Many of you know, Brad and I have planted a French church in Montreal this past year. We have an amazing team and we're among the only Anglophones (English speakers!) in the church. As you can imagine, planting a church is far from easy under the best of circumstances, and I feel like in many ways we ARE in the best of circumstances. We have so much support from our network + denomination + team of leaders within our church plant and we're in our dream neighbourhood.
One set back though, is doing this whole thing in our second language. Every single thing we do as a church is in French. Our Bibles are in French, the preaching is in French and the musical worship is in French. The discipleship is in French, the small groups are in French, the website is in French, and the e-mails are all in French. That's a lot of French for a girl who doesn't speak it very well!
Something that's blessed me more than I can even express, though, is the French worship music. I never thought I'd be able to connect with God singing in another language, but by His grace, I've been able to. Especially when it's a song I know from English, that's been translated. There are some French worship songs that were written originally in French that I've only since learned after moving here - some even written by people in our church! - and I love them so much. But on a day when my French is struggling or I'm flustered after sending my kids to Sunday School and buying wine and bread for communion and doing behind the scenes stuff, my heart gets very soft when I hear a worship leader begin to sing a song I recognize.
I thought you'd like to hear some of my favourite worship songs that have been translated to French. If you go to church, you may recognize them, but you've probably never heard them en Français! Ignore the cheesy YouTube videos and enjoy :)
Before The Throne Of God Above -
How Great is Our God - Combien Dieu est Grand
Amazing Grace -
Hosanna
One set back though, is doing this whole thing in our second language. Every single thing we do as a church is in French. Our Bibles are in French, the preaching is in French and the musical worship is in French. The discipleship is in French, the small groups are in French, the website is in French, and the e-mails are all in French. That's a lot of French for a girl who doesn't speak it very well!
Something that's blessed me more than I can even express, though, is the French worship music. I never thought I'd be able to connect with God singing in another language, but by His grace, I've been able to. Especially when it's a song I know from English, that's been translated. There are some French worship songs that were written originally in French that I've only since learned after moving here - some even written by people in our church! - and I love them so much. But on a day when my French is struggling or I'm flustered after sending my kids to Sunday School and buying wine and bread for communion and doing behind the scenes stuff, my heart gets very soft when I hear a worship leader begin to sing a song I recognize.
I thought you'd like to hear some of my favourite worship songs that have been translated to French. If you go to church, you may recognize them, but you've probably never heard them en Français! Ignore the cheesy YouTube videos and enjoy :)
Before The Throne Of God Above -
How Great is Our God - Combien Dieu est Grand
Amazing Grace -
Hosanna
beautiful! I will have to give a listen! I cannot imagine what it is like to plant a church in your second language, especially when you're not fluent (although I am assuming Brad is very fluent?!?!) God will do great things. Imagine the stories you can tell, that God raised up a church in your home in a language that is foreign to you! God's language is universal :)
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI remember when I got to that point - able to truly worship God in French, and then in German (we've lived in Germany now since 2005, I lived in Quebec for several years before that). It gets easier with each language ;-) The great advantage of being so uprooted from our comfort zone is that we become less attached to nationality, language and cultural Christianity and more "Kingdom culture" oriented. God is God in any language or setting, and living abroad forces one to rely fully on Him. There is still something about singing in English for me though - it does go to a very deep place.
I "found" you via Dwight Bernier & Twitter, today I have looked around your site and loved finding out more about you and your church plant. My husband and I have a huge heart for Quebec and cheer you on! I really appreciated the link to the message "It takes a city to raise a child." This really embodies what we want for our children (and ourselves) and may very well have been a very timely word for us as we are preparing to possibly "uproot" our kids from a quiet German town that is "good for raising kids" ;-) Thanks.
I started blogging recently - feel free to get to know me christinakannenberg.blogspot.de