Every person in the world deserves the opportunity to read and study the Word of God in his or her heart-language.

As Paul was planning to launch a fourth missionary journey into Spain, his primary objective involved allowing people to both hear and see the gospel with their own eyes: “To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand” (Romans 15:21). This follower of Jesus and quintessential missionary was preoccupied with getting the gospel to people among whom Christ had not been named. In the same way, I believe that every child of God must become consumed with his or her responsibility to deliver the gospel to those who still lack its life-giving message.

Yet, two-thousand years after Paul’s proposal for a fourth missionary journey, thousands of the world’s living languages still do not possess a whole Bible. Today, over 1.5 billion people would not be able to find a Bible in their language even if they wanted to. And while tremendous strides have been made in the Bible translation arena in the last century, the most difficult Bible translation projects lie ahead for us. So it is time for local churches to begin taking this mission more personally than ever before. For this reason, we will be launching the FirstBible School of Translation in the fall of 2020. FBST will be a cutting-edge, 90-credit Master of Arts program with one mission: to train and prepare exceptional leaders and qualified consultants in the area of Bible translation. We would love to have you be a part of this exciting journey with us!

Joyfully following Jesus,

Edward Barclay III, Pastor
First Baptist Church of Milford