The growth of Christianity in the central and southern parts of Ghana is astounding. The map to the right is based on information from the Joshua Project.  Each dot represents the geographic center of a people group. The color of the dot shows the percentage of Christians in that people group – darker being a higher percentage. People groups without very low percentages of Christians are not shown. You can see that the central and southern parts of Ghana have a high percentage of Christians. The virtual absence of dots in other parts of Ghana is telling. But it would be a mistake to measure the growth of the church in Ghana only by percentages and numbers of Christians; because the church has grown in so many other ways.

Many churches in Ghana now have international missions. One is doing missions in over 90 countries! It’s headquarters in Ghana is, in fact, it’s international headquarters. In addition, these churches have significant social ministries including schools, clinics, hospitals, Bible schools, seminaries and even universities. They have publications, TV stations and radio stations. They have social programs designed to reduce poverty and help those in need. They design and implement their own Sunday School programs and curricula. Some of their churches have thousands in attendance on Sunday. Some seem to have a congregation on every other corner of Accra. All of this is created, funded, and run entirely from within Ghana.

But there is an anomaly. That anomaly is Bible translation. While every other ministry of the church – pastoral care, evangelism, social ministries,  education, etc. – is created, funded and run from withing Ghana; the translation of the Bible into the languages of Ghana is created and funded with resources from abroad, mostly the US and the UK. Western agencies have a better understanding of the number of languages in Ghana and which still need translation, than do churches in Ghana.

Churches that saw a need for a university to train their people, then raised the funds from within Ghana to build and staff the university, did not see the languages without translation on their doorsteps. They saw social needs, poverty, the need for solid training for pastors and stepped into those gaps too. But their lack of engagement in  Bible translation stands in awkward and anomalous contrast to their engagement in so many other ministries.

Recently, Ed has been involved with some Ghanaians in a big push to change this situation. Together that group has developed a definitive list of the remaining translation needs in Ghana together with an estimated budget to translate the whole Bible into all of them over the next 18 years. In a few weeks, Church leaders and Christian business people will meet in Ghana at a fund-raising event where we hope to raise the funds for the first few years.

Beyond that, we want hope to get the churches to engage with Bible translation and guide it the same way they give attention to other ministries. Here’s to normalizing the anomaly.