Seed Company’s Growth Partners team is a group of consultants who come alongside organizations around the world as they take leadership and ownership in the Bible translation movement. Growth Partners consultants equip them to launch, fund, and manage their own translation projects.
The Vision Behind Growth Partners
Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.
— 2 Timothy 2:2b
Growth Partners is a vital part of Seed Company’s mission to accelerate Scripture translation and impact for people without God’s Word through Great Commission partnerships. This team incorporates all of the elements that are at the core of what Seed Company stands for: acceleration, innovation, partnership, and eternal transformation of both individual lives and entire communities.
One key goal of Growth Partners is to raise up leaders in the Bible translation movement who then mentor other leaders. Building a global network of leaders in the Bible translation movement is the only way we will be able to reach every person with God’s Word in this generation.
Another key goal is to help local Bible translation organizations celebrate and support their cultural inheritance. As one local partner stated:
“We want to be a Bible translation organization rooted in our own national identity, our own economy, and our own church.”
Growth Partners exists to help Bible translation organizations around the world cultivate these kinds of roots.
The Global Body of Christ Is Unstoppable
“…and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
— Matthew 16:18
No organization or church can accomplish the Great Commission alone. We all need the global body of Christ to be equipped with all the resources they need to reach every last language.
Seed Company started in 1993 based on the belief that speakers of Bibleless languages could serve as the main translators in Bible translation projects. We believed in their potential to learn translation skills and apply them faithfully apart from the full-time supervision of highly trained, expatriate linguist fieldworkers.
Seed Company was the first Bible translation organization to launch a translation consultant internship program to train many of those translators to multiply the effectiveness of their expertise. And today, we have faith in our field partners’ capacity to take responsibility for all dimensions of Bible translation in their countries. That faith includes Bible translation-specific dimensions, such as cultivating a culture of prayer, but also practices that apply to any enterprise, such as finance and human resources.
How Growth Partners Accelerates the Great Commission
Growth Partners’ unique approach focuses on the holistic development of an organization, applying sound scriptural principles and best business practices. Consulting teams offer practical assistance in areas often found lacking in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as:
- strategic planning
- executive coaching
- finance
- human resources
- information technology
- board governance
- resource mobilization
- and, above all, dependence on God through prayer
Growth Partners can directly reach only so many organizations with their coaching—but by joining forces with other partners who replicate Growth Partners’ consulting methods, they multiply their impact across the globe!
Two Success Stories among Many
Today, Growth Partners has joined forces with more than 20 international organizations that support Bible translation. Below are two examples of organizations in Asia that are experiencing incredible growth and initiating new Bible translation projects for the glory of God.
Building Organizational Strength & Health
Since 2016, Growth Partners has worked with a particular organization in Asia (name redacted for safety) that has experienced incredible momentum.
As the organization grew in success, they asked if they could use the Growth Partners model with their own partner organizations. As a result, Growth Partners strategies and processes began to multiply throughout the nation!
Because of this partnership, not only have nine new translation projects begun, but Bible translation is also resuming in seven other languages! By 2030, this growing network of organizations expects to reach 250 people groups with heart language Scripture.
Expanding Despite Government Restrictions
Another Bible translation group in the region has been in business for more than 40 years, assisting with dozens of projects largely funded by Seed Company investors.
However, in 2017, they became increasingly concerned about proposed government regulations in their country that would limit the amount of international funding NGOs could receive. So, they turned to Seed Company for a different kind of help.
At the time, only about 5% of their funding came from in-country sources. When they asked for help with fundraising, Growth Partners provided holistic training on a biblical model of stewardship and followed up with coaching on how to build fundraising capacity.
Today, as a result of their organizational transformation, in-country financial support has grown from 5% to 30%! Their translation portfolio, which had traditionally hovered around 40 languages that were all supported by international sponsoring agencies, now consists of 52 languages—11 of which are entirely funded by their own network of donors.
Partnering with Global Leaders to Accelerate Bible Translation
When you support Seed Company, you’re not only supporting the Bible translators themselves, but also initiatives like Growth Partners that are speeding the good news of Christ to the lost, the last, and the least.
Learn about some of Seed Company’s other distinctive approaches:
