A major part of tribal church planting is language learning. But even this is a misnomer. Language and culture are inextricably connected. Language is the way one’s culture is expressed, and we need to get to the depths of understanding of a people to communicate to them their need for a Savior and Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. This cannot be done in English or in a trade language of a people. This must be done in the heart language.
But we must also know them. We must know their fears and struggles, and be able to think like them. This adds another dimension to culture and language: relationships. One cannot have just one or two of language, culture, and relationships to be able to communicate at a deep level; all three are dire to church planting. I am more convinced now than I was in the past that this is where we have been failing for so long in the western church. We keep people at arms length, share Christ, and hope another Acts 2 to miraculously happen. Sometimes the Lord allows this, but mostly, the words of Jesus are merely a faint echo in our minds: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Relationships are at the center of evangelism, for the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love other people.
A few weeks ago we had a seminar on worldview, and there is a need to communicate to their worldview. But we must learn what this worldview is. We cannot assume what their worldview is like from observing their daily habits. Naturally, we begin there. When church planters move into a tribal village, they begin earning people’s trust, learning common greetings and speak in the trade language. But very quickly, church planters learn the language, starting with basic nouns and objects, and carefully move towards learning concepts. Starting with comprehension only, one learns the language by being in real situations, associating words with concepts. In addition, hiring a language helper from among the people to do formal sessions of language learning. Using real objects or pictures of objects and actions, the church planter points to objects, and listens to what they are. When these have been mastered, then the church planter asks the language helper to say the words or phrases for one of the objects, and then the church planter will (hopefully) point to the correct object or picture. This is called total physical response. We associate the object, action, or concept with the word or phrase and not a tribal word with an English word.
When in school, I took German and had endless hours of flashcards: das Buch = book, der Hund = dog, das Auto = car, etc. This actually hinders real communication because I thought of a concept in English, converted it to German, and then spoke. The total physical response method works far better because we skip this “conversion” step in the middle, and when we see an object or think of a concept, we automatically come up with the phrase or word. When we have mastered a language, we think “in” the language.
A lot of extemporaneous speaking is also important as the church planter begins to communicate. There will be mistakes, but this is also better than memorizing long phrases that may or may not fit in a situation. When in Germany last year, having not taken German in many years, I needed to change my money over to Euros. I had fiddled in my mind to come up with “I have American money, but I need Euros” in German with a thick American accent. I asked a bank employee, and I could not understand a single thing she said in response, but she kindly pointed to a stairwell where I go to the appropriate office. Memorized phrases will not cut it; the church planter needs to be able to start speaking spontaneously, making mistakes, and learning from them.
It is a long and arduous task, but if done correctly and with the extremely awesome grace from God, the church planter will earn the trust of the tribal people, master the language, and understand the heart of the people. Only then the church planter will be able to communicate at the deep level necessary for the Gospel to take deep root within them.
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