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Stephen: In the 19th century, missionary Adoniram Judson and his wife Anne, against the advice of nearly every westerner in the region, sailed for Burma (now Myanmar), an island nation which was then almost completely untouched by the gospel and had a reputation for persecuting Christians. While the situation was dangerous, they had an even larger problem. Neither of them knew a word of Burmese. Today, it's simple enough to download a translator app. But at that time, there wasn't even an English-to-Burmese dictionary. So, the Judsons set out to learn the language, spending 12 hours each day learning how to converse with the Burmese people.
Anyone who's read the Judson's story knows Adoniram’s ministry was filled with incredible acts of providence. But it's safe to say that few of us, missionaries included, dream of spending years of preparation learning a new language. It can be backbreaking, monotonous, and humbling work. The prospect of that work can be even more frustrating today. Technology has dramatically changed communication since the 19th century, and even popular missions organizations describe language learning as “a waste of time.”
So, Brooks, our question today is one we talk a lot about at Missionary. We want to know, do you need to learn the language?
Brooks: This is such a good question. And the reason it's a good question is because you don't want to waste your time doing something that you don't have to do. And so, the question of whether or not to learn a language really comes down to: Well, it depends what you're going to do in missions.
In a previous episode, we talked about the lanes of missions: training national pastors, English-speaking churches and strategic cities, majority languages, national languages of the world, and then minority languages. So, if you're doing lane one or two where you're training national pastors, most of the time you have seminary professors, pastors from American churches, Spanish churches, Portuguese churches. They go to places and they train over the summer and they do different things, but they don't learn the languages of the people that they're working with. They use an interpreter and that's a viable method for that type of ministry, where it's more short-term in nature.
If you're an English-speaking pastor in a foreign city, obviously if you already know the language of English, you don't have to learn another language. So, I would say for those two lanes of missions, it's not necessary. It's helpful if English-speaking pastors in foreign countries learn the languages of the people of that country, but it's not a must because they're pastoring in English.
Now, you kind of cross the Rubicon, so to speak, when you leave those two lanes and you start to get into lane three and lane four in missions, where you do need to learn at least one language. If you're going to lane three, most often in lane four, going to minority languages, you're going to have to learn two languages. You're going to have to learn the language of the country, the majority language, and you're going to have to learn that language of the unreached language group. And so, this is, in my opinion, and I think the vast majority of missionaries overseas, this is the hardest job in missions: to be able to get truly fluent. Not to get “market fluent" where you can have a conversation at a coffee shop about the weather and about general events, but to be able to speak about abstract concepts, to be able to teach Romans 6, 7, and 8. To be able to handle question and answer off the cuff from a speaker of another language. That's worldview level fluency. To get to that level of fluency, that's a huge challenge. Missionaries the world over — Adoniram Judson, John G. Paton, Hudson Taylor — they all saw this. Adoniram Judson would talk about it as “the key that will open the door to the gospel.” He would talk about someday this door is going to open. The key is going to slide back the bolt and the door is going to be open and the gospel will go forth in Burma because of his language ability. But until that day, I pressed on, I got more and more time in the language. He would speak about it in those terms.
Paul Schehlein’s small, little biography of John G. Paton and the way that they viewed language; no missionary can be of good service to the people until he is fluent in the language. 1 Corinthians 14 verses 7 and following kind of speaks to this. Paul's talking about why tongues are known languages. But then he uses an illustration from the language world so that he pounds this point home. Listen to what he says. He says this:
If even lifeless instruments such as flute or harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if you and your tongue, you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? for you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
And here's the kicker. If you're a foreigner to the people that you're trying to present the gospel to, the God you represent will also be a foreign god. He'll always be "the god of the Americans" or the Germans or whatever your nationality is. He'll be "those people's god," but he'll never be their god because you're a foreigner. You're an outsider. Until someone becomes fluent in a language, remember, this is a key point, whatever level of language you step into ministry at, that's typically the language level that you're frozen at in ministry. You have silos of knowledge when it comes to certain biblical terminology, but your general knowledge of the language does not expand as soon as you step into ministry.That's why to get truly fluent before you bring the message. Paul will talk about this in Colossians 4:4, "I pray that the Lord would give meclarity so that I can declare the mystery of Christ." If Paul's asking for clarity in a language that he knows, how much more the foreign missionary who is going to languages that still have yet to hear the gospel, that still have yet to have a church among them.
This need for us to go quickly to spread the gospel as fast as possible has really kneecapped clarity of the gospel in these languages. One of the things that really disturbs me is that there's a rise overseas in what we call syncretism, the mixture of two worldviews. You have the original worldview of the people that you're going to reach, and then you have a form of Christianity that is kind of pasted on top of their worldview. You don't get the original pushed out. You just get addition. And most of the time, when you get this type of syncretism, this mixing of worldviews to where people attend church on Sunday, but if their child gets sick on Monday they go to the witch doctor. Where did this come from? Well, the missionaries went too fast. They didn't know the language and the culture of the people they were speaking to at a high level before they brought the gospel. So, Christ was added on as one of many deities rather than the God who is over heaven and earth. This is the brutal reality when missionaries go too fast and they don't learn the language and culture of their people to a high level.
So, whether or not you need to learn a language depends on what lane of missions you are going into. Obviously, if you're going on a short-term trip, you're going to do some great humanitarian work, drill wells, help with human trafficking, help with businesses, microloans, whatever. For those types of things, you're not going to need the language. If you're in lanes one and two, you're not going to need the language near as much. But in lane three, you need to get well-versed. You need to get to be a worldview level speaker. And then in lane four, it's so much more so.
When we moved into yembiyembi, it took us about two years to learn their language to full fluency. And I'll never forget when I was finally truly worldview fluent and we went to some of our neighboring villages. They hadn't seen the two years that I had put in to learn the language. And people are just coming out of their skin. How does this 6'3” white guy know our language? How does he speak? And he knows our jokes and he knows how to tell jokes and and he knows how to communicate. He knows the different genres in which we speak in. And he has our mannerisms, he has our accent. That, my friends, is worldview fluency. That's something that, on the back of that you bring the gospel. Now you've got something that truly can penetrate someone's worldview and to cause them to question.
Only the Spirit will bring about true conversion, will bring about a change in life from darkness to light. But if someone's got linguistic ability, if someone's got the language down, the communication of the truth, they've got the vehicle to bring that truth and to bring it directly into confrontation with the existing worldview that these people have been held in darkness by, many times for generations.
Stephen: If you're considering a call to the mission field and want to know more about language learning, visit us at missionary.com. You can also find videos and other resources on the necessity and benefit of language learning before going to the field. If you have a question you would like to hear answered on Ask Missionary, get in touch with us on social media or drop a note in the comment section. Or you can contact us through missionary.com and your question may be featured on this show. And don't forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when our next episode, “Does Theology Matter on the Mission Field,” airs next week.
Thanks for listening.