Ed Weaver never pictured himself in ministry.
That picture changed 20 years ago when a friend suggested that God might be able to use him – and iPods – for eternal work.
Weaver describes his work up until this point in his life as that of a “serial entrepreneur.” Over a span of two decades he worked for numerous tech companies and tried starting various business ventures. His resume includes management positions at companies like Blue Sky Inc., Open Connect Systems Inc., and Eastman Kodak Company.
While he had volunteered at church since he was a child, it wasn’t something he saw as a vocation.
“I had purposely chosen not to go to seminary and believed that my mission field was business,” Weaver said.
In 2005, he was in the process of winding down a consulting business he had founded with a Christian friend and wondering what to do next. Knowing Weaver’s faith and skills, his business partner pitched an idea.
“I think you should be in ministry,” he told Weaver. “And based on your tech background, maybe you should consider using iPods in ministry.”
At that time, iPods, and MP3 players in general, were the hottest new technology. With his background in tech, Weaver couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe his friend was right. He began asking other Christian leaders for their thoughts on how MP3 players might be used in ministry.
The query ultimately led to a discussion with some representatives from Wycliffe Bible Translators.
“The biggest problem in missions is that two-thirds of the world can’t, don’t, or won’t read,” someone in the meeting told him.
“So are you saying that audio technology could help solve what you’re claiming is the biggest problem in missions?” Weaver asked.
He walked out of the meeting with the feeling that God was opening a door. Those suspicions were confirmed when he conducted a pilot test in Myanmar (formerly Burma).
“We stuck this MP3 recorder in a Burmese pastor’s shirt pocket as he taught an evangelism course for 25 hours that week.”
That content was then copied and put on other devices so that people who could not attend the training could listen.
“Essentially, we were creating podcasts that didn’t use the internet,” Weaver said.
From that preliminary test, he saw a path to expand the spread of Bible-based content to unreached people. That work has now blossomed into the organization now known as Spoken Worldwide, a nonprofit ministering to people through orality – or simply put, spoken word.
Today, Weaver is a ruling elder at New City Presbyterian in Celina, Texas, and CEO of Spoken, which is now reaching people around the world in their own languages and in formats that make learning more effective. As the nonprofit celebrates 20 years of ministry, Weaver estimates they’ve worked in about 175 different languages, and their reach continues to grow.
The need for audio ministry is evident from the statistics.
UNESCO estimates around 740 million adults globally are illiterate, and about another 250 million youth lack basic literacy skills. Weaver said there are many more who don’t read comfortably and others who simply learn best orally, and these groups, together with those who are illiterate, make up the two-thirds figure mentioned to Weaver in the Wycliffe meeting.
Despite the need, Weaver never imagined the organization would grow the way it has. Initially, he could not even imagine hiring a second person to help with ministry.
But in 2007, he merged with another ministry doing similar work, bringing the team to five members, and the ministry has steadily grown. In 2017, the organization rebranded from T4 Global to Spoken Worldwide, and today it employs 25 U.S. staff and another 300 indigenous contractors.
“Every day I wake up at some level and just am stunned at where God has brought us,” Weaver said. “His sovereign hand is guiding us every step of the way. I would have never thought that we would have such an impact or influence around the world, but God gave us all the training, all the understanding that was necessary, all the learnings that needed to happen over 20 years to be able to do this.”
That’s not to say it’s always been easy. Adapting to changes in technology has been a challenge.
“One of the key decisions we made early on is we didn’t want to build a device of our own,” Weaver said. “I knew that we would never be able to raise enough money to be able to keep up with the technology curve.”
Instead, they’ve tried to use the most widely-available and effective forms of technology.
In the early days, that was low-cost MP3 players he would purchase from China along with speakers that allowed groups to listen together. In many parts of the world, those MP3 players are still effective. But as smartphones have become more common, Spoken has also begun downloading content onto distributable SD cards and creating audio files that can be shared online.
“It depends on where we’re working as to what technology is used,” Weaver explained.
In some ways, the technology advancements have been a blessing, allowing Spoken to expand its reach. Instead of paying $10 to $30 for an MP3 player, for instance, Weaver said they’re now paying $2 or $3 for a micro SD card that can carry the same content. In other places, they use Bluetooth technology, like Apple’s AirDrop function, to transfer a file from one phone to the next for free.
Partnerships have been a key part to Spoken’s success. When Spoken first started, they were working on Bible-based stories, songs, and even some Scripture-based dramas and poetry. But over time, the ministry was approached by Bible translation ministries that recognized the benefit of the work Spoken was doing and the potential to apply the knowledge they’d gained in oral cultures.
By the end of this year, Weaver said they will be involved with about 60 oral Bible translation projects. The fruit of these projects is already evident.
“We’re hearing of people coming to faith, even in the checking process. We’ll play a draft passage of Scripture for people that are not believers, and they’ll say, ‘You’re saying my sins can be forgiven? Everything that I’ve done wrong? Is that what the Bible says?’”
He loves hearing about people who have never listened to God’s Word before suddenly understanding the hope it promises.
“It’s fun to see in the process of doing the work, people coming to faith and getting plugged into small discussion groups around Scripture.”
As each audio file is completed, Spoken prioritizes extending its reach. Everything created is shared freely with others and uploaded online so anyone around the world who knows that language can listen.
“We produce all of our content in Creative Commons, so there’s no copyright protection on it that is going to require legal agreement or any kind of royalty fee,” Weaver said. “We just want to make sure it can get into as many people’s hands as possible.”
The distribution model goes from one to many.
“It will be one leader that will start a small discussion group, and they’ll listen to the content together and discuss it like we would in small Bible studies in our own churches here in the West. And then they’ll identify leaders within that group that they can disciple more one-on-one and then have them start another group.”
With this disciple-making approach, the number of people actively engaging in Scripture and Bible-based content grows exponentially.
The ministry is funded from donations from foundations, churches, and individuals as well as some revenue from the ministries they partner with. Weaver sees an opportunity for more growth in the future. Within the next six years, Spoken has a goal of providing content in 275 languages around the world, with a focus on unreached people groups.
“We’d like to see 20,000 key disciplemakers in those 275 languages,” Weaver said.
But he knows all of that will depend on God continuing to use people and technology in ways that, 20 years ago, he would not have imagined possible.
“God did it all. God provided the funders. God provided the vision.”
And when he didn’t see himself as a missionary, God did.
“He created an environment where I couldn’t do anything but say yes.”