TRADE LANGUAGE OR LOCAL LANGUAGE?
STATEMENT
Effectively communicating the gospel and, ultimately, the whole counsel of God should be the goal of every missionary. This governs whether a mother tongue or trade language should be acquired or used according to the linguistic needs and abilities of the focus population. In a healthy gospel ecosystem, many missionaries must continue to learn local languages effectively, despite the difficulty, alongside other missionaries who serve in trade languages.
Article Written by A.W. WorkmanWhen I was a child growing up in Papua New Guinea, my family lived for one year in village housing that belonged to another mission agency. Overall, it was a good arrangement. The missionary house would have otherwise sat empty while the family it belonged to was on furlough. While ensuring the mission property was taken care of, my family could also live much closer to where they were building another house and doing ministry.
However, different strategies regarding the use of language quickly introduced complications. In a country with over 800 tribal languages, this partner agency was committed to a tribal language-only policy of evangelism and church planting. In contrast, my parents' agency encouraged their missionaries to engage primarily in trade-language ministry. As a result, my parents were told they would not be allowed to do any ministry in the unreached animistic village where they would spend an entire year.
When a man in the village started showing strong interest in the gospel and eventually came to faith, my parents requested permission to bring him to trade language Bible studies and church services elsewhere. This new believer, naturally, ended up sharing his faith with others in his village, and once the resident missionaries returned, they discovered the beginnings of a small church plant. Going against their agency's philosophy of ministry, they requested an exception to share the gospel and do discipleship in the trade language long before they had reached the tribal language level customarily required. Happily, the exception was approved, and the church plant flourished.
Twenty-five years later, I faced a similar situation as an adult missionary in Central Asia. Our supervisors told my team not to share the gospel in English because doing so would mean we'd never effectively learn how to do so in the local language. However, we were English teachers, and many of our students were advanced English speakers. We regularly saw opportunities to share the gospel in English, even while we studied hard to learn the local language. Ultimately, we did not abide by this policy but chose against what our leadership had told us to do. Our decision led to several of our English students coming to faith, contributing to us eventually becoming advanced speakers of the local language and planting a local language church.
In these situations, the parties involved could mostly navigate the tensions and remain friends and partners, but this is not always true. Missionaries and mission agencies often have strong convictions about which language to use in cross-cultural ministry, leading to tensions and conflict on the field. These matters are serious.
Due to the difficulty of language learning, very few missionaries learn local languages effectively. This can be costly, for instance, when missionaries pastor churches without understanding the needs of their flock due to a language barrier. Even when everyone agrees on the importance of language learning, many questions come up. Is English language or trade language ministry valid? Must missionaries learn the mother tongue of their focus people group to do faithful missions? Will missionaries fail to learn the language they need to if they are allowed to use English or trade languages? Will the locals misunderstand spiritual truth if they don't hear it in their heart language?
Those involved in these conflicts should remember the governing principle of effective communication. The goal is never to learn or use a language for its own sake but to learn or use whichever language leads to a clear understanding of God's truth on the hearers' part. When this principle is not in view, conflict ensues and missionaries lose vital flexibility in doing faithful ministry, no matter their approach to language. Add to this the sheer difficulty of language learning, and it becomes clear that missionaries and those who send them need to know how to think about the issue of language learning with clarity.
Definitions
Clarity starts with good definitions. When we say the goal of language learning is effective communication, we mean a hearer clearly understands the concepts presented without difficulty. When we speak of a mother tongue, we mean the primary language spoken in the home where a person grows up and often the one they are most fluent in. A trade language is a language shared among different language groups that gets used in business, education, or government situations. It may be an existing global or regional language or a new language such as a Pidgin or Creole. The term gospel ecosystem simply alludes to the broader ministry environment of a city or area, including missionaries, indigenous churches, international churches, and other kinds of gospel-centered organizations, ministries, and individuals. This ecosystem can vary greatly, from an unreached tribal group context to a global city. Finally, we would define learning language effectively as those levels of language proficiency required by different kinds of ministry. While someone can share a clear gospel presentation with novice or intermediate proficiency, teaching, preaching, and counseling require advanced language levels.
Biblical Backing
What does the Word of God reveal about language and language learning? The Bible never directly commands missionaries to learn language, yet God has always communicated clearly and effectively with his people through language. Furthermore, he commands his people to communicate clearly and effectively with one another and to the world. When we consider the big picture of the Bible, a biblical theology of language emerges based on how God has communicated with us. Vaughan Roberts' 8-part framework from God's Big Picture serves us well in tracing this thread of language as it weaves its way throughout the Scriptures.
Part 1: The Pattern of the Kingdom
In Genesis 1 and 2, God speaks the universe into existence and then speaks with Adam and Eve, giving them clear commands and promises. God then commands Adam to exercise dominion over the earth, using God's clear words to rule over God's world. In addition to what we see in this first stage, our ability to read this and the following stages is because God chose to record his word for us in a human language, in this case, the Hebrew language. This will be God's chosen language of revelation until Part 5.
Part 2: The Perished Kingdom
In Genesis 3, we see that the serpent also uses language to tempt Adam and Eve to doubt God's word. Tragically, they believe the lies and eat from the tree. God's resulting curse on the serpent and his curse on his people were then clearly communicated. They didn't wonder why they began to feel the effects of sin because God clearly told them. In Genesis 11, God confuses humanity’s languages to judge their pride and rebellion. The world's language diversity was, therefore, the result of a curse.
Part 3: The Promised Kingdom
From Genesis 12 to Exodus 2, God speaks to Abraham, a pagan resident of Ur, in a language he can understand. He communicates his promise to bless Abraham, his descendants, and through them, all the nations of the earth. This covenant word then begins its realization through Abraham's descendants—descendants who survive because God speaks to Joseph, and Joseph in turn clearly communicates God's plan of deliverance to God's people.
Part 4: The Partial Kingdom
From Exodus 3 - 2 Chronicles, God's people first receive God's clear and detailed words in the form of the Mosaic Law. Then, as their history progresses, judges, priests, and ultimately kings speak and lead God's people in trusting and obeying God's words.
Part 5: The Prophesied Kingdom
In Ezra–Malachi, God speaks through prophets to communicate the call for repentance and trust to his people (and the nations). Until Part 5, God's revelation was only in Hebrew, the mother tongue of the descendants of Abraham, but now it has expanded to include Aramaic, a regional trade language.
Part 6: The Present Kingdom
In the Gospels, the Word of God is made flesh and dwells with his people. God now speaks to his people through His Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). While his hearers didn't always understand what Jesus meant, they knew the words themselves. In this kingdom stage, God's communication also expanded to Greek, the trade language of the Mediterranean world.
Part 7: The Proclaimed Kingdom
In Acts–Revelation, Jews and Gentiles are now united under the salvation and Lordship of Jesus. Pentecost takes place in Acts 2, and the immediate effect of the Holy Spirit upon believers is clear communication of God’s mighty works in other languages. God calls His new church to live with one another in this new kingdom (Ephesians 2:11-22, Colossians 3:16, etc.).
In the multilingual world of the Roman Empire, this life in the kingdom is not possible (at least not in a robust or multiplying way) without a common language within a given church. Since faith comes from hearing, central to that life together is the verbal proclamation of the gospel to others (Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 10). Christians are to care about what they share and how their sharing is comprehended. In Colossians 4:2-4, Paul asks for prayer that he might have an open door for the word and "make it clear, which is how I ought to speak." Then, in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul argues for speech that builds up the church and commands them to "strive to excel in building up the church" with words and communication that is understandable to the hearers.
In Part 7, God's revelation begins to be heard, understood, and believed, not just in the Greek trade language but also in the other languages of the world (Acts 2).
Part 8: The Perfected Kingdom
In the book of Revelation, we see that God gathers his people from every language to praise Him and enjoy Him forever around his throne. There is audible and understandable worship in "every tongue" of the world. This worship exists into eternity through the means of languages (Revelation 7:9-10, 14:6). The curse of Babel has now turned into eternal praise and glory.
Looking back at the big picture of God's revelation and redemption history, we see that God cares about effective communication. We also see God himself felt free to use mother tongues and trade languages to communicate his truth. Beginning in the exile period and in fullness at Pentecost, we see him supernaturally equipping his people to do the same. And then, in eternity, we see the world's languages redeemed, preserved, and praising the Lamb forever. God clearly gives weight and honor to human language, but he also keeps language in its place as a good and flexible tool.
All this explains why we recommend the governing principle of clear communication of the gospel while also allowing the missionary to prayerfully discern which language or languages will best accomplish this goal.
Implications
What happens when missionaries and those who send them embrace a biblical posture toward language learning that is also wise and charitable?
First, at the level of the heart, the motivation for language learning becomes a desire to be like God in how he has modeled clear communication throughout redemptive history. This replaces inferior motivations for language learning, such as fear of man or an unhealthy fixation on fluency at all costs.
Second, language proficiency becomes less of a tiresome box to check—or, conversely, less of an idol—and placed in its proper place. It becomes a valuable but flexible tool.
Third, this posture gives missionaries more freedom to choose the most effective language for their unique situation. This field-led approach gives missionaries the freedom to do God's work and share in English when helpful yet pushes hard for excellent language ability in a mother tongue or other trade language when required.
What about conflicts over language learning issues? A wise and biblical posture means that missionaries stop fighting over language methodology because they are grounded in principles of language learning that allow for flexibility and complementary language work in an area. Specific areas can become healthy gospel ecosystems in which missionaries and churches with different language strategies are committed to charity and mutual appreciation rather than suspicion or false superiority.
Failure to adopt a wise and charitable biblical posture toward language learning leads to inferior motivations for language learning. Suppose mission agencies don't get this posture right. In that case, missionaries can have their hands tied by agency policies—missiological laws that should belong at the level of recommendations. Such policies lead to conflict, mistrust, and rivalry among missionaries and their organizations, as each one claims to have the superior strategy.
Conclusion
Consider the case of a Muslim in a Middle Eastern city who comes to faith through his friendship with an English-speaking international church member. This new believer may naturally associate the English language with his new faith and associate Arabic, his mother tongue, with the darkness of Islam that he left behind. However, when he begins attending church services in English, this is celebrated by the community of believers in that city, including missionaries trying to plant Arabic-language churches. After all, a new believer is now gathering with the body of Christ and worshiping in a language in which he is proficient. This is a victory.
However, as a healthy international church committed to planting indigenous churches, this church has an Arabic-speaking home group that meets midweek. Over time, as he matures in his faith, the new believer feels comfortable attending the Arabic-speaking home group. He eventually learns to worship God in Arabic and not just in English. Again, he is supported in this by the believing community in the city. Because this new believer sees the leaders around him focused on effective communication rather than a specific language, he learns that he is free to worship and minister to others in any language. This freedom gives birth to a passion for reaching out to other Arabic speakers. After a few years, this believer partners with an Arabic-speaking missionary to plant a new Arabic-language church.
Missionaries and those who send them must focus on wise and charitable use of the biblical principle of clear communication of the gospel and the whole counsel of God. This principle is flexible and enables missionaries to make the best decision for their particular context. Missionaries should make these decisions informed by the particular needs and abilities of the people they desire to reach. Further, training missionaries to value both the need for mother tongue (heart language) ministry and trade language or even English ministry, according to what builds up the church, helps smooth tensions and promote cooperation on the field.
God has modeled how to value and freely utilize human language to communicate the truth effectively. Let us follow him, learning and using language for the sake of gospel clarity.
