Audio
"Why do so many people not have the Scriptures in their language? Why are the Scriptures that are available so often limited to those that can read? Why do the Scriptures not transform lives when they are available?"
The Lausanne Global Conversation focuses on the themes and topics to be addressed at Cape Town 2010. One of the themes is New Missions Priorities which includes Scripture in Mission.
Current discussions (which you can join in and comment on) include: Major Priorities In Eradicating Bible Poverty, Why Scripture In Mission?, Literature in Mission. [more...]
These weekly lectio divina outlines of the Sunday Gospel readings for Mark will enrich your experience of the scriptures and help you meet with our Lord through his written word.
Lectio divina is a dynamic, life-oriented approach to reading the Holy Scriptures encouraged by the Catholic Church. It provides an accessible way for every Christian to discover the rich truths of Scripture through reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.
The readings are available for download in several languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovak and Dutch. [more...]
In all cases, engaging with God's word involves thinking, feeling, willing and doing. Minds are informed, hearts are touched, lives are changed. Engaging with Scripture is like participating in a culture or learning a language, which takes time, in which we immerse ourselves, so that it shapes who we are - so much so that we can't imagine our life without it.
This website from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) has articles, book reviews and thoughts to help believers engage with God's Word.
[more...]The resources gathered together in this part of the website, and as they continue to be added to over time, are intended to help disciples and churches of Jesus Christ in their ongoing engagement with the Bible, which will bring the delight and transformation that comes from lives shaped by engagement with God himself.
Does God really want His Word presented in "sacred" language, as so many people seem to think? Does not the Bible itself demonstrate that God reveals His truth through humble people in humble tongues, rather than in prestigious or “sacred” languages?
The lesson of Scripture and history, then, is that God’s message should be presented in common language that is clear and memorable and not just in language that is prestigious, sacred, or traditional.
From Scripture and church history, Rick Brown argues how important it is to give people the opportunity to engage with God's Word in their heart language. [more...]
A comprehensive Atlas of Bible History: in 192 large format pages there are 96 maps, 143 colour photographs, 7 panoramic illustrations and 16 site plans as well as substantial text that even non-specialists will appreciate. Among the best of its kind it would suit Bible students of all kinds, translators, researchers and readers with an interest in the history of the Near East.
Special features on subjects such as the peoples and languages of the Bible run through the book, which covers geography, landscape, climate, culture and religion.
As well as the English edition, it’s also translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Polish.
For information on accessing the French edition at a discount or other language editions contact cyberspaceplace
yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk [more...]
Five years ago Lion Hudson (a UK based publisher) was approached by the United Bible Societies with the need for an illustrated re-telling of the Bible narrative that was suitable for a wide age range including adults, culturally appropriate for non Western readers and which could be printed at a price that made it affordable for a mass market in the two thirds world with minimum or no subsidy. The organisations settled on a long-standing and successful title - The Lion Children's Bible - as the book that best met this requirement. [more...]
Literacy & Evangelism International (LEI) has developed Bible-content, adult basic readers in more than 180 languages. These readers are being used to teach Christians how to read the Bible so they can be daily students of God’s Word.
LEI helps people connect better with their world and with God’s Word:
- by assisting churches and missions with materials and training for basic literacy or English teaching ministries
- by developing Bible-content teaching materials in multiple languages
Literacy for Life is all about injecting a good dose of the Bible into a traditional literacy programme... You will need the beginner’s literacy primer. This is the book that is used to teach the letters of the alphabet and the reading of simple phrases in the language. Alongside this, you will need a Scripture Guide book. This is the book put together especially for the Literacy for Life course.
A teachers' guide to running a Literacy for Life course. This is a church-based literacy programme that makes use of existing materials and adds a Scripture guide.
Two types of programme are described: a beginners' course and an advanced course. The advanced course is a form of small-group Bible study. [more...]
The pastor will find that not only can his congregation read the Scriptures in their own language, but they will show a greater depth of understanding God’s Word and show growth in their Christian lives.
Community literacy projects have been running in Ghana since the 1970s. Pastors, however, were not using the mother-tongue Scriptures in their churches. To address this problem, Pat Herbert describes how they developed Scripture Guides to accompany literacy primers. The program is now known as Literacy for Life (LFL). The article includes a sample of a Scripture Guide lesson, and discusses various issues, including training of teachers to use the materials, making it a church-based program, and funding for the primers and Scripture Guides. It compares the normal literacy programs to the LFL program and describes the impact the program has had. [more...]
Designed especially for youth and young adults, Living Worlds is educational yet entertaining.
Living Worlds is filmed on location in Italy, Greece and Turkey and supplemented with computer graphics and animations. It aims to help us understand better the world of New Testament times and specifically the context into which several books of the Bible were written. Each episode is around 10 minutes long, making it ideal for use in home groups, Bible studies - even Church gatherings.
The first episode "Corinth" uses cutting edge computer graphics, animations and story-telling to explore the life of Ancient Corinth. [more...]