Monday, January 27, 2014

In simple English

I've noticed this trend in my church recently where non-Christians are no longer called non-Christians. They're now "pre-believers".

We're supposed to "reach out" to the "pre-believers" in our "oikos". We wait for a "kairos moment" to "share the good news"... or just for one of the evangelistic events at church, and invite them to it. We pray for God to "touch them" and to "minister to them".

How is it that no one else seems to notice the amount of jargon we use in everyday Christianity?

I'm part of a church that doesn't call church service "church" any longer; it's called "celebration". So people go to celebration instead of attending church. Every church ministry has a special name (hint: the worship team is not called a worship team). The whole thing bothers me a lot.

I was reminded of this recently when one of my connections on Facebook posted a link to this article about "church jargon". I don't identify with most of the examples given, but I agree that we need to take a closer look at our 21st century church culture. Jargon creates a divide. If you do not know what I'm talking about, you're in the outer circle; if you do, you're in the inner circle.

I don't know why we can't just say things plainly.

    We have friends and family members who do not yet know our God in the same way we know Him. We are going to pray and ask Him for the right time to speak with them. We may invite them to an evangelistic meeting where we pray they will understand and respond to God's great love for them.

How hard was it to say that?

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