missiological implementation from the marketplace ministry and the counterparts?

If the main cause of the need of marketing issues issues are cultural and social, how does this effect the methodology of research and implementation of marketplace ministry?

Questions as gift on Christmas day

Yesterday, we watched the movie, "How the Grinch stole the Christmas?" One of the theme/morale of the story is the key of focus of the Christmas gift. Anyway I got gift from my family.

Today I got the gift from the questions of a young girl. I think those are great questions. I tried to paraphrase them:

1. If three of your wishes would be able to be fulfilled, what are your wishes?

2. If you can change yourself, what would you like to change?

3. What is you ideal vacation? Where? and with whom? what context?

4. Who are your best friends? Why?

I have a rough ideas about mine. How about yours? One of the great gifts of Christmas is the holiday that we can spend time with our families or someone that we love and care. Relationship with God and others are certainly great gifts that we should not take if for granted.

I wish you all Merry Christmas and a very blessed new year.

A tribue to Ellis Diebler -- our first consultant in Merei Translation Project

Almost twenty years ago I met Ellis, when I was serving as a translation advisor in Vanuatu for Merei Translation and Literacy projects. He came to serve as our first consultant. We were working on the book of Mark. I am very thankful for that. He was the master of implicit information in the Bible. He was well known for his practice and theory of "Index of Implicit Information" in the New Testament(1993, 1999) especially among the communities of Bible Translation practitioners.

I still remembered the conversation that I asked why didn't he write more for Bible translation. At that time SIL had a lot of research in  linguistics and anthropology, but not much about Bible translation. He replied, "It's because I spend my time to people like you and expect you will do that."

As a good Asian protege taking his mentor's words seriously, I did. I finished my DMin in Bible Translation in 2014. Yes, Ellis, I did.



Ellis is more senior in me in decades but demonstrated the quality of confidence with humility as a Consultant since than has been one of my role models. I still have a long way to gom but as my Bible Translation teacher Merge Croft told the class, I am confident to say and to serve, "I am good, but I am humble." Thank you for all of my clients and colleagues trust me serving them as a consultant in these years. If I can contribute to you as a consultant, it is because of the modeling of Ellis along with many of the consultants and mentors in my life.

Ellis sent out his retirement announcement recently. I don't know what does it mean, in the field of Bible translations and/or ministry, retirement may mean something different. No matter what does it mean about Ellis retirement. His contributions to the field of Bible translation will continue through his books, writing, the Translator's Translation, and the consultants that he trained ....


You may learn more about Ellis and His Work:


https://www.sil.org/biography/ellis-w-deibler


Ellis,  May the Lord bless you whatever your retirement means and is.

---
Ellis  has been with the Lord since March 20, 2020.

https://tahlequah.hartfuneralhome.net/obituary/Ellis-Deibler

Open Source, Sharing Resources and what are really yours?

Today I read a blog post from my American friend, title "Are they really yours?" about their children, when they were living in China.

Are they really yours? It think it depends on what does ‘yours’ or possession mean. I think children are our properties in one sense. In different cultures the linkage and relationship change differently overtime. From a Christian point view, we own the responsibility to take care the children and the resources entrusted to us to fulfill His mission. All resources and what we 'owned' are really entrusted to us by God, as He is the creator and owner of all creations.


On the other hand, we will inherit all these in one day, as we will rule with the King of Kings in new heaven and earth.
In this world, we would like to protect our right, copy right, property right, human right. The example of Jesus is about giving His right in order to give us the right to back to the Father's house.

Ironically open source movement reflecting some practices of sharing resources in the early church, but not necessary the churches today. Resources is entrusted to us to bring Glory to him and enjoy our life and labor in a Christian manner.

What are the bottle neck(s) of 'consultant development' or "Scriptural translation/engagement"?

I try to think out of the boxes about "consultant and bottle neck" in the context of God's mission with the following concern and questions:

#Bottle neck of what?

I think we need to clarify what are the bottles of the bottle neck about. Are we thinking the bigger pictures of making God's word in every languages .... or Missio Dei, the Great Commission.  What are the theology and biblical based supporting the God's word need to be in every languages or what languages?

a. What are all the tongues in Revelation or other part the bible referring to? All the existing tongues(7000+ languages) plus those languages already dead?

b. What can be other necks of the bottle? Can there be more bottles? Consultants can be one, consultant training can be one tube of one of the neck, but there can be other necks, other ways, such as collaborating, computer aided, paraconsultant,  diaspora engagement and other suggestion by innovators. 

c.Beside bible translation what are other alternatives of making God's words available to all people? I believe that Bible translation is only a small step to make God's word accessible by other other in some context and not all context.

d. Besides the BT communities here, what can be other perspectives from other disciplines within the body of Christ and the people that we served plus the cutting edge technologists and researchers?

e. How can we improve the churches partnership/engagement/trust and BT practitioners morale?

f. What can we do with the decreased volume of the traditional consultant and missionaries from those supplying countries in post-church context?

g. What could be the implementation and proper ways of operation in ideological Bible unfriendly context in access restricted regions?

h. What would be the implementation and role of BT communities in the contexts of fast growing church in spite of difficult situation(even without vernacular scriptures)? If they can survive and grow healthily(as they thought) without vernacular BT, what evidence of BT for transformation as recent testimony can convince the churches and ourselves? 

i. As the technology and education level of some host countries improving significantly, how possible are the national and local churches to grow healthily with or without vernacular scripture especially in urbanization setting?

j. How can we match the right wine with the right bottle in global and local context? One of my concerns is how can we have general principles and  allow flexibility of ethno-lingual customization. 

k. Beside the fastest concern, how can we implement self-sustainable long term Bible translation movement/development in the countries? bi-vocational development of the consultants and BT practitioners? Engaging volunteers? Diaspora and remote HR?