Now Everyone Can Speak in Tongues

Just in time for Pentecost! Skype announced the imminent release of Skype Translate last week. Skype Translate will translate your Skype calls in real time via text or voice. It’s unlikely that it will be as good as a “universal translator” or “babblefish,” but it will have serious repercussions none-the-less.

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Being able to have an app translate for you in real time is a great example of “augmented reality”. Which is when technology makes something “realer than real”. The repercussions for multilingual ministry as striking. Multilingual Worship suddenly becomes a whole lot easier. Multilingual outreach can be done without the need for a translator, making it more accessible to the single-languaged among us. Language barriers create more than just communication issues. That help divide classes and neighborhoods. Dying inner city churches that have new demographics will have a new way to tackle the problem.

We spend a lot of time talking about how technology isolates us, which I usually view with skepticism, choosing to look for “the new thing” God is doing through the tech first, and how we sin through it second. Universal translation is an example of tech that by it’s very nature is relationship building, and will be yet another reason for us to stay engaged with technology, to be Christian cyborgs with our smart phones in hand, ready for new ministry.

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