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Access to grace-centered resources for the world's house churches.

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Supporting the spiritual and emotional health of house church leaders.

The challenge
Too many house churches around the world have difficulty accessing grace-centered, biblical resources for leaders.

When communities aren’t anchored in truth and grace, people suffer and God’s reputation is harmed.
The vision
We serve followers of Jesus around the world by improving access to outstanding biblical resources.

When leadership is rooted in truth and grace, their communities better reflect the goodness and beauty of God.
SlovaNova's mission:

To make biblical resources accessible to house churches around the world.

Unpacking our mission:
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Biblical Resources

Carefully curating content based on fidelity to scripture, clarity, and relevance to local needs.

  • Fidelity to scripture rooted in careful exegesis and a high view of God’s word, and manifested in grace-centered, balanced teaching.
  • Content that demonstrates excellence in communication through clear, organized flow of thought.
  • Subject matter relevant to specific, known equipping needs in house church communities, such as leadership training, discipleship tools, teaching outlines of books of the Bible, and basic theology.
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Accessible

Contextualizing and professionally translating resources, and making them easy to find.

  • Context: Editing content for cultural appropriateness with input from local Christian leadership.
  • Language: Hiring talented Christian translators and developing a workflow with quality control measures to ensure accuracy.
  • Cognitive Style: Using media that are responsive to cultural learning styles, such as audio content for oral cultures.
  • Delivery Platforms: Creating systems for digital and physical distribution with exceptional user experience design.
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To House Churches

Partnering with global house church communities to support the spiritual and emotional health of leaders.

  • Resource-poor areas: People groups that lack access to quality biblical resources.
  • Partner-driven: Communities with personal connections to SlovaNova, where we have a better understanding of local needs.
  • House churches: Those leading and discipling in informal small-group contexts.

Slova Board

Bill Barson Headshot
Bill Barson
Board Chair
Bill Barson served in Cambodia with his wife Amy from 2013 - 2022, where he mentored Cambodians, helped plant churches, and directed an NGO that provides funding for medical care, community development, and school scholarships.  Bill is fluent in Khmer and has a decade of experience as an IT professional.
Terri DiPietro headshot
Terri DiPietro
Secretary & Treasurer
Terri served in Haiti for four years and continues to provide logistics support and interpreter services for short-term trips. She is a translator and interpreter of Haitian Creole and French, and has contributed work to missions organizations such as Wycliffe Associates. Terri is a graduate of Northwestern University's School of Music and is currently involved in a house church in Ohio.
Photo withheld for security
Ryan Wilson*
Board Member
Ryan Wilson spent 18 years in Russia planting churches and training leaders, and served in a regional missions leadership role for 12 years. He and and his wife currently live in Eastern Europe and mentor Russian-speaking students from Central Asia, with the goal of developing indigenously-led, multiplying house churches in hard to reach places. Ryan has created and collected Russian-language discipleship materials for 15+ years.
*Name changed and photo withheld for security reasons.
Joe Schweitzer
Joe Schweitzer
Board Member
Joe Schweitzer has been involved in mobilizing prayer for global missions for over 20 years. He currently is a member of the global Ethne Network and the 24:14 coalition. Joe has a post-career role with One Way Ministries, serving as Manager of Prayercast. Joe has 30 years of experience in software delivery and holds a BSBA from Bowling Green State University.

Slova Team & Advisors

Ethan Nielsen headshot
Ethan Nielsen
Fractional Director
Ethan Nielsen has 15 years of experience in content curation, copywriting, and web design. He’s provided contract support to BibleProject and currently works fractionally for John Mark Comer's ministry Practicing the Way, which provides free spiritual formation resources to 8,000+ churches around the world.  Ethan spent two years in Moldova as a teenager and speaks a bit of Russian. He has two decades of experience serving in the house church context.
Jesse Butcher
Jesse Butcher
Technology Advisor
Jesse has 12 years of experience in information technology and is currently Principal DevOps Engineer for Veeva.  His role includes systems architecture, code ownership, and Kubernetes administration and application design.  He serves as a team mentor and provides cross-team consultation and code review. Jesse grew up in a family deeply invested in missions and has partnered financially with missions teams for years.
Marjie Benadum headshot
Marjie Benadum
Founding Board Member
Cambodia Localization Advisor
Marjie Benadum has served in Cambodia since 2002 alongside her husband Dr. Tim Benadum, the Executive Director of Mercy Medical Center (MMC) south of Phnom Penh. Marjie is fluent in Khmer and has decades of experience developing leaders and training Cambodian nationals. She also creates curriculum and teaches cross-cultural studies for prospective missionaries.
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Marie Claude Bastres
Founding Board Member
Spanish Localization Advisor
Marie Claude has led house churches in Chile for 30 years, and currently provides teaching and pastoral care to informal gatherings of Christians across the country. She has been translating bible teachings into Spanish since 1994. Marie Claude and her ministry partners in Latin America share a passion for helping new followers of Jesus gain freedom from syncretism and legalism.

Frequently asked questions

What is SlovaNova's vision?
Our vision is to see the world filled with spiritually and emotionally healthy house church leaders. We believe healthy leadership leads to healthy communities that reflect the goodness and beauty of God.

We pursue this vision by improving access to grace-centered biblical resources. We're focused on three core efforts: (1) carefully curated resources, (2) accurate, contextualized translations, and (3) well-designed digital platforms for resource distribution.
Don't most places already have biblical resources?
Many indigenous and expatriate leaders report that grace-centered, biblically sound resources are difficult to find in certain parts of the world,  either because the translations don't exist, the content is not professionally translated, or because the resources are difficult to access.

Our goal is to provide resources specifically geared to the training needs of house church workers. We differ from many same-space organizations in that SlovaNova is partner-driven in our content curation and translation process. We work closely with local leadership to address specific training gaps and to contextualize resources.
What do you mean by "carefully curated"?
First, we mean high fidelity to scripture. We are focused on using resources by authors and teachers who hold a high view of scriptural authority and demonstrate careful exegesis in their interpretation.

Secondly, we curate based on excellence in communication. We look for resources that demonstrate clear, organized structure and creative, thoughtful application.

We are also prioritizing materials produced by those who have successfully led house churches and discipled others. We look for content creators who speak from experience and demonstrate a lifestyle of keeping in step with the Spirit.

Resourcing needs vary by culture and by region, but in general we are focused on tools that help with practical leadership issues, discipleship, and basic doctrine. Examples of work that has been translated so far include a five-week house-church leadership workshop by Gary DeLashmutt, and teaching outlines from the book of Ephesians. 
Who are these resources for?
We are currently targeting the needs of house churches in French-speaking parts of West Africa, Russian-speaking areas in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Cambodia (Khmer), and parts of Latin America (Spanish). These locations have been selected based on personal connections to house churches. SlovaNova's vision is to work in partnership with known communities on the ground as much as possible.

Longer term we plan to branch out into additional languages. Our vision is that leaders in house church movements around the world would come to view SlovaNova as a reliable, respected source for biblical training.
What types of resources are you translating, and where are you getting them?
We have permission from several respected Christian leaders to freely use their teachings and papers. We are currently focused on using materials produced by leaders in our local church community, which is comprised of hundreds of house churches, but we plan to expand beyond our local church.

We have been given permission to use these resources based on the understanding that the content will not be substantively changed (other than to remove or modify culture-specific language) and that we will always make these resources available free of charge.

Given that edits are typically needed, we give source authors the option of reviewing and approve our changes prior to making them public. Once online, we credit the authors and link back to original sources when applicable.

We also plan to curate and edit resources available in the public domain.
Are Western teachings applicable in other contexts?
Not all teachings or training materials will work in other contexts, but indigenous leaders report that teachings from Western sources are often highly valuable in their ministry. They see a need for contextualization and quality translation of the texts, but otherwise highly value Western content when it is biblical and responsive to local needs.

Slova is working with indigenous partners to determine areas of need as we make decisions about what to translate. We are also working with indigenous leaders as translation partners to help with cultural contextualization.

Slova does not intend to exclusively draw on American or Western sources. However, the resources we currently have available (and have permission to use) are from a Western context.
How will you get resources to house church leaders?
Our goal is to have a basic fully multilingual resource site up by 2024 at slovanova.org. By "fully multilingual", we mean that the entire site navigation will be available in other languages, not just the resources. Although we will happily share our resources with other sites as copyright allows, we see a need for creating a new, a well-designed, multilingual resource site as a hub for content that SlovaNova curates and translates.

Beyond 2024, we have plans to broaden distribution mechanisms, depending on local needs. For example, print materials may work better in areas with limited internet access, or flash drives may be more secure in countries that limit internet freedom.
Where did the name "SlovaNova" come from?
"Slova" is Russian for "Word", and "Nova" is a latin root for "New". When SlovaNova was originally conceived, we had ties to the Russian-speaking world, and it shows up in our name.

We also like the the name's connection to supernovas – explosions of stars with corresponding dramatic increases in light. We hope that SlovaNova becomes synonymous with expanding the light and beauty of God's truth into communities of Jesus followers around the world.
How can I support this work?
We have two funding goals that we need help with, and we've started regular prayer gatherings.

If you haven't already, sign up for our updates to hear the latest news and opportunities to be involved!
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Learn more about SlovaNova

Vision Brochure (PDF)
Slova Goals (PDF)
SlovaNova is a community of people who care about international missions. Interested in being part of it? We'd love to connect with you.

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