Igniting Acceleration in Bible Translation
At the heart of our mission lies the belief that risks must be taken to test the untested, prove the unproven, equip the unequipped, and advance the things that cannot advance without special attention and intentionality.
Explore our site to discover how you can be part of this transformative journey. From learning about our projects to finding ways to get involved, and accessing a wealth of resources, there's something here for everyone ready to innovate in Bible translation!
Visit lab.eten.bible today to find out more!
Who is the Innovation Lab
Realities: ETEN and Bible Translation
Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) is a collective impact alliance of Bible translation partners and resource partners working together to see all people gain access to God’s Word in a language they clearly understand by 2033.
Established methods of Bible Translation are not on pace to accomplish the 2033 ETEN All Access Goals and emerging methods are not yet optimized or adequately resourced to sufficiently change the trajectory.
🎯 ETEN All Access Goals
By 2033:
95% of the global population will have access to a full Bible
99.96% of the global population will have access to a New Testament
100% of the global population will have access to at least some portion of Scripture
Access to a second translation will be available in the world’s most strategic 100 written languages
The trajectory to accomplish the ETEN All Access Goals by 2033 requires a significant acceleration of pace and volume of translation progress. This requires BOTH the acceleration of established methods, participants and tools AND discovery, testing, scaling of emerging methods, participants and tools.
Response: The ETEN Innovation Lab
In 2021, ETEN launched an “Innovation Lab”; a thought space tasked to find new ways of accelerating progress toward the All Access Goals. The Innovation Lab aligns with the influence and advocacy from an Acceleration Subcommittee of the ETEN Steering Committee.
In 2021, the Innovation Lab focused on ideation.
In 2022, the Innovation Lab focused on formation.
In 2023, the Innovation Lab focused on activation.
In 2024, the Innovation Lab is focusing on demonstration.
Lab growth and composition are progressively rightsized to deliver results:
The Innovation Lab Nucleus team is fully seconded to, contracted by or hired for the Lab.
A range of Critical Others work with the Lab as ideators, liaisons and project capacity partners.
Project Capacity is developed through service providers, vendors and implementation partners selected by the Lab based on qualification, alignment and availability.
How does the ETEN Innovation Lab Work?
Priorities and Milestone
The ETEN Innovation Lab is initially focused on four strategic priorities:
Translation Resource Ecosystem (TRE)
Development, equipping, and deployment of a Translation Resource Ecosystem for the church – Acquisition / Development of (where necessary) open access tools, texts, helps, data to equip church led translation
Quality Assurance (QA)
Development of scalable and flexible Q/A methods to suit emerging translation methodologies
Assisted Translation Technology (ATT)
Scaling Artificial Intelligence, Machine Translation, and Commercial Translation technologies
Crowdsourcing (Crowd)
Discovering / scaling crowd-based technologies (needs assessment, drafting, community checking)
The ETEN Innovation Lab focuses efforts on the four strategic priorities in pursuit of an initial milestone:
“By the end of 2024, the Lab will demonstrate evidence that the trajectory toward the All Access Goals can (or cannot) change to align with 2033.”
Active Partnerships
The Innovation Lab is exploring opportunities, developing resources, and connecting networks with an ethos of activation and implementation, even if without consensus. Innovation Lab efforts will occur with and through the best positioned, most strategic organizations that are qualified, available, and aligned.
Qualified is defined as having the necessary & proven expertise to contribute to the work in the areas needed.
Available is defined as having sufficient capacity and resources to execute the work at the pace for which the Lab is aiming.
Aligned is defined as aligning with the ETEN vision & mission and the Lab’s commission to take risks, test the untested, prove the unproven, equip the unequipped, and advance the things that cannot advance without special attention and intentionality.
Find below a list of ongoing partnerships and associated initiatives:
Audio/Visual Translation Tool (AVTT)
AI Copilot
Bible Aquifer content
Missional AI Summit
Project Catapult
AI Copilot
The Greek Room
Oral Bible Translation (OBT) partnership
Render for the Church
Project Catapult
AI Copilot
Bible Aquifer content
NLP Layer
Project Catapult
Scripture Forge
Oral Bible Translation (OBT) partnership
Bible Aquifer content
Oral Bible Translation (OBT) partnership
Translation Resource Ecosystem (TRE) technology
AI Copilot
Bible Aquifer content
Church Network development
Translator training
Translation Resource Ecosystem (TRE) technology
Bible Aquifer content
Bible Aquifer content
Church network development
Oral Bible Translation (OBT) partnership
Translator training
The Lab also engages in active collaboration with the following vendors:
Bible Aquifer
Bible Well
Translation Service Provider
Translation Service Provider
Translation Service Provider
AI services
Data research, collection, and application
Connect with the Innovation Lab
You are invited to connect with the Innovation Lab through the following avenues:
Innovation Lab Public Dashboard
If you’re interested in a more detailed view of the Lab’s day-to-day working platform, please visit the our online dashboard at lab.eten.bible.
For a direct line of communication, please email comments and inquiries to lab@eten.bible.
Needs for Engagement with the Innovation Lab & Description
Content Contributor
Your organization owns the rights to Bible translation resources and would like to contribute to the open resources available for the global Church to participate in Bible translation. Have a look at our list of key resources needed under an open license here.
Experimentation / Implementation Host
Mission / ministry organizations with relationship and connections to global Church participants serving church planting, disciple-making and church growth movements around the world and you wish to see these relationships and connections engaged in emergent methods of Scripture translation in the languages most relevant to your ministry.
Investor
You may or may not be a technology provider, experimentation host, thought partner or prayer partner, and your organization wishes to participate in the cost-recovery of the Lab’s operations, experimentation and proliferation of outcomes.
Prayer Partner
You may or may not be a technology provider, experimentation host or thought partner, and your organization has dedicated prayer capacity it wishes to connect to the Lab’s efforts.
Technology Provider
You are a technology developer in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Translation Service, Crowd Sourcing, Software Development and/or Software Product delivery and you wish to see your technology applied in exploration of solutions in Bible translation.
Thought Partner
You are neither technology provider nor experimentation host, but your organization has experience, credibility and interest in Scripture translation, and you wish to offer these things in support of the Lab’s priorities; most commonly applied to a specific priority, project, or experiment.
