English Is the New Global Lingua Franca, and That Matters for Missions

A Divinely Ordained Tool for Kingdom Growth

At Crossway, we occasionally hear questions about our focus on distributing English resources to equip the global church. Even the concept of a “global lingua franca”—or the view that one specific language is predominant in the world—might be challenging to some. But the reality is that in God’s providence throughout history he has often used particular languages to broadly spread his truth to millions.

In fact, both the Old and New Testaments illustrate this well. God ordained the Hebrew language to be the manner of preserving and handing down the Scriptures through his relationship with Israel, ultimately to prepare the way for the coming of Christ. In the New Testament era, God magnificently used Koine Greek to be the means of sharing the truth of the gospel. It was the lingua franca of the Hellenistic world for more than eight centuries. Then Latin dominated for more than a millennium. Each of these languages and others have been used by God throughout history to bless mankind and to disseminate biblical truth. And compared to these long-standing examples, English has only become a global lingua franca in the last century, alongside others such as Chinese, French, and Spanish.

Some rightly advocate that it is the responsibility of indigenous teachers and theologians to rise up and write in the native language. This is indeed a worthwhile effort and should be our long-term goal, but that takes years if not decades. English-language resources bring both good and bad Bible teaching. This is why most of the world is plagued by prosperity teaching. All the more reason why, in the meantime, solid, biblical English resources are critical. We all stand on the shoulders of saints who plumbed the depths of the Word of God, writing and teaching for their generation and those to come—both within their culture and beyond.

In God’s providence, he has chosen to advance biblical understanding and theological depth through historically dominant languages. Who of us would vote to be cut off from Luther’s writings in German? Or Augustine’s teaching in Latin? We have all benefited from their insights either directly or indirectly, either in their native language or through translations of their work into our own language. Christ’s body spans not only miles but millenia. Thus, it seems that lingua franca is a divinely ordained tool that, over and over again through the centuries, the Lord has used for the benefit of his people.

But you shouldn’t hear this from just one source. Through the faithfulness of the Lord in connecting his people, Crossway regularly partners with ministries from all corners of the world to distribute Bibles and biblically sound resources through funding from projects like the One Million Bibles Initiative. So we asked brothers and sisters in Christ who are faithfully ministering in different regions to provide us with their perspective on the impact of English in their contexts and how that is allowing the good news to continue to go forth.

Donate $4 to Give a Bible

Crossway is providing Bibles to one million believers in need around the world. Join us in this effort to help provide a Bible to someone who has never had the opportunity to own their own copy. Would you consider partnering with us? Learn More.

The Impact of the English Language

Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia and is home to more than 30 million people. Due to the ethnic diversity of the nation many languages are spoken, including Malay, Tamil, Mandarin, various Chinese dialects, and English. For many years, English has represented the “business language” of the country and is a required class in government schools. In fact, it was only in the 1970s when the government began to introduce Malay as the primary language taught in public schools.

Massimo Gei serves with Greenhouse Publishing in Malaysia, where he observed that “the majority of churches here rely on English and therefore English Bibles are commonly used. . . . English books are the primary reading source influencing churches in Malaysia, alongside English websites and sermon transcripts.”

Massimo is working hard, in partnership with Crossway and others, to translate resources to Bahasa Malaysia. But these translations take much time and labor to complete, so to have resources that pastors and lay believers alike can read and learn from is incredibly important for ministry and growth of the church.

If you travel about 5,000 miles southeast of Malaysia, you’ll land in the Fiji Islands where Michael Seehusen faithfully serves as a professor at the Fiji College of Theology and Evangelism. English functions as one of three official languages in the country, and biblical resources are more abundant in English in comparison to Fijian and Fiji Hindi. Michael reports that English is the most prominent language among the people he serves in the South Pacific.

As a distributor of English Bibles and Christian books, Michael knows the depth of the impact that these can have, especially on church leaders:

Because English is the common language throughout Oceania we’ve been able to distribute solid theological resources to church leaders across several island nations. They have shared how transformative having access to these quality materials has been for them and their churches. The resources have led them to deep study of Scripture, equipped them for important discussions among the leaders in their churches, and caused them to more biblically pastor their flocks. It has been a joy to hear their reports of the wonderful impact these resources have made!

These pastors are being blessed by the faithful study of other brothers and sisters from other regions of the world, and English is serving to be the language by which this is happening.

English is becoming a global lingua franca among all generations, but it’s been found to be most prevalent among younger people. Take Europe as a continent, for example.¹ Tim Savage serves with the Europe branch of the Gospel Coalition, where he daily sees the impact that the English language is having specifically on the younger generation.

Twenty years ago I would have had difficulty communicating in English in most European countries, but now addressing people in English is met with gratitude and intelligibility. It’s the young adults all over Europe who are learning English. Young adult Christians specifically are increasingly looking for and reading English resources of biblical depth and substance. They are hungry for Christ and eager to read the great Christian leaders of the past and to latch onto similar leaders in the present.

English-language books, Tim argues, are filling a great need among the younger generation. In this social media-filled world where it’s hard to tell what the truth is, English resources are helping these young people throughout Europe to understand the truth of the gospel. Biblical literacy and theological depth of understanding will not only benefit individuals of the younger generations but will also influence the health of churches in Europe and beyond in the years to come as this generation of Christians takes part in church life.

English resources have proved many times over to be a blessing to thousands of believers around the world. But English for many can never replace their first language, sometimes referred to as their “heart language.”

Heart Languages Speak to the Heart

No matter how fluent an individual becomes in a language, there often remains one language that is his heart language. This is usually the first language learned, and there’s something about a very young mind that always best understands it. Of course, there are exceptions to this. But many believers around the world who know English know it as a second or third (or fourth!) language and not as their heart, or first, language.

Mike Taylor and Dave Holdt speak on behalf of the many pastors they train around the world with Equipping Pastors Worldwide when they voice their shared agreement that,

God’s Word is aimed at the heart, to affect heart change. For that reason, it’s of critical importance to have resources whose objective it is to explain and penetrate hearts with the truths from God’s Word in people’s heart languages. An African man once said: “When you speak to us in your language, you speak to our heads. When you speak in our language, you speak to our hearts!”

Though second and third languages are important tools for biblical teaching, the importance of heart languages remains. Many western analogies and idioms that make sense in our context are not likely to make sense to someone living and doing ministry in Malaysia, Russia, Fiji, etc. Each culture has its own idioms they use to explain stories and sermon illustrations.

And English, though spoken by many, is still often associated with the Western world. Jacques Malan teaches at Mukhanyo Theological College in South Africa, a country where English is one of twelve official languages. He points out that many speak English as one of multiple languages (and not their heart language): “if all resources for Christianity are always in English, it will reinforce the concept that Christianity is foreign, not really for the indigenous population.” This is a reason why Crossway works with those like Massimo to translate biblically sound resources into local, heart languages. In total, more than 150 Crossway titles have been published into various languages outside of English.

These are logical arguments that shouldn’t be ignored by English speakers in the West. Crossway therefore seeks a balance of providing translated resources along with the continued stewardship of the English Standard Version of the Bible and English books. While we seek to meet translation needs and pray those efforts bear more and more fruit in years to come, our primary ministry continues to center around the publication of English resources. This is reflected in how we pursue the countless opportunities for distributing Crossway resources around the world.

Using the English Language for God’s Glory

As Glyn Williams, another lecturer at Mukhanyo and faithful minister in South Africa, explains, “English is not going to disappear. If anything it will increase due to globalization. Therefore, more resources for learning English as a second or third language are needed.” English appears to be more common and solidified as this generation’s global lingua franca.

Michael in the Fiji Islands agrees with Glyn’s assessment: “It appears that the English language will continue to spread in our region. As educational opportunities and technological developments spread throughout the islands, English will likely continue to be the most prominent language among the islands of the South Pacific.” As he points out, as English becomes more accessible it will increase the number of English speakers who can read and understand English.

At Crossway, we believe that the Spirit working through the reading of the Word of God has the power to change lives. Michael recalls an instance of life change that happened a couple of years ago:

One day I walked by a nearby resort and noticed a security guard sitting by himself. This man recognized me from around town. We began a conversation that led to me sharing that I train pastors. He asked me many questions about the Bible, so I gave him a study Bible that was donated by Crossway, wrote his name inside the front cover, and told him to read it for himself and to his family. The following week when I walked by that same location, he waved me down. When I asked him if he had been reading his Bible, he explained that he had and that after reading the book of Ephesians, he had realized that he was not a true Christian. He shared how through reading he can come to understand what genuine, saving faith looks like in the life of a believer. . . . The Lord radically transformed this man’s life—he began to shepherd his family and told all of the other security guards what God was doing in his life.

God’s Word, and biblically sound resources that reflect the truths of God’s Word, bring life change. This is why Crossway is committed to providing Bibles and theologically sound books in English and other select languages to brothers and sisters in Christ who cannot otherwise access such resources. We believe that God will use the English language to further his Kingdom for the sake of his glory.

Pray for each of these ministry partners to be filled with the strength of the Spirit as they minister to and care for those in their regions. Pray that the gospel would continue to go forth so that more would come to know the Lord.

Pray that each English resource going out from Crossway’s Global Ministry projects would serve to encourage their recipients and point readers to the truth of the gospel.