Pioneer Bible Translators and the Church

Pioneer Bible Translators and the Church Anthony Parker (November 2013) A value of Pioneer Bible Translators is that “we value the Church as God’s instrument to accomplish his mission that all peoples would glorify and worship him” (Pioneer Bible Translators 2012). Several elements in the organization’s Statement of Faith underline this emphasis on the church.    Pioneer Bible Translators recognizes that Jesus Christ created the church, and that it is made up of all those who have obeyed the Gospel and belong to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. The nature of the church as a people of God is determined by the Holy Spirit, whose presence within it gives the church its life and power. The mission of the church is to bring the message of salvation through Christ to all mankind, and summon them to obedience to Him as Savior and Lord. The General Policy Manual states, “We will consider our ministry among a people group complete when a network of churches is using Scripture to grow and multiply” (Pioneer Bible Translators 2009, 5). In order to be faithful to the mission and convictions of the organization, the field ministries of Pioneer Bible Translators must contribute to planting, building, and empowering local churches, while being careful not to supplant their work. This conviction concerning the primary place of the church in the divine economy reflects Pioneer Bible Translators’ origin in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. The initial impulse behind the Restoration movement was not primarily a commitment to mission, but to unity. Early Restoration leaders sought the unity of all believers, and they believed that the best hope for achieving that unity was an exclusive commitment to the Bible as the sole authority in matters of faith and practice. Many believed that this unity should be visible, as well as spiritual. Representative of the spirit of the movement, six members of the Springfield Presbytery decided to dissolve their organization. In the cleverly worded “Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery,” dated June 28, 1804, they wrote, “We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the body of Christ at large; for there is one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.” They further “willed” that “all our sister bodies read their Bibles carefully, that they may see their fate there determined, and prepare for death before it is too late.” The founders of PBT began with the Restoration movement’s assumptions concerning the essential nature of the church, and they blended these convictions with what they learned from Cameron Townsend’s Bible translation movement, as well as from Donald McGavran’s Church Growth Movement (Pioneer Bible Translators 2009, 6). The Restoration movement’s focus on Biblical authority produced internal debates concerning the relationship between church and para-church agencies such as PBT. Some branches of the movement see mission agencies, such as PBT, as supplanting the sending role of the local church. The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, with whom PBT’s founders were affiliated, however, see mission agencies as “expediencies,” lying within the realm of Christian freedom, that are needed to fulfill the Great Commission (Filbeck 1980, 34). These congregations take the position of Eckhart Schnabel who argues, There is no biblical rule that would require Christians to find a specific biblical warrant for everything they do, for example establish and maintain missionary agencies. However, it stands to reason to pool knowledge, expertise and resources in sending missionaries. Experience has demonstrated that mission agencies are effective tools for sending missionaries into crosscultural (sic) situations. (Schnabel 2008, 394) Some missiologists have suggested, however, that there is, in fact, New Testament precedent for missionary structures that are parallel to, but separate from, local congregations. Ralph Winter sees two structural levels in the New Testament. One of these is represented by the autonomous congregation. The second is represented by Paul’s missionary band. Winter claims that the local church is a “modality”—an expression of the body of Christ that includes all believers. The narrower missionary band, however, is a “sodality”—a group of Christians called to and gifted for focused and coordinated missionary activity. Thus, on the one hand, the structure we call the New Testament church is a prototype of all subsequent Christian fellowships where old and young, male and female are gathered together as normal biological families in aggregate. On the other hand, Paul's missionary band can be considered a prototype of all subsequent missionary endeavors organized out of committed, experienced workers who affiliated themselves as a second decision beyond membership in the first structure. (Winter 1974, 122-123) Winter does not see the structure of Paul’s missionary band as a pattern to be duplicated by the church in all times at all places. He believes, however, that the existence of such sodalities frees missionaries “to choose comparable indigenous structures in the countless new situations across history and around the world — structures which will correspond faithfully to the function of the patterns Paul employed, if not their form!” Winter believes that mission societies are one such structure (1974, 123-124). As an agency, Pioneer Bible Translators serves as a vehicle through which sending churches can fulfill their commitment to the Great Commission. PBT’s field ministries, however, must also consider how they relate to churches in their host fields. As a Bible translation agency, we must be aware of the relationship between church and Scripture. George Hunsberger has isolated four perspectives toward Scripture found in the missional church movement. First, Scripture may be seen as the story of a God who is on mission. The mission of reconciliation was initiated by God. Scripture tells the story of God’s quest to restore his relationship with humanity, and humanity’s relationship between the Creator and the creation. Second, others in the missional church movement emphasize that a chief purpose of Scripture is the formation of a missional people. Third, others perceive that it is the missional people of God who are best positioned to read and interpret Scripture. Fourth, Scripture may be viewed as a record of the missional engagement of both God and the people of God with the cultures of the world (Hunsberger 2011, 310-318). While all of the perspectives are valid, it is the first and second of these that are most relevant to the field ministries of Pioneer Bible Translators. Most of PBT’s language projects take place among people with no church, or where the church is very small. The churches we encounter are often weak, even theologically deficient, having little access to vernacular Scripture, and only a vague sense of mission. When the stories of Scripture begin to first be told and then written in the heart language of a people, they learn about a God who has always been on mission both to redeem humanity and to re-create a holy community for himself. They learn how God came into the world in Jesus Christ and how, as the body of Christ, the church carries on the mission of God. As cultural insiders, they are better positioned than expatriate personnel to tell the story and determine the form that the body of Christ will take in their context. Church—in its varied cultural forms—is both the product and propagator of the stories of Scripture and of Scripture’s God. The ministry of Pioneer Bible Translators will remain unfulfilled if Scriptures are translated but do not engage and impact the people for whom they are translated. PBT’s field ministries must prioritize Scripture engagement and develop appropriate structures so that this aspect of our mission is accomplished. References Filbeck, David. 1980. The First Fifty Years: A Brief History of the Direct-Support Missionary Movement. Joplin, Missouri: College Press. Hunsberger, George R. 2011. Proposals for a missional hermeneutic: mapping a conversation. Missiology 39, no. 3: 309-321. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed February 8, 2013). Pioneer Bible Translators. 2009. General Policy Manual. _______________. 2012. Finance Manual for Pioneer Bible Translators. January. Schnabel, Eckhard J. 2008. Paul the missionary: Realities, strategies and methods. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic. Winter, Ralph D. 1974. Two structures of God's redemptive mission. Missiology 2, no. 1: 121139. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed December 23, 2009).