The problem of “church words” no one else understands

Church words.
They are a problem.
A big problem.
We (Christians) use words that we learn in church. We know what they mean. (Maybe)
But that doesn’t mean everyone else does.
It’s like slang words/phrases – figures of speech.

Take the adjacent image.

There’s an example of what I mean.

She’s so confused. Some of those aren’t even words at all.

Even to me, it often feels like we need a secret decoder to figure out what some of these church words mean.

I don’t know why it’s so hard.

Better yet, why does it have to be so hard?

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Let’s try a different image.

We, church people, often talk about giving something to God. We, hopefully, know what it means.

And if it’s a problem, it sounds like a great idea.

Whether we believe He will take care of it – and whether or not we really can go to sleep and not think of it – well, that’s another issue.

My point though, is this: normally, we think of giving someone – God or otherwise – some “thing”.

But – the point of the image was to say that “giving something to God” isn’t necessarily what someone might think.

Let’s look at an example.

The problem of “church words”

““Did she say anything else?”
“Yes—something that really bothered me.”
“What was that?”
“She said—and I recall this very well—Mary Sue said she was ‘giving Joshua to God.’ That’s exactly what she said.”
“Do you know what she meant by that?”
“Objection—speculation!” Will rapped out.
The judge overruled the objection.
“I was afraid that she might have made a decision—a very frightening decision—that somehow Joshua would be better off in heaven with God.”
“Is that when you called the Department of Social Services?”
“That’s what I did, yes.”

          from “Custody of the State (Chambers of Justice Book 2)” by Craig Parshall

The book is fictional.

The story though? I wouldn’t be surprised if things like this really happen.

Christians know what “Mary Sue said she was ‘giving Joshua to God‘ means. Non-Christians? There’s a very good probability they might think Mary Sue was about to kill Joshua, just like the person testifying. The two things are as different as night and day. But if we don’t know what those church words, giving Joshua to God, mean, all sorts of opinions and biases can come in.

The problem of unfamiliar words

Interestingly enough, I was watching an old episode of Law & Order while having lunch, the same day I read this part of the book.  And they were having similar issues.  Someone was being questioned by the DA – and as part of the answer, the person says that something “wasn’t on my radar”.  So the question back to the witness was about what he said being a figure of speech – it’s not like the person actually had a radar device at work or at home.  Everyone knows what the person meant.  Unless, maybe someone was watching from another country that learned English as a second language, and hadn’t learned that particular figure of speech.  Then that person may be wondering if people here actually have their own personal radar units.

Why do we use “church words”?

So I read this, and wondered why we make up these terms/phrases.  
It’s short – it’s easy to say. (Well, not really, especially if we have trouble with spelling.)
But it’s so confusing for someone who isn’t already Christian and doesn’t yet know our words.  
It puts them in the position of having to ask questions about what we said.
Or maybe it leaves them in the dark because they didn’t ask. Because they’re self-conscious about not knowing English.
Or maybe they just walk away from Christianity because they think we’re trying to keep something secret by using these strange words.
Or – maybe the scenario in the book plays out.

None of those are good.

What did Jesus tell us to do?

In the Great Commission, Jesus tells us:

That’s really hard to do if we’re not taking care to use words that people in or from other nations will actually understand.

It’s hard enough to get the message of The Gospel.  Adding strange words/figures of speech makes it even harder. For instance, what does Gospel mean?

The problem of “church words” no one else understands

The problem is not theirs – it’s ours.

By that, of course, I mean the person who doesn’t know our church words isn’t at fault. If we’re honest, at one time, not a single one of us knew any of those church words either. But something happens. We get used to them. We assume everyone knows the things we once didn’t know. As I write this, that kind of attitude sounds arrogant. Careless. Thoughtless. None of those things are representative of how we, as Christians, should act.

Therefore, the problem isn’t other people. The problem is, in a word, us. That includes me – especially since I’m just now adding a glossary after 15 years of writing and using some of those words. We don’t realize what we’re doing. Not to excuse us – but to be a call for all of us to be better about making sure everyone understand what we’re talking about.

Even many Christians don’t understand

Which brings up another thought. There are many Christians who don’t understand these words either. It can be embarrassing to admit that after so many years of going to church. But it’s true.

I used to work in IT. It’s an industry full of TLA-s. There’s even a joke about joining PAA. It’s quite funny – if you get it. You see – a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym. Although. as the acronym IT shows, it can also be a Two Letter Acronym. And of course, PAA is People Against Acronyms.

Yeah – that’s funny. At least it used to be for IT people. I’m sure the same thing happens in other jobs as well – and all sorts of people would join PAA.

Even in Christianity, there are some acronyms – like Bible translations. For instance, I normally use the 1984 NIV. Sometimes, the 2010 NIV. But at other times, maybe the SV, NLT, KJV, NKJV, or many others. Here’s the thing – how many Christians even know what they mean?

And then there’s the words! For instance, soteriology is very important. But do you know what it is? If not, I encourage you to click on it.

One of the things I’m adding with this new site and my other one, godversusreligion.org, is a glossary. The site’s new – so it’s not that large yet. But new words are added as I use them here – mostly because I’m quoting another source that used them.

What should we do about “church words” no one else understands?

Knowing all this is one thing. Realizing it’s a problem is a step in the right direction.

But doing something about it – that’s what really counts.

When we reach out to others, we need to remember where they are, where we used to be – and try to reach them. Without embarrassing them or acting superior to them – even if someone did that to us. In fact, remembering if we were treated that way should be a reminder to act Christian, and do better.

And that includes being understandable and practicing patience as we teach them in a way that makes it easy for them to understand.

Part of the irony is that we Christians believe the Holy Spirit will teach us and remind us as we go through life. How many non-Christians realize that we believe God Himself “speaks” to us, if we take the time to listen? That even in the process of writing, I rely on what we call the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit? And because of that, I write about the problems of church words, and then all these years later, I find I could have done it better – so now, I’m putting in a glossary.

So yeah – as I said, the problem is us. And in this case, for anyone who didn’t quite get it from the previous version, maybe the problem was me.