April FB Topic – Singing in different Languages

During the month of April, our Facebook discussion centered around the topic of singing in different languages.  We had insightful discussion around two specific questions.  You can see the full discussion on the network Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/115159921876519/

Here are a few insights that our community shared.

Question #1

How has singing in different languages challenged you as a worship leader – what have you learned?

The part that is difficult for me is that I tend to be a little more of a perfectionist and never want to mangle someone else’s language. I try to carefully listen because there can be such subtle differences in the dialect…and i want to say it right!

I love the idea of asking and finding the different cultures/nationalities/ethnic groups represented in the congregation. I think this goes back to being intentional about seeing others.

“…repeat repeat repeat in redundant redundancy the songs that you sing in non-English so that it can start to get into the DNA of the whole community.”

I led worship at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for two years as a chapel worship leader and in those two years, I had several chances to design worship with different languages. During Rev. 7 week, I designed and led worship for the “Asian Heritage” chapel day. I introduced a Korean blessing songs, had Chinese student read the scripture in Chinese, Indian pray before the sermon in Hindi, and Filipino give the benediction in Tagalog. I still remember that worship vividly. I learned from that worship, once again, that our God is a God of all nations and all languages.

Within the last couple of years, we started doing a benediction that consisted of lay people telling the congregation about their country, how we can pray for them and have them speak a blessing in their language as a dismissal. 

“HIGHLIGHTED AH-HA!”

We make the Spanish lyrics available on the screen, and all worship leaders sing in Spanish (awkward or not, Praise God!) as that is what we are called to do…lead others in worship, not lead others in worship in one language.