Missiological Imperatives

00:00
Rich Rudowske
We are in an information age like never before. And because we are doing work that has eternal significance, we more than anybody should be making use of information and sharpening our objectives and focus. 

Welcome to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. I’m Rich Rudowske. 

00:27
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. And I get to be the interviewer today, solely, as I am interviewing Reverend Dr. Rich Rudowske, cohost is turned interviewee. 

00:37
Rich Rudowske
There we go. 

00:38
Emily Wilson
So our focus today is on, kind of, this vision, this internal imperative, as we’re calling them within Lutheran Bible Translators. We are striving to not only have our mission within God’s mission, but also a vision that we are casting. So the mission of Lutheran Bible Translators officially is to make God’s Word accessible to those who do not yet have it in the language they understand best. And then the vision that we are looking to cast not only within our organization, but anytime we are meeting with prayer partners or financial partners, international partners, we want to cast a vision of vibrant christian communities deeply rooted in God’s Word, engaging fully in God’s mission in this generation and with the more than words comprehensive campaign for scripture impact, there is a unique tie in with our mission and our vision. And what does that look like? 

01:44
Emily Wilson
So, missiologoical imperatives. We met together early first quarter of the year thinking about what drives us as an organization. What is it that we have made a commitment to? So, wanting you to kind of describe that background of where did these missiological imperatives come from? What’s that backstory? What’s their role? 

02:08
Rich Rudowske
Sure. Yeah, we’re trying to unfold from the mission and vision first. So just kind of backing up there a second, a mission statement for an organization generally tries to encapsulate why does this organization exist? And so we exist to make God’s Word accessible to those who don’t have it in a language they understand best. So that’s for all time? You could say that. And we’ve said that in different ways throughout close to 60 years here, and that continues to be why we exist. Vision is saying, all right, so in the next five to ten years, what would be the result of carrying out that mission? What might that look like, what we have landed on? Just trying to think about where we’re at now and how the church has grown and some places where the church yet is very new. 

02:58
Rich Rudowske
We want to see movement toward vibrant Christian communities, so communities that are thriving and because they’re deeply rooted in God’s word. All right. And this sometimes kind of feels like a process. You’re deeply rooted in God’s Word. You’re going to engage fully in God’s mission. You’re going to get the vision that, hey, this is something great. It’s too good for me to keep just for myself. I want to share that with someone else. I want to participate in God’s mission. And we added this time bound factor, even though it’s not clearly like a particular time, but in this generation is meant to say, let’s not say this should take 50 more years or something. We want to see this growing. We want to see the church moving toward this and moving step by step. In this generation, a church that hasn’t existed springs up. 

03:44
Rich Rudowske
A church that has existed and has been kind of forming, becomes more deeply rooted in God’s Word. Church that’s been rooted in God’s Word is really catching the vision for God’s mission. We want to see that growth happening in this generation. And so as we thought about that in this generation particularly if we would see this vision in this generation, we started thinking about things that would need to happen. And first we were like, well, are these strategic priorities? And we’re going to say these are things that we’re actually going to do? Or is it more like a framework, a lens to say, there are many ways we could do this, but we are committed to certain ways of approaching the tasks and the way that we interface with language communities and the church in this generation. 

04:25
Rich Rudowske
And we feel like in this generation, to see that vision, paying attention to these things that we’re going to talk about is critical. 

04:32
Emily Wilson
So these imperatives really affect every department within Lutheran Bible Translators. It’s not just, okay, we’re focused on this from a field program side of things or operations is focused in, but all parties are involved in that. So those were all part of the discussion of how can this be inclusive, how is this going to drive us? So, can you share a little bit about things that you wrestled with as you were formulating, like, okay, what are these missiological imperatives? 

05:06
Rich Rudowske
Right? Yeah, we wrestled with how to describe what we are going to do and to make space for creativity and innovation, and yet to say there are certain things that we value and that we have to pay attention to because the current situation and mission requires us to do that and to be sure that we don’t think in sort of default ways that may not be helpful in some places. And actually, especially if any of my team is listening, the leadership team, they’ll know that my biggest struggle is to be able to articulate it in the positive sense, because I can very easily say what I don’t want to see is this anymore, but trying to say, okay, so if I don’t want to see that, what is it that I do want to see? It’s, I think, one of the biggest leadership challenges. 

05:48
Rich Rudowske
I don’t know if that’s for everybody or just for somebody with my particular personality, but it’s very easy to see. I don’t want this to keep going on, but, okay, so if you don’t want that, what is it that you do want? That’s a whole different thing. And so kind of trying to land on some of those things. And it’s not just about what I want. Right. It’s about what do we think really speaks to our values and our ethos and what we can bring to authentic partnerships with local language communities and churches. 

06:16
Emily Wilson
Just as an aside, that kind of reminds me of, like, lead measures and lag measures. It’s like, okay, this is what didn’t work. That’s easy to identify, but casting a vision of what is going to work, this is how we are moving forward and casting a vision and knowing and leaning and trusting on God that he is going to provide as we seek after his will. 

06:41
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, that’s a great framework to think about it from. We’ve kind of thought of a vision. The vision and the vision statement is kind of a lag measure. And so the missiological imperatives, at least to some degree, are lead measures. Like, if you. This is more likely to happen if things like this are within these sorts of frameworks are happening. 

06:59
Emily Wilson
So we’re going to walk through each of these missiological imperatives that we have identified internally but that are affecting external relationships. Very much so. And I’m going to name them. But then what we really want is for you to unpack them for us. What is the priority? But also, where are we headed? How does this actually play out in reality? So this one is close to my heart. Our first mythological imperative is prayer, and we are committed to persistent, specific faith building and unified prayer. So what does that mean? What does that look like? How is this the strategy for our mission? 

07:44
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. In the transition period for leadership last year, I was named to be the next executive director, and then there were several months of transition. And so with about six months to go before the transition, we arranged things so that I had time to give focus thought to vision and thinking things. And I was actually quite a bit later, like late in January, looking over my notes from that first June day where I went to a coffee shop and just had some time thinking in prayer. And the first thing I had written down was, I feel like we need to be an organization that is more focused on prayer than we currently are. And then the next thing I wrote down on the same page was, why do I feel that way? I need to unpack that and think that. 

08:26
Rich Rudowske
And I would say that during the ensuing months, as I thought about other things, I actually didn’t come back to that thought very much. But toward the end of the year, the executive director position of Lutheran Bible Translators has several other relationships and board type things that you do for not other organizations, but alliances that we’re a part of. And so I was one of those meetings, and Greg Pruitt, who’s the president of Pioneer Bible Translators, just kind of took me to the side and said, “Hey, I’d like to talk with you about, as you’re a new CEO, I’ve been doing this for a long time, if I can pray for you.” And he handed me a book that had a really great personal message in it, and it just sort of revived that idea of like, yeah, prayer, how do we… 

09:07
Rich Rudowske
And the book was about prayer and just really leaning into what’s it look like to be a more prayerful organization. And the reality is, Lutheran Bible Translators has been a prayerful organization. We have a long standing, and actually a lot of folks look at our prayer resources and say, wow, these are really great, and seek to model those. And we have several thousand people that pray every day for some aspect of Lutheran Bible Translators ministry, but just wanted to think about and really unpack if we are setting goals and think that the Lord is calling us to something really big, and we’re part of an alliance that’s trying to be sure that there’s some part of God’s word in every language in the next ten years. That’s a huge goal yet. 

09:52
Rich Rudowske
And so it becomes clear that putting that before God is really important and just thinking about prayer itself. Greg’s book, which is called “Extreme Prayer”, by the way, which, okay, if you’re part of the Lutheran audience, could say like, oh, that sounds like something, I don’t know, anything extreme, right? But Greg’s book, “Extreme Prayer”, is a great book. It’s short, very accessible, and really talks about the thing that landed most with me was when we ask God for something and ask him for something specific, small or big, we can see God at work and it builds and increases our faith. And whether he grants it or not, that idea that we continue to pray and our will becomes more aligned with God’s will. We seek to know what is God’s will. 

10:38
Rich Rudowske
And certainly, I think in our organization, the desire to make sure that everybody on the planet has access to God’s word in a language they understand, that’s in line with God’s will. But in any aspect of life, praying according to God’s will and seeing him work, being specific about it. Our statement here says persistent, we’re going to keep asking God to do things, even if we haven’t seen it yet. Specific meaning, rather than just saying, lord, will you bless us or do whatever it is that you want to do. I mean, in a way, that is what we want. Yet at the same time, how do we know if that happened? How does our faith built? So praying for specific things and leaning into that faith building aspect of prayer. So I don’t know if we’d say we’re new. 

11:24
Rich Rudowske
We’re still leaning into what that looks like. And as an organization talking that through. 

11:29
Emily Wilson
And that is something that I really appreciate. All of these missiological imperatives, it doesn’t mean that these are brand new to the organization. It is rather let us grow specifically in this committed area. And yeah, I also read that book “Extreme Prayer” by Greg Pruitt and just really appreciated the refocusing on how this is a conversation that God invites us into and we have this privilege of bringing all of it to the Lord and that he has promised to draw near to us when we draw near to him, and just how that affects every facet of our lives, personal and work related, and all of the things that we are trying to shoulder on our own, and instead being able to say strategies are wonderful, being able to have quarterly goals are wonderful. 

12:26
Emily Wilson
But if we’re not bringing that to the Lord, what is it that we are harvesting? That it is ultimately for his glory and being able to seek after him. So all of that being said, the mythological imperatives that are to follow, there are four of them, are all through this lens of prayer. 

12:45
Rich Rudowske
Yes, right. Prayer is the strategy. That’s the other thing. As I was writing, the first email I wrote to the organization as the new CEO is trying to describe this whole thing of I’d like us to be more prayerful than we are, to focus on prayer. And prayer is the strategy was something I had heard in other places, and that’s basically just what it felt like. That’s what I like. I’m trying to find a different way to say it. But prayer is the strategy. We’re going to have a lot of things that we’re going to try to accomplish and in certain ways, but we really believe that lifting those up in prayer before the Lord and seeing the Lord work is the way things are going to get done. 

13:17
Emily Wilson
All right, so we’re going to dive into the other four, given this idea that prayer is the strategy, the other missiological imperatives. So the first one here that I’ve got on my list, radically broaden involvement. We are committed to identifying opportunities for growth and removing unnecessary barriers to mission participation in Bible translation ministry. So that’s a lot. Can you unpack that for us? 

13:46
Rich Rudowske
Sure. Yeah, radically broadened involvement. The term could be different, I suppose. It originates actually in a role that I had prior to becoming executive director, working with other Bible translation organizations. And there was a conference that we had to just sort of update the movement on where we were operationally toward the goal of God’s Word in every language by 2033. And so it was kind of interesting that the people that are gathering resources are like, the resource gathering is really great. We’re way ahead of schedule, and there’s so many other things like technology development is really awesome. And so then I have to stand up and say, we are behind on operationalizing this goal. 

14:27
Rich Rudowske
And just to lay out, like, I don’t know how this is going to happen, but if we’re going to see this happen, we have to radically broaden involvement, meaning we have to examine assumptions about who does the work and the qualifications required and all the question, everything that we have and say, is there anything here that’s an unnecessary bottleneck to Bible translation work happening that we just sort of assume needs to be that way? But we ask ourselves, is that really the case given where we are today, the emergence of the church and its capacity, the emergence of technology, and even just questioning some of the categories of work and how we go about those. Where did those originate and why did they originate in that season? Is that still what’s happening now? Or how does that speak to the situation? 

15:12
Rich Rudowske
So, yeah, the statement reads, we commit to identifying opportunities for growth and removing unnecessary barriers to mission participation. So just seeing that situation where people could grow at their capacity and removing unnecessary barriers could be there’s a certain level of scholarship or training that’s required to really do the job well. Do we have the resources that we can apply in that situation and say, we’d like to see that happen for this group or this cohort of individuals, but removing unnecessary barriers could also look, like we’ve said in the past, that maybe to do a certain role you need a master’s degree or a PhD to do that, and then to critically examine and say, is that really the case or not? Because that’s a fairly substantial barrier. And if that’s not what’s really required in this season, then what is? 

15:59
Rich Rudowske
And let’s move toward that. And that’s not just something we as Lutheran Bible T ranslators do, but encourage our local language communities, churches and other alliance Bible mission organizations to consider removing those. 

16:12
Emily Wilson
Barriers and bringing that also into the global context. Know, in the US, in Canada, prayer partners throughout the world, mission participation in Bible translation ministry. Yes, it’s in the translation advising and scripture engagement roles, but it’s also in the I’m going to be an advocate for Bible translation ministry, I’m going to be a prayer partner, I’m going to be a financial supporter. Radically broadening involvement is including the global church. 

16:42
Rich Rudowske
Yes. 

16:43
Emily Wilson
So what does that look like as well? 

16:45
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I think just recognizing Bible ministry has become very technical and specialized in all facets, really. And so recognizing that really the availability of scripture to the church is ultimately the responsibility of the church, and we are here to serve the church in that way. And so again, then looking at the capacity that’s already available and inviting people into prayer now in the context here, and I think then in the church in the west, the Lutherans that we seek to mobilize, to engage in God’s mission, we’ve probably operated with an assumption that the need is well known and that’s not the case, basically. And so there’s sort of a key assumption that if mission is going to happen, of course God’s word needs to be available. 

17:32
Rich Rudowske
And I think sometimes it’s just the situation for what that looks like, especially when you get to the rural and ends of the earth situation is much different than we expect, and there’s a lot of opportunity yet to grow and to put God’s word in their hands. And we don’t know that just to talk about in terms of sheer numbers and the opportunity and to really encourage the church to say, look, for 60 years as Lutherans, we have been making a difference here. We have been seeking to speak into this and actively doing something about it, not just thinking, well, it would be nice or certainly God’s word is valuable, but not really acting on that, but just broadening involvement. To be sure that as many people as possible know there is a way to be involved. 

18:16
Rich Rudowske
We know that scripture is close to your hearts. Especially as Lutheran Christians. And so since you’ve been so impacted by God’s Word in your life, in your family and your church and community, we know you’re going to want that for people who don’t have it. And as you see or even come to wrestle with the idea that there may be people who can’t form their lives around the values of God’s Word because they just don’t have access to it, that you’re going to want to jump into that and make a difference. 

18:41
Emily Wilson
Yeah, we don’t want to be a best kept secret, but rather for everyone to know and come together as a church and that God is going to work in and through us in his time. But that momentum of being able to say, did you know that this is so important and that it is going to be radical, there’s going to be a lot of change on the horizon. How is it that people can more easily get connected with Lutheran Bible Translators and share that vision in their communities as well? So the next missiological imperative, data informed decisions. We are committed to authentic dialogue, informed by data to make decisions in resource mobilization and mission implementation strategy. And what does that mean? 

19:34
Rich Rudowske
Yes, so a couple of things to unpack there. As an international Bible translation organization, Lutheran Bible Translators, if I had to boil it down, and this is way oversimplified, but if I had to boil it down, we do two things. We mobilize resources to be used in God’s mission, and then we implement in mission. We implement strategy and mission. 

19:56
Emily Wilson
Is that a definition within a definition? 

19:58
Rich Rudowske
Yes, it’s using the terms to define themselves, but we do these things. Resource mobilization, mission implementation, strategy, those are the two highest level things we do. Now, you get underneath all those. Those look a lot of different ways and have a lot of nuance to it. But this imperative says, as we do these things in God’s mission, we want to be an authentic dialogue with people, but not just based on, not only based on our intuition or how we feel, but with data, that there is a lot of information available in terms of any number of things, the language, situation, the specifics about where work is or isn’t happening, and sharpening that information and contributing from all levels of our organization’s partnerships and spheres of influence. Here’s what we know is happening in a certain place. 

20:53
Rich Rudowske
That information is available to others who may be looking for how they can get involved. But more than that, in every individual program or project, we, on annual basis, ask for our partners or somebody who’s close to the program to evaluate a certain set of criteria that just helps us describe how is work being done, not just the technical linguistic components, but also considering the community’s involvement. How are things being done? How do we see it, and how might that inform our dialogue? That is a certain set of data. And so, at all aspects of our organization, we’re saying in this season, we are in an information age like never before. 

21:39
Rich Rudowske
And because we are doing work that has eternal significance, we more than anybody should be making use of information and sharpening our objectives and focus in the field and also in resource mobilization. What does technology tell us about how we can reach people? What do trends tell us about where people are at and their affinity to the Bible or other sorts of things. We have the opportunity to make use of information. And in mission and ministry world, the biggest contribution we can make. I think with that data informed decision making really falls into is disciplined thinking and planning. Jim Collins has a book called, “Good to Great” that a lot of folks have heard of, that talks about some organizations. It’s getting dated now, but some organizations and what made them better than average made them great organizations. 

22:33
Rich Rudowske
And then about ten years later, he wrote a monograph to accompany it that talked about the nonprofit sector and ministry. And the key takeaway from that was nonprofit and ministry sector doesn’t need business thinking. That’s not the thing. It’s discipline thinking. And often in ministry, we just go a little bit too much on intuition. And there is a thing of like, well, the Holy Spirit’s also at work. God is at work. We can’t measure that. We can’t necessarily control it. We want to participate in it, we want to understand it, but we do want to be disciplined and make use of data and live in that tension of God’s at work. And yet he has given us access to all this information, and it can inform what we do. 

23:13
Emily Wilson
Right. I love how these missiological imperatives really do have this woven component of we’re able to have authentic dialogue based off of these data informed decisions. The data is coming and helping us to identify opportunities for growth and for what are those barriers? And being able to assess them and remove them, but also thinking about how data informed decisions will assist us with the yes and the no. Like a conversation that I recently had with Alyssa Petty, our director for development, we were just assessing, like, okay, what is our opportunity here? Where can we best use our resources that we have been gifted to be able to reach out? We’re very interested in radically broadening involvement with our prayer and financial support. And yet being able to say yes to this opportunity and no to another and practicing wisdom and good stewardship. 

24:16
Emily Wilson
So really being able to have that balance, helping to also say, like, okay, some of this is qualitative data, right? And thinking about Eshinee Veith sharing about the adult learning strategy, and this is maybe contrary to the intuition of previous programs or projects, and yet this is proving to be fruitful. That is a data-informed dialogue of how is it that we can continue to grow and remove barriers for conversation to continue happening. So one of the other missiological imperatives, again, this is very much tied in with the previous three, is mission driven funding, and we are committed to developing and cultivating a resource mobilization strategy that is focused on ministry outcomes. So can you share a little bit of what does that mean? 

25:14
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, the last one, data informed decisions, this one and the next one, really, in a sense, are they sharp and radically broaden involvement? Because when you have an imperative or a priority, however you want to call it, that says you’re going to broaden involvement, and it just sort of leaves it at that. That’s just wide open and you could go about it any number of different ways. And so data-informed decision sort of says, we want to broaden involvement, but we want to use this further lens. Mission driven funding is the same way that we want a resource mobilization strategy that focuses on what will be accomplished, what the goal and objective is, and creating vision and passion for achieving that objective. There are other ways that you can drive your funding. 

25:59
Rich Rudowske
Some mission strategy drives funding based on who is doing it and really leaning into that, and some just on more general or broadly a sort of need. Nobody can disagree with that. The gospel must be proclaimed, for example. That is a mission driven funding. But we wanted to lean into more specific, we’re working in these particular language communities with these particular partners and these particular churches to accomplish these particular goals in these particular time frames, and to ask people to participate based on the understanding that there’s a plan, there’s passion and vision and specific people that are working toward those things and asking their involvement there. 

26:44
Rich Rudowske
And sometimes there’s a concern that if you say to somebody, we’re going to accomplish this thing in this amount of time and it’s this cost, and then you don’t do that, then people are going to say we’re going to not give. And I suppose anything is possible. But what we have found is that the credibility we have in saying we believe that this is what’s attainable in this time frame, in this place, and then to be able to go back and say, situation changed, and it looks more like this. The credibility that we have with folks that have resources to give that honesty and transparency just has resulted in more effective and more passionate giving, and we want to lean into that more. 

27:25
Emily Wilson
So I really see a component of accountability and stewardship, but also that ability to pivot. There are so many things in a post Covid world we always look back of, like what are our anticipated needs and how that shifted, but being able to say, okay, this is what the data is saying, this is what our information in our conversations and our dialogue inter-organizationally is saying, and how can we continue to grow and to remove those barriers? And at the heart of that mission driven funding is that desire to be the best stewards that we can be of God’s resources and the gifts that he has given us. And so this next missiological imperative, our final one, is alignment with the church. 

28:22
Emily Wilson
And it says that we are committed to fostering interdependent mission partnership domestically and internationally by understanding and valuing the mission objectives of our partners. What does that mean? 

28:39
Rich Rudowske
So, yeah, I alluded earlier that Bible translation ministry over the decades developed as a pretty professional and independent type of ministry connected with the church, but not necessarily thinking about being driven from the church. And there’s actually quite a bit of more recent study and scholarship that gets into some of the dynamics that creates that makes it difficult for church involvement. And I’m not really meaning to go there right now, but two things come to mind. One, in the fields where there are still language communities awaiting access to God’s Word. On one hand, as a Bible translation insider, we would think, why isn’t the local church all over this? Why is there a difference or a separation sometimes? And there’s a great article by Wayne Dye, it’s actually 30 years old, but still could just be, could have been written last week. 

29:37
Rich Rudowske
That invites us to consider churches that are growing in any place in the world have a certain set of values that are important to them, and we should understand what those are and make it so that our ministry is aligning with that, or that we’re in dialogue with that, instead of just assuming what we do is obviously the answer to everybody’s need. Okay? And some examples of that would be pastors are very interested in that their people come to church and that they can be taught the Bible so that the pastors have resources they need to teach Bible translation ministry. Over the decades, sort of assumed the objective was to put a Bible in every individual’s hands, and that would solve a problem. And those things aren’t quite the same thing and they’re not mutually exclusive either. 

30:27
Rich Rudowske
But if we understand the church values this, but we’re saying we do this, is there a way to meet in the middle somehow and create work and product strategy that meets the church’s need while ultimately resulting in God’s word in every hand? Right. So is it a major revolutionary change? No, but is it understanding the church has values and we shouldn’t just assume we know what they are. We should definitely do that also domestically, as a mission organization. Yeah, I mean, I’ve been with pastor friends who will sort of joke like, “Well, don’t just get alone with Rich, because ultimately he’s going to ask you for money for his ministry.” So that’s what ministries like his do, and that’s what the church relationship to a ministry like ours is. And that’s just not the case and doesn’t need to be the case. 

31:14
Rich Rudowske
We would like to also understand the values and needs of our partner churches here domestically, in places where, look, the church is encountering multicultural situations, immigrant populations, we have skill and experience in those situations that could really speak into the life of the church. The church is wrestling with loss of deep scripture engagement by her members. We potentially have ways to speak into that, whether it’s us directly or in partnership with others. And so we really want to commit in this season to alignment with the church in all places and understanding how we present ourselves as someone who can help and be in ministry, not just take, but also to give, so that we have this interdependent way of working. 

31:58
Emily Wilson
Really, I see it as the church. As followers of Christ, we are called to live boldly and scarcity mentality that can flood in for each of these. With prayer, radically broadening involvement, data informed decisions, mission driven funding, alignment with the church, this could very easily look like a goliath that we couldn’t possibly tackle. But being able to say that God is abundant in his blessings, that he has generously given that alignment with the church, that we don’t have to live in an either or paradigm, but rather a both. And how is it that as the body of Christ, if you’re not an eye but you’re a hand, that you can still be active and involved and building one another up, that the hand is helping out the eye and the eye is helping out the hand? 

33:00
Emily Wilson
And this interdependent mission partnership, we both have something to bring to the table and to be able to grow from one another. And to live in this renewing and refreshing gentle partnership of being able to grow together and that more people would hear the good news of the gospel. So it’s really just a beautiful opportunity to be able to say, how is it that God has called us into his mission? And how is it that we can grow together? So these five missiological imperatives, prayer, radically broadening involvement, data-informed decisions, mission-driven funding, alignment with the church, what does that exactly mean? As we’re thinking about the vision of vibrant Christian communities deeply rooted in God’s Word, engaging fully in God’s mission in this generation, what does this mean for our listeners, our prayer partners, to be able to go forward? 

34:02
Emily Wilson
What would you say to them? 

34:04
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I’d start where we started, which is the strategy is prayer that none of this happens without calling upon the Lord, growing in faith and trusting that he’s going to provide. We’re not out here to implement an agenda that is from us, but we are seeking to understand God’s will and participate in his mission. That’s one of the great gifts that he gives to all people. God, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that the way he will make his name great in all the ends of the earth is by involving people to do it. He has all kinds of other options at his disposal. But see, God is so invested in humanity and his deep love for us that he says, look, I want you to experience this as well. 

34:51
Rich Rudowske
Experience even in just some small measure, the joy that I experience when someone comes to know me and is reconciled to me. I actually want to invite you to be part of that in some way. And so that’s the invitation available to anyone listening, is to participate in God’s mission. Prayer is the strategy. The other missiological imperatives really flow out of that. And just our way of saying, in this season, whatever we’re thinking, speaking, doing, we want to pay attention to those other aspects as well and say, are we leading into that value or are we doing something that’s not quite that and this isn’t as sharp as it could be. 

35:31
Rich Rudowske
But really it all comes back to prayer and to that opportunity to participate in God’s mission, to look and discern where God’s at work and to be on that path with him and walk with him. 

35:42
Emily Wilson
Well, thank you so much for sharing all of those missiological imperatives and how it is that it’s going to transform us as an organization, but also the Bible translation movement. And we do encourage you all to be keeping us in prayer. And we are so thankful for your steadfastness in walking alongside us in the Bible translation movement. 

36:05
Rich Rudowske
That’s right. And we’d love if you are not part of our current community of people praying for Lutheran Bible Translators in the Bible translation movement, it is really easy to get involved in that. You just go to go lbt.org and if you haven’t been there recently, just a pop up is going to pop up saying, would you like to pray? And you can fill out that form and you will be subscribed to receive a set of emails, or you can get it in print. But we’d love for you to join the expanding group of folks that are taking time every day to pray for God’s mission in Bible translation ministry. Thank you for listening to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. 

36:43
Rich Rudowske
You can find past episodes of the podcast at lbt.org/podcast or subscribe on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible Translators’ social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s Word in their hands.

The Essentially Translatable Podcast is produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rodewald and Sarah Rudowske. Music written and performed by Rob Veith. I’m Rich Rudowske. So long for now.