What We Do

Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) was established in 2010 as an alliance of Bible translation organizations of significant global engagement and Resource Partners committed to eradicating Bible poverty. It uniquely combines the perspectives of missiology and philanthropy by bringing together implementers and investors. It seeks to leverage the alliance partnership to ensure that by 2033 at least a portion of the Bible is translated into every language needed to reach every tribe and nation.

The principal implementing partners of ETEN have demonstrated unity that is unprecedented within the Bible translation community. Together they have created a comprehensive “ecosystem” of tools, established an ever-growing global community of givers, and adopted a common framework for the task of Bible translation. This shared commitment to common operating principles, processes, and outcomes, as well as access to common data, now enables shared planning and implementation.

Ecosystem

Data Integration

illumiNations

Economic Sustainability

Translation

Common Framework

data integration

Ecosystem

Data Integration or the Big Data Ecosystem (BDE) is the digital infrastructure that supports ETEN’s comprehensive effort to eradicate Bible poverty.

The BDE is a comprehensive system designed to facilitate translation and access to translated texts. It is envisioned to be a deeply integrated infrastructure—made up of multiple databases and associated software tools—that accelerates the translation process, tracks progress, and facilitates global access to the Bible.

It is designed to be a global tool. Together, the programs and systems that make up the BDE offer Bible translators, publishers, and archivists a set of tools that accelerate translation and improve the quality of all phases of Bible translation.

economic sustainability

illumiNations

ETEN’s resource development primarily occurs in the following ways:

    1. ETEN’s Resource Partners and select Christian foundations invest via an ETEN mutual fund
    2. illumiNations, the convening platform for the Bible translation movement and the eradication of Bible poverty
      • Annual illumiNations gatherings, which serve to cultivate and minister to a community of givers
      • illuminations.bible, a website that provides investment opportunities for Bible translation projects around the world and informs the growing community of givers; learn more HERE
An asian woman in a blue scarf making a hand gesture.

translation

Common Framework

The Common Framework is a set of principles, ideas, and best practices for Bible translation. The Common Framework builds on two important trends:

Missiological Shift

The role of the Western church in Bible translation is moving from doing translation to serving the global church to fulfill its ministry of Bible translation. This change demands a shift in thinking from a somewhat prescriptive approach to a collaborative approach that responds to the stated needs of the most local expression of God’s church.

Philanthropic Shift

There is a complementary shift in the philanthropic community: kingdom-minded investors are inclined toward local sustainability and transformative impact—and this fosters intimacy of perspective and prayerful relationship between those called to give and those called to implement in the work of Bible translation.

Implementation of the Common Framework benefits from shared information in the Big Data Ecosystem (BDE). This Framework, when operationalized by Implementing Partners, provides a means for them to consider common systems, processes, people solutions, and other resource allocation issues. It helps to avoid duplication, identify economies of scale, and accelerate Scripture translation through improved efficiency.

IMG-CommonFrameworkWheel

Five interrelated fundamental principles form the Common Framework:

  • Ownership: The most local expression of the church owns the vision and responsibility for Bible translation 
in each community.
  • Partnership: Translation goals, products, and plans are determined collaboratively.
  • Accelerated Impact: Short-phased projects seek to develop Scripture products that respond to pressing ministry needs of the church and are a part of an overall plan to fulfill the Scripture translation needs in a people group.
  • Stewardship: Projects are well-developed, well-designed, well-resourced, and well-managed, with a high value placed on mutual accountability and transparency among all partners.
  • Relationships: Translation projects develop deep, committed, and enduring relationships among translation teams, impact partners, local communities, technical partners, investors, and prayer partners.