Bob Creson says, “When my wife, Dallas, and I started with Wycliffe 26 years ago, we signed up for Bible translation because of the impact of God’s Word in our own lives. There were people in the world who couldn’t understand the Bible and they had a right to have access to it. At the point in our career, it was about access and understanding. Today we understand things at a deeper level. There is a ‘mystery’ in how language and culture interrelate and work in the heart of men, women and children. When someone speaks your language, they identify with you, affirm the essence of who you are. Alternatively, if they speak in some other language, they remain foreign and distant. So when God expresses himself in everyday language, in the language you speak, he becomes a part of your culture…he is no longer a foreign God.” This is the privilege we have in Wycliffe: introducing people to a God who not only speaks their language but He knows them intimately…to the very depth of who they are…and he wants a relationship with them.
Bob Creson was appointed president of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA in May of 2003. Since first joining the international work of Wycliffe in 1983, he has served in a variety of positions including leadership roles in Wycliffe Bible Translators International and SIL International, Wycliffe’s primary partner organization headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Creson served as the field director in Cameroon and Chad, West Africa, International Field Director for SIL International, International Vice President for Personnel, and as member of the Board of Directors of SIL. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Wycliffe Bible Translators International.
Along with a team of people, Creson oversees the work of Wycliffe USA’s Last Languages Campaign, an historic full-sprint effort to provide resources (prayer, people and finances) to see Bible translation programs started in the remaining one-third of the world’s language groups that need one by 2025. The Last Languages Campaign strives to bring first-time access to the Bible, education, literacy, and life-saving health information to some 200 million people in the remaining 2,400 (approx.) language groups.
Creson serves as chairman of the board for Crisis Consulting International. CCI serves the missions community worldwide assessing risk and working to reduce it for missionaries. He also chairs the Forum of Bible Agencies-North America, an association of organizations committed to promoting the love of, and use, of Scriptures.
Creson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Pepperdine University and pursued graduate studies in business management at California Lutheran College, and graduate studies in linguistics at the University of Oklahoma (Norman) and at the University of Texas at Arlington.
He has been married to his wife, Dallas, since 1973, and they have four adult children: Emily (married to Paul), Scott (married to Sarah), Jeff (married to Katrina), and Tim.