Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – The Luke Partnership: A First Step in Evangelism, Church Planting, and Discipleship

By Bob Creson, Jim Green, and Roy Peterson

In the cluster strategy, representatives from several languages participate in a series of two or three workshops each year. The churches or other partners help select three mother-tongue speakers of each language, often with complementary skill sets, to be trained for initial linguistic work, orthography development, and then translation. These mother tongue teams work closely with facilitators who are experienced in translation. These facilitators sometimes come from other countries; they come on a regular basis to mentor, offer individual help, and supplement the group training sessions.

From the beginning, translators apply their training as they produce portions of the Gospel of Luke in booklet form and on cassette.

Training continues throughout the workshop series, each workshop focusing on a particular topic. From the beginning, translators apply their training as they produce portions of the Gospel of Luke in booklet form and on cassette. With the goal of ensuring a high-quality, communicative translation, translators and consultants apply rigorous procedures for studying the source text, drafting translation, checking their work with other team members, testing and reviewing with other speakers of the language, and consultant-checking the translation.

History
The Luke Partnership was born in 2001, and the first languages we identified were four in Ethiopia and five in Madagascar. Word for the World, a South-Africa based Bible translation organization, joined the work as a partner in Ethiopia. The Seed Company enlisted prayer partners, connected funders/investors to the projects, developed the project design, and provided administrative support as well as project management. The JESUS Film project recorded the translated script and produced the film.

In 2002, having proven the model, we began projects in several East Asian communities and later in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, and Nigeria. This year, we anticipate opening Luke Partnership projects in Sudan and Central Africa Republic.

By 2006, the Gospel of Luke and the JESUS film had been completed in thirty languages. We had also started a second phase of the project, enlarging the scope and focusing on the cluster strategy. Since the first thirty languages began, work has started in a total of eighty-three languages and there are currently fifty-two language communities involved in active Luke Partnership projects.

From the Initial Phase to Full-scale Translation Programs
Many projects, begun with the limited goals described above, continue on to address further translation goals. The first Luke Partnership projects in Ethiopia, begun in 2001, will complete New Testaments this year (2008). Three of the five original Luke Partnership projects in Madagascar also continued with further translation goals. Of the thirty original Luke Partnership languages, twenty-two are now full-scale Bible translation projects.

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Bob Creson (left) is president/CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. He worked in West Africa and in international administration with SIL. Jim Green (middle) is executive director of The Jesus Film Project. He joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1962, serving in Africa for fourteen of his forty-six years in ministry. Roy Peterson (right) is president/CEO of The Seed Company, an affiliate of Wycliffe USA, which focuses on national-led Bible translation.