How good is your church at listening?

There’s a line in my new book that might come across as a bit rude. It’s not meant to be rude but it is meant to make people think. It goes like this

Assuming that speakers of the locally dominant language are the people best placed to

make decisions about language provision for everyone else seems ironic, if not prideful.[1]

Here’s the point, if we realise that different languages chop up the world in different ways, then we soon realise that people will see the same situations in different ways. This, in turn, tells us that the information we need to make great decisions about multilingual church will not just come from a single group. We need to listen and learn from those who will receive the language provision we are offering.

Some initial questions

Every church is going to find different ways of listening. Yet sometimes, it helps to be persuaded as to why we need to become listening churches. Let’s start with a few simple questions.

1)      Who knows best what ministry is needed for young families: people who are in young families or people who are not?

2)      Does it matter if a singles ministry actually ends up alienating singles, if it seems to focus on pairing people up, rather than valuing who they already are?

3)      Who can explain what it is like to be a disabled member of your church: someone who has no disabilities or someone who has one?