I was chatting with a couple of members of the lovely Amor y Esperanza congregation earlier this week, and they were showing me a video of a worship conference, at which one of the songs was sung in multiple languages. It was SO powerful, and ties in with the devotional from last week, about the power and weight of multiple nations proclaiming ‘Amen’ in one language, as a united body. It reminded me of the picture of God’s Kingdom in Revelation…

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.’ ”

Revelation 7:9-10

As followers of Jesus, we’re called to usher God’s Kingdom a little closer, and one way we can do that as a worship team is by creating a space where people from every nation, tribe and language can encounter God through sung worship! This looks like using inclusive language, and embracing our mistakes when we try different languages too. God has been doing so much in St Nic’s over the last few years, by bringing diversity, and creating a more intercultural church, and I truly believe it’s our responsibility to reflect that in our worship team too. This is a huge team effort, and will take time, so I’ve got some really practical questions for you to reflect on this week…

• How can we champion and enable others, from different nations and languages, to be a part of our worship team at St Nic’s? Are there people you could come alongside to encourage them to use their gifts in worship?

• Have you heard any songs or seen any churches doing intercultural worship well? How might we learn from or recreate this at St Nic’s?

• What is your dream for our sung worship at St Nic’s, as we seek to become more intercultural? How can we take practical steps towards that?

Please do be praying for worship leaders to be raised up among our Spanish, Cantonese and Farsi-speaking friends!