How We Got Here

This month I am taking a pause from my newsletter series to take a look back at how we came to have Spanish in our Sunday worship. I’m doing so in the hopes that we can all know why it is there and to discuss openly and candidly what may or may not happen in the future.

First, how it got there. At the November 2014 Council meeting, a request was made. The Council minutes do not record who made the request. The November 2014 Worship and Music Report reads as follows:

“We have had several Spanish speaking families begin attending worship and a request has been brought up to begin incorporating 1-2 verses of the hymns in Spanish to better welcome these families into Amazing Grace’s family.”

This request was approved, and thus began the incorporation of a few verses of Spanish in the hymns. The reasons are clearly stated: it is because we had Spanish speakers begin attending our worship, and we wanted to welcome them. That is still the main reason we have Spanish in our worship. It is to be welcoming, so that our Spanish speaking visitors will feel comfortable and have a good experience and want to become part of Amazing Grace.

The addition of a Spanish language option for the Lord’s Prayer occurred after Pentecost this year. On Pentecost we had readings in many different languages, and everyone was invited to pray the Lord’s Prayer in their native language. Both of these were popular. The readings were not something we could continue, but the Lord’s Prayer seemed like something we could, so the idea was brought forward and approved by the Worship & Music chair. Perhaps it should have gone to the Council, perhaps not; honestly I’m still not sure how these things work around here. The reason for this change was the same as that of including Spanish hymn verses: to help welcome our Spanish speakers and make them feel more comfortable. To date, I have only heard positive comments about this, but if you have a different opinion, I would welcome hearing it.

That is how we got here. Now, where are we going?

First, I will share with you what our Spanish speakers want. They want to be full members in the Amazing Grace family. They feel like this is their church, and they want to participate fully. And they know that, in order to do that, they need to be able to speak decent English. I will repeat that, because it is important: they want to learn English.

Neither Council nor I have even considered asking or making our long time members learn Spanish. It has not even been discussed. Perhaps more importantly, it is not something our Spanish speakers want. They want to become fluent in English. And I think we can all agree that it is important that we help them with that.

This is the other reason why we include Spanish verses of hymns and have the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish: to help our Spanish speakers learn English. Songs are a great way to learn a language, as is repetition, and we say the Lord’s Prayer every week. Again, to be clear: we have not included those elements to teach long time members Spanish. Rather, we have included them so that our Spanish speakers can learn better English.

As far as what will happen, you should know that we have no plans to add more Spanish to our worship. We have a Hispanic Outreach Strategy Team, led by Rudy Beilfuss, that is meeting to listen to our English and Spanish speakers alike and make recommendations to Council about ways we can improve our ministry to those whose primary language is Spanish. That group might propose more Spanish, or less, I honestly don’t know. What I do know is this that the Spanish speakers in our church are a blessing to our congregation and ministry. They want to be part of Amazing Grace, and they want to learn English. All of these changes have been made with that goal in mind. I ask for your participation and your patience as we discern together how God is calling us to do that going forward. Iif you have questions, concerns, or ideas, my door is always open. I’d love to hear from you, and Council would too.

God loves you, and so do I.
-Pastor Scott