Lessons from Sesame Street in French

Earlier today (or technically yesterday now), I observed my kids watching Sesame Street in French. I've grown accustomed to the American version, as my kids have both DVDs and CDs of Sesame Street in English.

The episode that I saw today was not only in French, but also done with French actors and actresses. I had expected it to the American episodes just dubbed into French. My wife said that Sesame Street has had the same philosophy with its work in other countries and languages.

As I watched it, I thought of some church-planting strategies that I've seen in Paris over the years. I know of one group here whose strategy is to create American churches (complete with American songs and completely English language services) with the belief that these will eventually draw enough French people to start French-language ministries.

I tend to be skeptical about how ultimately successful primarily English-language ministries will be in reaching French people. Certainly there is an attraction to some French people, particularly younger ones, to English-language churches. The English-speaking subculture in Paris is a group that needs ministry to.

However, I think that ministries like this one group need to contextualize what they do much further in order to have more than just a minor ministry impact in France. Sesame Street seems to understand that, to be more effective, they can't just dub French voices on Elmo and Big Bird. This one group isn't even currently going that far, but rather keeping the American voices of Elmo and Big Bird and expecting that this will attract French people.

Sesame Street in French is rather using the same educational principles, but starting from scratch in their production. I believe that this way of working will probably be more effective in the long run.