The book on the left is one of the first copies of Finding Church in French. The man on the right is my good friend Silvio Viotti who translated the work as he as done with many of my other books. He has done all this as a labor of love simply to make these works available to the French-speaking world. Thank you, Silvio, for your service to the Gospel in this way. I hear from so many who are touched by the availability of these books in French.
The evangelical community in France is incredibly small and those looking outside the borders of the traditional congregation are even smaller. So these don’t sell in great quantities there, but they do provide some encouragement to those who are learning to live more freely in the life of Jesus.
Sara and I have been with Silvio and his wife Dominique many times over the past decade. We met them first at their home in Switzerland, but have also enjoyed their company in the U.S., Ireland, England, France, Israel, and Italy. I’m so happy that this project is finally done.
If you know anyone who wants FINDING CHURCH in French, they can find it here. It is only €4,50 for a copy. (They also have He Loves Me as Il M’aime! and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore as Alors tu ne veux plus aller à l’église?)
It is also available in German, Dutch, and Spanish as Encontrando a la Iglesia in free PDF Download. You can find links to all our international translations here.
In addition to the original book in English, it is also available by audio through Audibles and iTunes. Also, there are a number of us doing a study through Finding Church, just about to start Chapter 15 at the Lifestream Discussion Forum. You can join us where we are or start back at the beginning.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book:
The church of the new creation is more like wildflowers strewn across an alpine meadow than a walled garden with manicured hedges. I realize such a seemingly amorphous view of the church will make many nervous, especially those who think it their God-given duty to manage a group of people on his behalf or else the church can’t exist. But it can. And I’m not advocating for the isolated, everyone-is-a-church-to-themselves idea. The church takes her expression in relationships we have with others who are also following him—local friendships as well as international connections that he knits together.
I’m glad you’re not only promoting the foreign translations of your books, but also honoring the translator. As someone who’s translated dozens of Christian books, mostly free of charge, I know this is almost unheard of. God bless you. (Actually, I translated your book into German.)
Translators are awesome people. I hope you got paid for yours, Hannelore. Either way, I’m really grateful that people take the time and energy to make these books available for others who can’t read English…. I’m sorry that I can’t read the fruits of your work, or Silvio’s, but I hear responses from people who are getting the message.
Here is an idea. It would be really nice for translators to get some feedback on how their work has touched the lives of people. That NEVER happens. We don’t know if anyone ever reads our output. How about forwarding some responses where appropriate?