Why Is Learning the Local Language So Important for Missions Work?

Why Is Learning the Local Language So Important for Missions Work?

In order to effectively serve, you have to know the language of the people to whom you're preaching. You have to be able to communicate in their language. People, in order to have a church shaped and planted, need the Bible in their language. This is foundational. This is axiomatic.

We can't be sending missionaries and pretending as if they can do the work that's required without learning the language of the people to whom they're going.

Now, even before that, in order to correctly handle the Word of God, they need to know the language of Scripture. The Scriptures were written, by and large, in Hebrew and in Greek. And I think anyone who's handling the Word of God on a regular basis needs to be familiar with those biblical languages.

But when they get out and preach and teach and write, they need to know the languages of the people to whom they're preaching. This is something we see in Chapter One of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It's something that we see throughout the Scriptures. In fact, God orchestrated the beginnings of the church in Jerusalem in such a way that, as it spread, many of these language barriers were eliminated.

Today, when we go to places where we need to speak to people who don't speak our language, we have to learn to be fluent in the language that they themselves can hear the Word of God preached in.