"I have made your name known...." CK lifted up this verse in her commentary on Monday's blog. It reminded me of a gracious sermon I heard from Rev. Jose Malayang, former Executive Minister for Local Church Ministries, in which he sang to us about sharing God's word in accents that all people can understand.
"O let me hear you speaking in accents clear and still... "
-- New Century Hymnal #493 "O Jesus, I have promised"
As a denomination, we are (as Jeremiah Wright pointed out to the National Press Club) predominantly white, European, but also multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-lingual congregation. We have over the course of our history learned to share the gospel in ways that all people can understand. For example, the language of worship has been evolving. At one time we read scripture from the Geneva Bible or the Authorized (King James) Version; when better, more understandable translations became available we read from the Revised Standard Version and now the New Revised Standard Version. We no longer pray in the patriarchal accents of our grandparents, personifying God as "Him" with a capital H, and all people as "mankind."
Joe Malayang, in that sermon I heard about five years ago, spoke of the need to understand the language and the culture of the people we seek to reach. If we are to share the love of God, which is our congregation's mission, we have to learn to speak the love of God in accents that all may understand.
Now, the people in the pews may understand our current language of worship just fine. But what about outreach? Would someone who has never sung from a hymnal, or read aloud from a worship bulletin, stay long enough to hear the good news? Would they come again, to receive the love we have to share?
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