Multi-lingual Worship

January 16, 2020 | Jonathan Ford

I was recently asked by a member of our congregation why we sometimes sing songs in different languages during our Sunday gathers.  It was a great question and it gave me an opportunity to articulate an answer that was helpful to them.  This is not something that we do every week, however in a church that has people from more than 60 nations represented, the languages we have incorporated in worship songs HAVE represented the first language of people in our congregation. (French, Spanish, Korean, Arabic)

I shared this illustration with them:

Imagine you speak Japanese fluently, your job even relocates you to Tokyo where you find a church to attend.  The church worships in Japanese and you are able to join in worshipping with them week after week.  Now image that one week they incorporate a song with English in it… when you are surrounded by all Japanese, that little bit of English in church just resonates with you in a special way that you haven’t experienced in quite a while.  Now go even a step further and imagine that before they sang, they introduced that English to everyone and said that this was especially significant because YOU were a part of their family and they know that English is your heart-language and they wanted to share that with you!

The answer to why we sometimes incorporate other languages in our worship is AFFECTION.  It is because we love the people in our community who choose to worship with us in English every week and claim us as their church family.  Because they are special to us, we love to identify with them and share, even moments, in their heart-language as brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you have a worship song in your first-language that you would like to share with us, please contact Jonathan Ford.  We would love to know what connects with your heart!

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Multi-lingual Worship

January 16, 2020 | Jonathan Ford