Who Makes These Decisions Anyway?

After an awkward meeting and several missed rides, the lead pastor decides to cancel the minibus service bringing refugees to the church. Looking at the budget, and scanning the room Sunday after Sunday, the head of migrant ministry chooses to switch from human interpreters to machines. With three proposals on the table and no clear sense of a difference, the church treasurer decides to go with the cheapest interpreting provider.

Time after time, church leaders make decisions about the language support they will provide. Most of the time, there are good reasons for these decisions: lack of staff time, a perception of wasted resources, other priorities, or not seeing a return. Other times, the opposite is true. A vision prompts a strategy, which prompts extra spending on a translated website, interpreting equipment, and the roll-out of new training. Decisions are made, directions are chosen. But who is making these decisions and are they done with people at the centre?