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It was supposed to work perfectly. The small church was experiencing a near 25% increase in attendance, as migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo started to attend. The church had a recently qualified English to French interpreter available and the church happened to have a very similar, charismatic theology to the churches the migrants came from. It should have been perfect. It wasn't. Less than two months after the migrants arrived, they left, never to be seen again.
That's a story that repeats in many different churches. People arrive with little English. The church provides interpreting (or translation or English classes) or a special service. Yet not long after, the visitors leave, the classes stop and the services are empty. Worse still, on some occasions, services in other languages can lead to acrimonious church splits, hurt feelings, and a worse division between Christians with different languages than there was before.
As a consultant church interpreter, I know those stories well. As a researcher, I have read far too many of them. Despite churches' best efforts, it seems that maintaining ministry in several languages is impossible. It turns out that it isn't impossible, it just requires an ingredient that we tend to miss.
The vast majority of churches who look at serving speakers of other languages in their community start with programs. Shall they start a migrant ministry? Shall they create English classes? Shall they offer new services?
Research from around the world and hard-earned practical experience has shown that those are not the first or even the most important questions. The first question any church needs to answer, when it comes to multilingual church, is this: Are we ready to pay the price to be fully multilingual?
The truth is that becoming multilingual isn't about programs, or ministries, or even resources. It's about the heart of the church and its willingness to be changed.
Pastor Mario Wahnschaffe leads an international church in Bonn, Germany. When I interviewed him as part of my PhD, he told me:
We have left behind the paradigm of being here to help the poor internationals. … Instead, we tell them they are needed as only they can fulfil the international vision.
In practice, this means that being multilingual can no longer be about the programs we offer these poor people, until they can learn to speak our language. It has to lead to a complete change in the vision and values of the church.
In his book, Building an International Church, Pastor Wahnschaffe explains that an important part of this change is removing what he calls "spiritual unemployment." This happens when people who were using their gifts in their home countries now cannot after they move, due to language differences. He points out that it is the job of the church to help everyone become who God has called them to be, rather than allowing language to be a barrier.
Another important change for any multilingual church is learning to deal with intercultural conflict. Doing this well often leads to changes in what the church believes and how it practices those beliefs. For Pastor Wahnschaffe, one conflict over the use of Chinese Traditional Medicine was only resolved when he got people in the church to sit down, listen to each other, and use biblical principles to find a resolution.
Sadly, this isn't always what happens. Robert G. Perez, a pastor of a bilingual congregation in Santa Paula, California, found that his attempts to build trust between the leaders of the English- and Spanish-speaking congregations did not go as planned. Differences in end goals, philosophy of leadership, and perhaps concerns about the possible impositions of changes, meant that they failed to build deep trust between the two sets of leaders.
The reality is that no church can effectively reach, teach, and disciple their multilingual communities and expect to stay the same. Being prepared to learn new leadership approaches, proactively seeking to help people use their gifts, challenging assumptions, and even changing which languages are heard in Sunday services, Bible studies, and church outreaches will make a much bigger difference.
 | Jonathan Downie is a consultant church interpreter, helping churches to become multilingual. He is the author of Multilingual Church: Strategies for making disciples in all languages (William Carey Publishing, 2024), the co-host of The Church Interpreting Podcast with Lauryn Albizu and the editor of ChurchInterpreting.com. Learn More » |
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