“Communication is so important within the church and within society.”

There’s a lot that goes into communicating in a second language. In this final session, Professor Van Engen details a few ways that speaking in a second language is more difficult than we might think, and encourages us to lean on grace, humility, and understanding when trying to communicate across languages, especially in the Church.

Main Points

• The Bible has a lot to say about welcoming the stranger, and one marker of being a stranger is having a foreign accent.
• Speakers of a second language carry the rules of their first language with them, often without knowing it.
• It takes an extra amount of effort to communicate in and understand someone speaking in a second language.
• Christians should bring grace and patience to situations with non-native language speakers. Both parties need to work together to make communication successful.

Content questions

• How does your church/community interact with people who speak another language?
• How could understanding the struggles of speaking a second language help us welcome the stranger as the Bible calls us to do?
• What ways could you and your community go out of the way to welcome those who may not be native speakers of your language?
• Do you usually interpret a foreign accent as a sign of strength? How might that change how you see others?

Application Questions

• As this course comes to an end, consider the holistic language environment in your Christian community: how languages vary within themselves, what dialects and accents are spoken, the treatment of those who speak other languages, etc. How can you and those in your community take the lessons of Professor Van Engen and lead others to reflect the realities of language and the way God reveals his love of language in scripture and creation?
• Think about what steps your church can take to welcome the stranger through language. Would adding a service in another language help people access your church? What about having interpretation options in the main service? Does everyone who leads your services from week to week speak the same language/dialect/accent? Could that be making it harder for people to participate in worship? If applicable, decide on a next step to explore for your community to help create a more welcoming linguistic environment.