How Should Christians Practice Speaking in Tongues in Church?

Christians should practice tongues in gathered worship with love, self-control, and the church’s edification—not as a display or a source of confusion.

Paul’s instructions for church

In Corinth, people came together with songs, teaching, prophecy, tongues, and interpretations. Paul does not forbid tongues; he orders their use:

• Let only “two, or at the most three” speak.
• Let them speak “in turn.”
• Someone must interpret, so the congregation can understand and be built up.
• If there is no interpreter, the speaker should be silent publicly and “speak to himself and to God” (1 Corinthians 14:27–28).

The governing question is not, “Can I speak?” but, “Will this build up Christ’s people?” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

Why interpretation matters

A tongue without interpretation may be genuine prayer or praise directed to God, but the gathered church cannot say “Amen” to what it does not understand (1 Corinthians 14:16–17).

That is why Paul prefers intelligible speech in church:

“I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).

Tongues are not presented as a required proof of salvation or spiritual maturity. The Spirit gives different gifts to different members of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:4–11, 1 Corinthians 12:29–30).

The spirit of the practice

Any use of tongues should be:

• Voluntary and self-controlled — “the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32).
• Orderly — no competing voices, pressure, or emotional chaos.
• Tested under pastoral discernment — like other claimed spiritual gifts.
• Loving — seeking the good of others rather than personal prominence (1 Corinthians 13:1–7).

God is “not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). In church, the Spirit’s gifts should make Christ clearer and his people stronger.