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Answering the Challenge for Bible Materials in Spanish
Good Books
When Jon and Kathy Underwood visited Colombian Christian Mission in 2005, missionary Dale Meade asked the couple to outline a course of study for general and graduate-level Bible training. Jon created a sequence including Bible surveys, history, and theology—and received another request from Dale.
“The team really wanted more challenging materials and asked us to consider translating and publishing books into Spanish,” Kathy says. “We were concerned about a conflict of interest, since Jon works at Standard Publishing. But we ex-plained the project and received their blessing to move forward.”
In 2006 the Under-woods created La Palabra de Cristo (The Word of Christ) and chose Being Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough by Jack Cottrell as their first project.
“This is a wonderful study of grace and a foundational resource,” Kathy says. “We had it professionally translated, then distributed copies to missionaries and native speakers for review before publishing.”
La Palabra followed this book with another by Cottrell, Faith’s Fundamentals, which examines seven essential truths of Christian belief. A Spanish-speaking student of Cottrell’s helped the Underwoods review the translation.
The ministry plans to release Jesus Is—Ten Lessons on the Person and Work of Christ by Johnny Pressley later this year. The book is based on a series of lectures by Pressley and will include both the English and Spanish versions.
Although the Underwoods lead La Palabra in their “spare time,” they plan to continue developing translations covering the entire scope of Jon’s 2005 course plan and possibly original works by Spanish-speaking authors, as well. Colombian Christian Mission uses hundreds of copies for leader training each year, and the Underwoods welcome partnership with other missionaries and churches.
For more information about purchasing books or supporting the ministry, contact palabra-decristo@aol.com.
“Ten” Spot
October 10, 2010, is 10-10-10. It is a Sunday. And it will be the birthday for new churches around the country.
The team behind the Expo-nential Conference, “the largest gathering of church planters on the planet,” developed the 10-10-10 Initiative to focus attention on church planting. Individuals, congregations, and even entire planting networks can participate by praying, adopting a church plant for encouragement and financial support, planning a sermon series, or even launching a new church. The Web site includes a central repository of sermon content, service ideas, and other materials (for free!), and offers affinity groups to connect participants across denominational and regional lines.
The ministry writes, “10-10-10 affords networks and denominations opportunities to rally local churches within their fellowship to investigate church planting, for local churches to pursue next steps in planting, and for individuals to discover how they might take the next step in church planting.” The goal is hundreds of ministries partner-
ing with thousands of existing churches to see millions of lives transformed.
In addition, Stadia: New Church Strategies (Irvine, California) is asking each of its plants and partnering churches to take a special offering on October 10 for future church plants.
“It’s more than just a day,” says Brent Foulke, Stadia’s associate executive director for mobilization. “It’s a cross-denominational focus and a call to action to launch new churches this fall.”
Learn more, join the initiative, and access resources at http://101010initiative.org/.
Glory Days
When Kempton, Indiana, officials donated a baseball field to Kempton Christian Church in 2004, the church renamed the site “Glory Field” and developed a T-ball league for some of the community’s littlest members. Each year the league welcomes dozens of 3- to 6-year-olds and outfits each one with a medallion, cap, and T-shirt.
The church leads devotions and prayer before each game, invites the children to its Vacation Bible School, and hosts an award ceremony and meal after the season’s last game. Local businesses have donated money for a concession stand, new benches, and an announcer’s booth.
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD’s contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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