Evangelical organizations including Wycliffe, CT, and Lifeway are giving up their buildings and developing new models for remote work.
Wycliffe Bible Translators’ building is 167,000 square feet of class-A office space, with windows looking out over palm trees, golf course grass, and a shimmering blue lake that appears to be a near-perfect circle. The headquarters is about 10 miles from the Orlando airport in the Lake Nona area, sitting on 272 lush acres that include wetlands filled with Florida wildlife, an RV park, an activity center, a welcome center, corporate-quality lodging, a clinic, and more land that could be developed in the future.
And all of this could be yours.
From John Wycliffe Boulevard to Great Commission Way, the global home base of the 82-year-old Bible translation organization is for sale. The property was listed in mid-February. Its real estate agents called it “an unrivaled opportunity for a full campus user looking for their own headquarters within the metro area.”
Selling all this is a matter of stewardship, according to John Chesnut, Wycliffe’s president and CEO. The ministry doesn’t need the space and wasn’t using it to full capacity.
Chesnut is a little concerned, though, that people will hear that and think Wycliffe is struggling financially or has fallen on hard times, when that isn’t actually the case.
“It’s the strongest we’ve ever been in our history,” he told CT. “It’s just been a huge season of blessing. We’re accelerating new translations, engaging or starting with new partners, faster than we ever have.”
In 2023, Wycliffe greenlit 523 new Bible translation projects, he added. The ministry, which has helped translate more than 700 languages since it was founded in 1942, currently has about 1,700 active projects.
According to Chesnut, the …