When the Congregation Speaks Eleven Languages: Multilingual Worship in Johannesburg Churches

Last Wednesday, in the middle of our Bible study in Parkmore, we paused for the part of the evening where people are free to pray out loud in whatever language they choose. In the space of about four minutes, we heard prayers in eleven languages. English, isiZulu, Afrikaans, seSotho, isiXhosa, Setswana, isiNdebele, Sepedi, Portuguese, Korean, French. Eleven languages. One room. One prayer.

What Multilingual Worship Actually Means

The Visible Layer: What People Hear

A truly multilingual service does something different. The reading is in one language. The sermon is in another. The songs rotate through three or four languages. The prayers are invited in any language.

The Hidden Layer: What People Feel

When a prayer is prayed in isiXhosa in a room of mostly English speakers, and the room holds the silence respectfully, the isiXhosa speaker feels something that no amount of English welcome can replicate. They feel seen.

The Theological Layer: What the Bible Says About It

The Old Testament begins with a story of one language at Babel, then ends with a vision of many languages at the throne. Pentecost reverses Babel.

The Practical Challenges of Multilingual Worship

Translation Time

If the sermon is in English and someone needs it in isiZulu, you need either a translator or a longer sermon.

Song Selection

If you have songs in eleven languages, you cannot sing all eleven every meeting. Pick a rotation. Three languages for songs in any given gathering.

The Power Dynamics of Language

In a multilingual room, one language is usually dominant. In Johannesburg, that language is usually English. A truly multilingual Bible study takes active steps to push back on this.

The Older Generation and the Younger Generation

In many Johannesburg churches, the older generation prefers one or two languages, and the younger generation prefers another. The multilingual solution is to give the grandparents back their language, and to give the grandchildren a window into it.

What We Have Learned From Multilingual Bible Study

The Language People Pray In Is the Language They Were Hurt In

People who were hurt in a particular language sometimes find it easier to pray in a different language. The prayer comes from a different part of them.

Silence Is a Language Too

When we invite people to pray in their own language, we sometimes get silence. The silence is not awkward. Wait through it.

Translation Is an Act of Love

If someone turns to the person next to them and quietly translates the gist of a prayer, that is an act of love.

Multilingual Worship Is Not a Solution to Racism

A church that sings in eleven languages is not automatically a non-racist church. Multilingual worship is a start. It is not the end.

A Practical Multilingual Bible Study Format

A seventy-minute Bible study format that welcomes every language in the room: a five-minute welcome in multiple languages, a five-minute reading in two languages, a forty-five-minute discussion in the working language, a ten-minute prayer time in any language, a five-minute closing blessing.

A Prayer for a Multilingual Church

God of every language — you spoke the world into being in a single Word. You confused the languages at Babel. You reunited them at Pentecost. Forgive us for the times we have made our language a wall. Make us a Bible study community where every language is welcomed. Where every prayer is heard. Where every voice has room.

Johannesburg Bible Study Church meets every Wednesday at 7:30pm for a multilingual online Bible study. Eleven languages and counting. Call +27 77 487 1295 or +27 67 442 4461 to join.