Duration: 120 minutes

Focus of Session: This session will allow groups to document the steps in their Bible translation process, identify handoffs, and detect gaps or deficiencies in what they are currently doing. It will also encourage them to think beyond the task of Bible translation and consider the purpose of having a Bible and how to employ it in maturing the saints.

Method: Socratic method using a role-play simulation.

Introduction

Explain that manufacturing firms will often create wireframes or flow charts to describe their manufacturing process. Bible translation can be likened in some respects to a manufacturing process. However, there are some very important components that elevate Bible translation beyond a manufacturing mindset. This activity will help us identify them and decide how best to handle them.

Thought Exercise

Objective: Participants will identify core components to accomplishing a goal.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• use random objects or furniture in the training room (such as chairs, tables, or dishes)

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Set up the random objects or furniture at the front of the room.
  • You could use whatever chairs, stools, or tables are in the room.
  • You could put bowls, plates, cups, or other items on the furniture to represent a kitchen.
• Ask for a volunteer. Invite the volunteer up to the front of the room.
• Explain to the participants that the volunteer is your friend who has invited you to stay in their house. Explain to the participants that the objects and furniture are the volunteer’s “kitchen.”
• Pretend to enter the volunteer’s house, greet them and thank them for letting you stay with them.
• Make a big show of looking at the objects and furniture that you set up at the front.
• Start criticizing the volunteer’s “kitchen.” You might say things like: “Your kitchen looks great, but I think this object would look better over here” or “I think the chair would be better in a different place, so I am going to move the chair.” Move the objects and furniture at the front of the room around. At the end, pretend to leave the house.
• Ask the volunteer, “What are you thinking or feeling as I move things around in your kitchen without asking you?”
  • You might hear things like, “I’m annoyed that you’re moving things around in my house without asking me,” or “You are disrespecting me by moving things around in my house without asking me.”
• Now repeat the skit, this time with a second volunteer. Once again, pretend to enter the volunteer’s house. This time, look at all the objects and furniture in the volunteer’s “kitchen,” but don’t move any of it.
• Ask the volunteer, “How is your kitchen? Do you like it?”
  • If the volunteer mentions something about their “kitchen” they do not like, offer to help them fix them. Have the volunteer stand up and help you move objects as you fix whatever they do not like about the house.
  • If the volunteer does not mention anything they do not like about their house, ask them if there is anything they think would improve their house and make it even better. Have the volunteer stand up and help you move objects as you “improve” their house.
  • Say good-bye to your friend and leave
• Ask the group: “What was the difference between the two visits? Which was better?”