wfn.org | Editorial: A mission for Taiwanese churches

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3044 Edition

>June 28~July 4, 2010

>Editorial: A mission for Taiwanese churches

>Translated by Lydia Ma

Latin was used in Europe during the Middle Ages whenever people  discussed 
philosophy or

attended church services. It seemed people who didn’t  understand Latin then 
couldn’t learn or

engage with others about theology and spirituality.

Despite this phenomenon, many women used their native language to  write about 
their unique

spiritual experiences and their testimonies written in their own  mother 
languages were always

>filled with energy and life.

During the Christian Reformation, Martin Luther translated the  Bible into his 
mother tongue so

that people could read God’s life-giving words. His  translation of the German 
Bible later

became an important milestone in the standardization of the German  language.

When missionaries first came to Taiwan about 145 years ago, they  used Taiwan’s 
common

language at the time – Taiwanese – to explain the gospel and  later translated 
the Bible into

Romanized Taiwanese. Since then, the PCT has grown used to using  Taiwanese to 
share the

>gospel and discuss theology.

As result, Taiwanese hymnals and Bibles have not only fostered a  special 
spiritual

environment in Taiwan, but have also played important roles in the  spiritual 
formation of

>Taiwanese people for generations.

To facilitate communication between people in this age of  multiculturalism, 
mother tongues

have slowly been abandoned in Taiwan in favor of a common  language. This trend 
inevitably

threatens the survival of mother tongues and many of them are now  on the verge 
of extinction in Taiwan.

What we must note is that the extinction of a language isn’t  merely about the 
disappearance of

a way of expression – their disappearance also threatens our  unique spiritual 
formation and

our sense of identity. To protect these, we must protect and pass  on our 
mother languages to

>future generations.

Churches should become shelters that protect mother languages  against the 
storms of

globalization and Sinicization as Christians wait for God’s  appointed time.

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