How our content is built

We make Bible-teaching apps for minority-language communities. This page explains how we prepare the teaching in those apps.

Who does what

The process at a glance

We write the teaching once, in English. Local reviewers check the parts we adapt for their culture. Then your team translates it into your language, and readers use it in the apps.

  1. Our team

    • Writes the teaching points and shared text
    • Writes adaptations with advice from local people
    • Joins them into content sets, and runs the apps

  2. Local reviewers

    • Come from the culture, or live in it
    • Read each adaptation inside the real apps
    • Approve it once, for every audience that uses it

  3. Community team

    • Translates its content set into its own language
    • Changes the words of any item for its readers
    • Chooses its app name, colours and artwork

  4. Readers

    • Read in their own language
    • Do not sign in. We keep no information about them
The idea

Shared where possible, local where needed

Most of what the apps teach is the same for every reader: who God is, who Jesus is, what the Bible says. A few passages need different words for different readers. For example, a reading about ritual and good works means something different to a Buddhist reader than to a Hindu reader. We mark these passages before review starts, so local reviewers only check the few passages that need it.

The steps

Six steps from teaching to app

Our partWe do steps 1 to 5 before your team starts. Local reviewers check every adaptation.
1
Teaching points

36 short statements of what we teach. Each one is based on the Bible. Every audience gets the same list.

2
App outlines

A plan for each app. It lists every day, question or chapter, and the teaching points each one covers. We call each of these an item. Each item is either shared or adapted.

3
Shared text

One English text for each shared item. Every audience gets these exact words.

4
Adaptations

New English text for the adapted items only. Each adaptation is written for one of three groups:

a worldview, such as Buddhist or Hindua regionone community
5
Content set

For each audience, we choose the adaptations that apply and join them with the shared text. The result is one complete English text for that audience. We call this a content set.

Your team's partYour team translates, and changes any words its readers need.
6
Translation and apps

Your team translates its content set into its own language in our editor. Your apps show that translation.

Following one item

How one item reaches your app

Each item passes down through six layers. Most items pass through unchanged, and your team translates them. Some items are rewritten on the way. Here are three real items.

How one item reaches a team's appSix stacked layers. Item A comes from the shared text and is translated. Item B is replaced by a worldview adaptation, then translated. Item C is replaced by a region adaptation, changed by the team, and changed again by a language variant.654321ABC
Shared textAdaptationYour teamLanguage variantReplaced
  1. Shared textWritten once for every audience. Most items stay this way.
  2. Worldview adaptationRewrites items that mean something different in a worldview, such as Buddhist or Hindu.
  3. Region or community adaptationRewrites local examples, places, history and church life.
  4. Your content setAll the layers above, joined together for your audience.
  5. Your languageYour team translates every item, and can change the words of any item for its readers.
  6. A language variantA second community that speaks the same language. It changes only the words it needs and keeps the rest.
A

Q&A · “Who is Jesus Christ?”

Jesus is God's Son and saviour

This is shared text. Every audience gets the same words, and your team translates them.

Open in the demo app ↗
B

Daily Provisions · day 254

Good works cannot saveEarning favour

Some readers believe they must earn God's favour. For them, a worldview adaptation replaces the shared text. Your team translates the adapted text.

Open in the demo app ↗
C

Way of Salvation · “Where do we come from?”

God made everythingThe local landscape

A region adaptation describes the reader's own hills and rivers. Your team changes some words, and a language variant changes a few more.

Open in the demo app ↗

Each item has at least one teaching point (blue tag). Teaching points never change. Some items also have a local topic (gold tag). The local topic is the reason the item is different for some audiences. In the picture, the colour of each line shows which layer gives the item its words.

Each app

How much is shared, how much is adapted

Each bar is one app. Blue items are the same for every audience. Gold items are adapted for each audience.

SharedAdapted

Q&A

28 questions
16 shared12 adapted

Always shared: the kind of question.

Way of Salvation

20 steps
2 shared18 adapted

Always shared: artwork, icons and Bible references.

Catechism

110 questions
101 shared9 adapted

Always shared: the Scripture for each answer.

Treasure Chest

150 story chapters
150 shared0 adapted

Always shared: every chapter.

Local topics

Where audiences differ

Each adapted item is tagged with the local topic that makes it different. These are the local topics we use. The number is how many items in all the apps have that topic. One item can have more than one topic.

Worldview

  • Other powers and protection · 22Gods, spirits or practices that people already go to for protection or help.
  • Ritual and good works · 18Offerings, rituals and duties that people believe make a person right.
  • Earning favour · 10The belief that a person must earn their place, which can make free grace seem unfair.
  • Many paths · 9The belief that all religions lead to the same place.
  • Main ideas of the worldview · 8Large ideas, such as the world being an illusion, that change how readers understand everything else.
  • Death and the afterlife · 7What people expect after death, and how they understand one life followed by judgement.
  • Low-status groups · 2Jobs or groups seen as low. We name them without shaming readers.

Region and community

  • Local life and customs · 42Everyday examples, names, festivals and places from the reader's own area.
  • Believers nearby · 14Stories of the local church, so readers see that Christians already live near them.
  • The local landscape · 7Creation described with the reader's own mountains, rivers and fields.
  • Getting a Bible · 5Where readers can find Scripture in their language.
  • Opening welcome · 2How an app introduces itself to readers in this place.
  • Placing the Bible in history · 2Dating Bible events with the reader's own history, not foreign history.
  • Where to learn more · 1Local churches, bookshops and songs, so readers know where to go next.
Review

Local people check every adaptation

Someone from the culture reviews each adaptation once. A content set only uses adaptations that a reviewer has approved.

54321
  1. DraftedOur team writes the adaptation, using advice from local people.
  2. ReviewedA local reviewer reads it inside the real apps and suggests changes.
  3. ApprovedThe reviewer approves it. Every audience that uses it gets the approved version.
  4. PublishedWe add it to a content set and give it to a community team.
  5. In useYour community reads it, and your team keeps improving it in your language.
Questions

Talk to us to find out more

We can explain any part of this in more detail, or show you how it works for your community.

Contact us