The church cannot stop this cultural shift, nor can they ignore it. Some will argue this point, but denying or resisting this shift will only bring insulation and isolation from people the church wants to reach. Christian believers need to understand this and make the necessary adjustments for addressing this major change in culture. More and more new believers, responding to the gospel and God’s invitation into His Kingdom, come into churches with a limited understanding of Christianity—its beliefs, practices, terminology, and expected lifestyle.
How can Christian
believers communicate to people so they hear the truth and respond to
Jesus? Billions of people in the world—yes, billions![ii]—have
never heard the gospel or even the name of Jesus once in their lives, or in
their own language. A rapidly growing Muslim population throughout the
world appears closed to the gospel, even though the Koran speaks of Isa al
Masih (Jesus the Messiah) as a prophet.[iii]
Again I ask, how can believers convey the gospel so they can hear it?
Many people lack a
frame of reference for understanding the words, terms, and biblical references
used by Christian believers. Collectively, they become a foreign language to
nonbelievers and new believers. It’s called Christianese—a specialized dialect
of English.[iv]
Special words and terms are common in most fields of study and called
field-dependent terms—words and phrases with specific meanings. Various branches
of the sciences, academics and education, politics, and even subcultures like
street gangs, have their own lingo—a language specific to their field of
reference. Christianity, with its field of study called theology, is no
different.
Christians often use
specific words and terms with meanings understood within the church—at least it
appears that way. My experience as a pastor and cross-cultural missionary tells
me differently. Many Christian believers cannot explain these specialized words
and terms in plain English so a nonbeliever could understand. This helps make the
gospel a mystery to people.
When Christian
clichés, and what I call Bible talk,[v]
are used outside their field of reference (the church) people unfamiliar
with these words and terms will not understand them. Having traveled many
places in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, I know the feeling of hearing a
foreign language and not understanding what’s being said. It’s similar to being
in a movie with subtitles, but you can’t see and read the subtitles because
you’re one of the characters in the movie! In some conversations and
settings, I am expected to respond, and though wanting to, I can’t. This is the
predicament Christians often put nonbelievers in, and even new believers uninitiated to Christianese. To be fair, most believers don’t realize they do this.
Two issues are at
work here. One is the lack of understanding on the part of the nonbeliever or
new believer, who doesn’t understand what is being said. The second issue is
with the believer who uses Christianese, and doesn’t understand the terms they
themselves use. This is revealed when a person attempts to explain what they
say in non-Christian words and can’t.
Experience—the
Great Teacher
Over the years I
stumbled upon a simple test of someone’s understanding of Christian terms and
theology. Can a person put Christian and Biblical words in his or her own
words? It’s a simple way of communicating Christianese to unbelievers and new
believers alike. I use the acronym IYOW—In Your Own Words—to describe the process. It seems
simple, but is not as easy as it sounds.
I didn’t discover
this through extensive research, but in much humbler ways. As a pastor, I’m responsible
to feed the sheep, that is, teach the Bible—its doctrine and practice—to
help God’s people grow spiritually. I founded a church in Southern California’s
high desert in 1978, with my wife and three children, ages newborn to five
years. Our fourth child came a few years after the church started. My older
children would hear things in Sunday school and church services and have
questions, and ask dad these questions at inopportune times.
It seemed much
easier to teach adults than children, so I thought. With adults I could use all
the Christian theological terms without explaining them. But when my children
asked me to explain these same things, I found myself fumbling to explain
things in simple, clear words. Apparently, I hadn’t learned my lesson with the
Sunday school class well enough.
More than a few
times my oldest daughter, Becky, would ask simple, heartfelt questions on our
way to a church service. “Dad, how can God be one and still be the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit?” As a pastor, my mind was filled with things to do before the
service began, as well as my message. I was not prepared to explain the
doctrine of the Trinity to my sweet, elementary-aged daughter in a simple,
clear manner. The reality is, it challenged me, and brought a change in my
whole approach to teaching.
My experience in
the Philippines, as a teacher of pastors, leaders, and Bible School students, confirmed
the importance of this while teaching in an environment where English was a
second language, but Christianity was familiar. The Philippines is often
proclaimed as the only Christian nation in Asia, so students used
Christian terms frequently. But I realized many of the students didn’t have a
full understanding of these words and phrases.
I got a partial
clue early on, getting settled into Philippine culture. We were part of a
little barrio church with many small
children, and where some of the worship songs were sung in English. One Sunday
morning, during greeting time, I started speaking to one of the children whom
I’d seen singing. My wife said, “They don’t understand what you’re saying.” I
replied, “But they’re singing the songs in English, aren’t they?” Because I was
a bit slow on the uptake, my wife explained they sang in English because that’s
how they learned the songs. The children didn’t know what the words
meant. Similarly, I could speak a little of the dialect, but didn’t understand
the language beyond a few familiar words and phrases.
When people use
certain words and terms, and quote Scripture texts, this does not mean they
have a clear grasp of what they are saying. It may seem clear to the speaker,
but can the person explain these same things in simple words? If not, what’s
spoken sounds like a secret code language to the uninitiated unless someone
explains it to them.
This is another excerpt from my upcoming book. I'm in the final stages of rewriting it, but the last couple weeks have been sneak peeks. I appreciate any feedback—constructive, please ;-)...
[i]
There are many books and articles written on post-modern, post-Christian trends,
here are some ones I’ve read and recommend— The
End of the World as We Know It, C Smith Jr. (2001 WaterBrook Press); Becoming Conversant with the Emerging
Church, by DA Carson (2005 Zondervan). Online articles— http://goo.gl/emWyu | http://goo.gl/yVFBo
[ii]
With the world population hitting seven (7) billion at the end of 2011,
statistics fluctuate for numbering the billions of unreached and least reached
peoples in the world. However, there are organizations dedicated to researching
this (see the following links). Joshua Project— http://www.joshuaproject.net/index.php
| Operation World— http://www.operationworld.org/
| US Center for World Mission— http://www.uscwm.org/
[iii]
Isa al Masih is the anglicized term for the Arab name/title of Jesus the
Messiah or Jesus (the) Christ. The Koran (the anglicized spelling for Quran or
Qur’an) is Islam’s book of sacred writings. Muslims are followers of Islam and
the prophet, Mohammed.
[iv]
Here are some websites devoted to Christianese— http://dictionaryofchristianese.com/ | http://goo.gl/nssqu
| http://goo.gl/aKFDV
| http://www.internetevangelismday.com/jargon.php
| http://goo.gl/2Y1Bp
(also see “Common Christianese Terms” in the Glossary)
[v]
Christianese can come in many forms—common clichés, Bible references or words
from familiar Bible texts, and theological terms (more academic). I call these Bible talk because they are based on
words and phrases in the Bible or in reference to texts in the Bible.
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