Language

We say stuff. We use a lot of words every day. Studies report, though, that women use more words than men. On average, a woman speaks 20,000 words a day, while a typical man only speaks 7,000 words a day. The notable exception to that rule is, probably, the male pastor who preaches three sermons on a Sunday. Lots of words. I use way over my average on Sundays. But, I digress...

So we use a lot of words. But do others understand what we are saying?

I've spent some time in countries outside the United States, and I rarely speak the native language of the place to where I am going. Like most Americans, I know very little other than English. I know some Spanish, and I can read New Testament Greek (really helpful walking the streets of 21st century Athens), but other than that, I'm pretty lost. On one of my trips, one of our group commented about how "fast" the guide talked in her native language. He said he couldn't begin to follow that if he were listening. I mentioned that, to someone who doesn't know the language, it always sounds fast, confusing. When "they" hear "us" talking, we probably sound like we're talking really, really fast as well.

When you can't understand what someone is saying, it's frustrating. Language then becomes a barrier rather than a force that brings people together.

In the church, we have our own language. I call it "Christianese." We use words that make little to no sense to people out on the street. Whether they are Biblical words or vague ideas that we make sound Biblical or even ideas that we have stolen from the world and made into pseudo-Christian ideas...we speak our own language. And when we speak it with people who have no grounding or no background in church or in Scripture, we sound just like that person who is speaking a foreign language much too quickly for us to understand.

So I want to spend some days addressing some of the language we Christians use that often are misunderstood by those who have yet to come to know Christ...or even among those who are part of the church. I have some ideas of words and phrases to talk about...but I'm also interested in hearing from you. What language or words or ideas do you hear in the church or from Christians that you find confusing or strange or unclear? No matter how long you have been a part of the church or if you're not part of any church, leave me a message in the comments or send me a note on Facebook as to what ideas/words/phrases you'd like to see me address. I'll do my best to de-spiritualize our language.

Because we want to be understood. We have the most important message in the world, so we need to be understood.