Overture 1 Calls for Commitment to Bible Translation
By Larry Hoop

During the 65th Missions Conference at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Florida, it occurred to Senior Pastor David McWilliams that the PCA has not been faithful to its confessional commitment to translate the Scriptures. “Some individuals and churches support Bible translating,” he says, “but we have not supported these efforts in our presbytery or as a denomination.”

So McWilliams huddled with Waller Tabb, a Wycliffe Bible Translators member and Covenant deacon, to gather facts and dream together about what could happen if every PCA presbytery would substantially support Scripture translation among one people group without the Scriptures. From this dreaming, Overture 1 was born.

Arguing from the Confessional directive that “holy scriptures are to be translated out of the original into vulgar languages” (WLC 156; cf. WCF I.viii) and from Bible translation being necessary for evangelism, worship, establishing and ordering churches, family worship, and privation devotion, Overture 1 calls for the Assembly to “urge each Presbytery to devise a plan to support financially the translation of Scriptures into the language of one people group.” The overture also calls for those presbyteries to choose sound translators or translation societies for the project. The authors estimate the cost of such translations projects to be $40,000 per year for a period of eight years.

Overture 1 has been referred to the Overtures Committee.

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