Summary

What changes when a person hears God’s Word in their own language as opposed to their second or third language? How does the translation of key theological terms into a person's mother tongue change their understanding?

Listen Online

Details

Many people around the world are multilingual but do not have access to the scriptures in their mother tongue. Beyond language, some cultures are oriented to oral methods of communication rather than reading and writing. What methods, resources, and new technology are available to people who prefer to listen to God’s Word rather than read it? This talk is a wide-ranging discussion how to make God’s Word available to people in a language and format that is most meaningful to them. Explore how insights from a Bible translator might challenge you to think about how people in your community absorb the deep meaning of scripture.

Recent Media Resources

Roadmap for the Rummage Sale: Latina/o Theology for Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Faith

“Deconstruction” is a popular term among young people who grew up in the Christian church. In this public lecture, Robert Chao Romero will consider the challenge of widespread deconstruction while offering a hopeful path forward. Expanding on Phyllis Tickle’s analogy of the church having a rummage sale of ideas every few centuries, Romero invites us to consider the contributions of Latina/o theology and the history of the Brown Church as valuable resources for reconstruction on the other side of deconstruction.

August 10, 2026 | 80 min video
Exodus Through Egyptian Eyes

Carmen Imes has spent the past fifteen years immersed in the book of Exodus, writing about it for both her master’s thesis and her doctoral dissertation. In this lecture, Imes will share some of the most paradigm-shifting insights she’s had while reading Exodus through an Egyptian lens. 

August 10, 2026 | 82 min video
Psalms We Love to Sing

Modern song writers are continually setting the psalms to new music for band-led worship contexts. Join Paul Ryan, Nate Glasper, and the Calvin University Worship Apprentices to sing contemporary psalm settings sung in public worship at Calvin. 

August 7, 2026 | 85 min video