What is Seed Company’s cluster project model?
Do neighboring translation teams ever work together?
At Seed Company, they do! In the 90s, Wycliffe Bible Translators began organizing teams into what we call cluster projects. We adopted that same model, and many other translation agencies have too. Rather than having teams operate independently, related ones are strategically grouped into clusters where they can progress alongside other translators who are geographically close or speak a similar language.
Clustering Teams in Mexico
Take, for example, two Zapotecan language teams in Southern Mexico. In 2016, they joined a cluster project to translate the Old Testament side by side. Though their languages may appear identical at first glance, a significant number of differences in dialect warrant a separate translation for each community.
By working together, they published their Pentateuchs (Genesis–Deuteronomy) at the same time.
Clustering Teams in High-Risk Countries
In a country with high risk of Christian persecution, a cluster of five teams works in the same building. The 20 translators operate in secret.
Translating Scripture where the gospel isn’t welcome can be lonely and isolating, but working as a cluster gives teams a sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves—a global movement God is using to make His name and Word known to people everywhere. Together, they share equipment, feel safer, and have more organic conversations about faith.
They also learn from each other’s translation findings. For example, a translation consultant, versed in the original Hebrew and Greek, reviewed one team’s draft of Matthew 4:2a: “For forty days and forty nights [Jesus] fasted” (NLT). A question then arose about how to properly translate the word fasted: Does it mean He abstained from food and water, or just food? Different teams reached different conclusions.
With other teams listening in, every translation benefited from the discussion, not just the one being evaluated at the time. Not only does this model improve translation quality, but it also saves consultants from addressing the same point with each team individually—and that accelerates the work!
What We’ve Learned
In the 25 years that Seed Company has been strategically grouping teams, we’ve learned that cluster projects:
- Help us more effectively manage our resources.
- Encourage teams to build strong relationships with one another.
- Accelerate translation pace, getting God’s Word to people faster and moving us closer to the day when we’ll see every nation, tribe, and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord!
