Translating The Bible Together

Watermark is a sending church, and as we seek to make disciples of all nations and bring the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8), the majority of our sending efforts are focused on unreached people groups. A people group is a community that speaks a unique language, and “unreached” means they have little to no access to Scripture. More than three billion people around the world are unreached; virtually no Christ-followers live in their communities, and most of them will go their whole lives without ever hearing the name of Jesus.

Many of these people groups are unreached because they live in parts of the world where following Jesus is restricted or illegal. Sharing specifics could put our brothers and sisters in Christ at risk. Out of care for the safety of the translators and the people groups they serve, we keep certain details limited while continuing to celebrate and support the work being done.

At the same time, we’re committed to being as transparent as possible to celebrate and communicate how your generosity is being stewarded. While some details must remain limited, we work to share meaningful updates and clear reporting whenever possible.

In 2025, our church spent the year in Scripture through Year of the Word, a year-long initiative in which we read through the entire Bible together using Join The Journey, our daily Bible reading plan. As we spent the year immersed in Scripture, we were reminded that millions of people around the world still do not have access to God's Word in their own language.

That fall, we spent several weeks focusing on Bible translation and the need for people to have access to Scripture in their heart language. We shared about the global gap and invited our body to prayerfully consider how to respond. As a church, we felt led to step into a partnership with Seed Company to help meet that need. What began as a focused season has now become an ongoing commitment, with our church stewarding roughly $2.6 million toward Bible translation projects around the world.

Each project is geared toward an unreached people group. Unreached people groups represent more than three billion people around the world who have little to no access to Scripture, where less than two percent of these populations identify as evangelical Christians. Less than two percent of all funds given toward missions go to unreached people groups, so as a sending church, we focus our efforts on these communities (Romans 15:20; Romans 10:13-15).

The process of translating Scripture involves linguists, local churches, and native speakers working together to ensure accuracy and clarity in every verse. You can watch this short video to see how it all comes together.

This project directly supports our marker of being a Bible-revering church. We believe everyone should be able to communicate intimately with God, and God speaks through his Word. But that is incredibly difficult, and often impossible, when entire cultures don’t have access to it in the language of their hearts—the language in which they think, dream, and express their deepest emotions.

That’s why we chose to partner with Seed Company and invest in Bible translation projects that bring God’s Word to life in the heart language of every person. When people encounter Scripture in the language that speaks to their soul, they discover that God sees them, knows them, and loves them.

The funding phase of our Bible translation campaign has concluded, and we are continuing to work with Seed Company to complete the projects we committed to support. If you'd like to continue supporting Bible translation beyond those projects, you can give directly through Seed Company. Your generosity helps bring God's Word to people who are still waiting for access to Scripture in their language.

Artificial intelligence is one of the greatest accelerators in the history of Bible translation. Watch this webcast featuring a panel of AI experts to discover the opportunities and threats AI tools present in getting the full Bible to those without God’s Word in their language.

Seed Company, a 501(c)(3) organization led by Watermark member Davis Powell, is focused on accelerating Bible translation. They partner with local churches, translation organizations, and leaders to ensure that Bible translation is community-owned, sustainable, and delivered in a language and format people truly understand. To date, Seed Company has helped bring God’s Word to over 2,400 language communities. Learn more.

Those within hearing communities may believe that written Scripture is sufficient for Deaf people, but written languages are far different from sign languages. In sign language translation, video allows viewers to see facial expressions that are essential in communicating not only grammar but also the emotions contained within God’s Word. Learn more.

Sign language translation projects typically begin with an overview of Genesis to Revelation, followed by key stories that further express the overarching story of Scripture. As the project progresses, more stories are translated as part of building out the full Bible. Of the more than 350 unique sign languages in the world, only one—American Sign Language—has a complete Bible.