I once heard someone compare pastoring to building a plane in mid-air while flying it. That sounds about right. Now imagine the instruction manual is in multiple languages, the passengers don’t understand one another, and the pilots were all trained in different countries. This is what immigrant church pastors are facing. Amid all the difficulties of preaching, pastoral care, and other ministry concerns, immigrant churches deal with the added challenge of operating in multiple cultures and languages.
Immigrant churches often confront this challenge by establishing multiple services in multiple languages. Here’s how the process goes: the immigrant church starts by providing an English translation for the few English-speaking visitors and children. As that group grows, they form their own Bible studies and fellowship groups. Eventually, they become large enough to form a separate, English-language service. In many immigrant churches, there are two or more congregations worshiping separately but sharing resources, including a budget, facilities, and pastoral staff.
Multiple services remove the inconvenience of translation, but they raise all kinds of new challenges. After all, these immigrant churches see themselves as one church. But how can they be one church and yet rarely gather for worship? How can English-speaking elders shepherd
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