We go to a Church within a Church

Fresno Deaf Church, Fresno, California

“Word of mouth.”

It’s really a great quote, one of my favorites this year. I’d asked Pastor Keith Catron how people are drawn to the Deaf ministry of the Bridge Church, and he told us, “word of mouth.” Though actually he signed his answer in ASL (American Sign Language), and Tiffany interpreted it into spoken English. But I guess if he’d said people were drawn to the ministry by “word of hand” that would sound pretty strange as well.

We’ve been to lots of worship services in other languages -- Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish. Sometimes there have been translators and sometimes not. When we’ve had translation we’ve sometimes had someone sitting next to us but more often we’ve had headphones with the interpreter speaking in our ears.

Things were simpler this week. As happens most weeks, an interpreter sits in the front row at Fresno Deaf Church with a microphone and speaks, so anyone who doesn’t know ASL can feel included in the worship service.  

The Sunday afternoon Deaf ministry worship services are held in the Cafe on the Bridge campus. On Sunday mornings, the room is used as an alternate worship space, with the sermon from the main sanctuary projected on a screen during the 9:30 and 11:00 am worship services.

Mindy noticed before the service began that the people tended not to sit right next to each other when they were chatting because they needed room to use their hands and to see the signs. There was a mix of older folks and young, along with some little children who apparently weren’t deaf and some others who were. People were enjoying talking together, and starting the service right on time didn’t seem like a priority.

The service began with announcements. The first was about the ASL translation in the 11 AM sanctuary services of the Bridge on the first and third Sundays (there aren’t enough translators to cover every week). There was also an announcement for Bible studies during the week. There was a time for prayer requests and prayer.

A Youtube video of Hillsong Worship singing “What a Beautiful Name” was projected on the screen for praise time, with an ASL interpreter, Cathy, signing in front of the Cafe as members of the congregation signed along. Another woman came forward to sign “Jesus Set Me Free.” Some people clapped along with the music.

One dynamic that is different in this church from any other church we’ve visited is that children can be loud and no one cares. We also heard someone snoring on Sunday, but it didn’t bother anyone. (I’ve sometimes heard preachers say about people sleeping in church that it is good they have a place to rest. But they usually draw the line at snoring.)

When Pastor Keith came forward for the message, he urged people to sign along with him, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.” He then talked about faith, and the need for people to exercise their faith like a muscle. He asked the congregation what makes faith strong and some responded with signs for “prayer” and “service.”

It was communion Sunday. The ushers dismissed people row by row to get the bread and the cup, then everyone returned to their seats to eat and drink together. There was another song. Then Ronald, the worship leader, asked who had a birthday in July. There was cake available to celebrate the July birthdays.

Pastor Keith had agreed to meet with us after the service but we were able to meet a number of other people first. We spent a little time talking with Tiffany, who was going to interpret for our time with Pastor Keith.

Nobody in Tiffany’s immediate family growing up had a hearing disability, though her cousin was deaf. Though she wasn’t particularly close to her cousin, she got the idea in her head she wanted to learn sign language, and while she was in high school she began bugging her parents to find someone to teach her sign. Eventually her father found someone who led a class at their church. She learned all he had to teach in a few weeks. Tiffany went on to college and graduate school and continued to learn.

Through Tiffany, Pastor Keith told us his story. He grew up in a deaf family. His parents are deaf, and he was born deaf. As a freshman at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, he met his wife, Lisa. After three years there, they went on to North Central Bible College in St Paul, Minnesota, where he prepared for Deaf Culture Pastoral Studies.

He worked in ministry in Florida for about two years, then was called to Fresno to serve at what was then Fresno First Evangelical Free Church (now the Bridge), where he’s been for the past twenty six years.

The Deaf ministry at the church began before he arrived. Cathy (who still serves as an interpreter), began a Sunday School class for the Deaf, which grew.  The church decided to call a pastor for the ministry and called Keith.

There was a hope with some that the Deaf congregation would grow to a point that they would be self sustaining, but since the great majority those in the congregation can’t get full time employment for a variety of reasons, independence has never been a possibility for the congregation. When the Bridge had financial challenges in the last few years, Pastor Keith went from full to part time ministry. He has since found other part time employment (teaching college-level ASL at a local college while pursuing further education in that area himself) that allows him to continue ministering at the Bridge.

I asked if there were other ministries for the Deaf in the Valley. Though there are some congregations that provide interpretation during worship services, Pastor Keith is the only Deaf (ASL signing) pastor in the area, and the Bridge has the only church ministry specifically for the deaf that he’s aware of.

I asked how much the deaf congregation interacted with the general congregation of the Bridge. The answer was not much. Since the Deaf Ministry meets at 1:00 pm, and the Bridge’s other services are 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 am, there is little opportunity for interaction. The Deaf ministry hopes that will change in the future, with a change to a morning service time. This would allow children to go to Sunday School, and allow people of the various congregations to interact.

Pastor Keith said his desire is to more deaf people come to know Jesus and to see spiritual growth.  “That’s my desire,” Pastor Keith said. I believe that’s God’s desire as well: God’s Word going forth through language, spoken and signed.

Statistics

Service Length: 58 minutes

Sermon Length: 22 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Pastor Keith picked us out as visitors (and we had been in email contact with him over the past few weeks, so he expected us) and welcomed us. Tiffany and Cathy both greeted us and made sure we could understand what was happening in the worship service. In some ways, the language barrier was more difficult to overcome than it’s been in churches where few people speak fluent English; we know only a couple signs. Still, we were made welcome

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 36

Probable Ushers’ Count: 40

Snacks: Coffee, lemonade, and chocolate cake

Musicians: none

Songs: “What a Beautiful Name”

“Jesus Set me Free”

Distance to Church: 500 feet

Open WiFi: yes

Tie/Suit Count: none

Church Website: thebridgefresno.com

Why We're Going Where English is a Second (or third or fourth) Language

If you wanted to know what the Bible had to say about multiple languages and all you had to go on was the story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible, you'd probably think the multitude of languages in the world is a very bad thing. If you want a refresher on the story found in the first nine verses of Genesis 11 (Genesis, which means beginnings, is the first book of the Bible), here's a summary: There was a time when only one language was spoken on earth. But a group of people decided to build a great tower to the heavens. God wasn't pleased with this plan, and He decided to stop it. So He "confused their language" so they couldn't work together. And they spread throughout the earth.

One could easily take from that story the idea that the multiple languages on earth are a punishment from God. Therefore one would assume that if God is going to redeem the earth, part of that plan would be to bring everyone back to one language. Surely, the New Heaven and New Earth would be a place a little like Star Trek: The Original Series, wherein everywhere Captain Kirk went in the universe, English was spoken by every species.

But Babel isn't God's last word on language. To begin with, note that the Bible itself isn't a one language book. The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, but sections of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek with a few Aramaic quotes. So God choose not to use just one language for His book.

In Acts 2: 4, Luke records the first miracle of the new Church; "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues at the Spirit enabled them." The disciples went out and shared the Gospel in the very languages of the foreigners visiting Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost. God could have performed a very different miracle. He could have enabled the foreign visitors to understand the language of the disciples.

So perhaps the tale of Babel isn't just a story of punishment. As the writer of the book of Hebrews explained, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."*

Discipline for sin was a part of the story of Babel, but that wasn't all God had in mind. As one reads the story of Scripture, one sees that God didn't just mean to punish with those languages. It caused people to spread throughout the earth, which was a good thing. But that isn't all that He had in mind. It seems He really likes all those languages.

That's why it's called the "gift" of tongues. In Scripture we see God's Spirit giving both conventional and "heavenly" languages. The multitude of languages is a part of the wonder and good of His creation, and the creation to come. In Revelation 9:7, the last book of the Bible, John writes of heaven, "'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.'"

Mindy and I decided we'd rather not wait for heaven to worship with those other languages. So for the month of February, we'll be going to churches where languages other than English are used for worship. Because we disagree with the title of that old Warren Beatty movie. This month, anyway, heaven can't wait.

*Hebrews 12:11 (all Bible references in this post are from the New International Version, but there are a lot of different English language translations of the Bible. Check out https://www.biblegateway.com/ to take a look at some of them.)

- Dean