My dad loves to tell the story of the first he ever set foot inside a church. He was 13 years old and the congregation sang,”there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins.” More then a little disturbed, he wondered, “What did they have against the Mexican?”
Can you sympathize with his confusion? If you can you probably didn’t grow up in church. This is an example of what is sometimes known as Christianese – the special insider language of the church that outsiders don’t understand. There’s a growing confusion about Christianese in recent years. Because it divides Christians from nonChristians, more and more Evangelical Christians are trying to get rid of it. While I agree that we shouldn’t place any unnecessary boundaries between ourselves and those we seek to invite, our language must and always should be distinct. Here’s why.
It’s not a mark of Holiness or Genuine Spirituality.
It’s not a means to Witness
Confession. It’s what we believe
Common Story
Because it divides insiders
It’s a good example of what those inside the Church commonly refer to as Christianese – the special insider language of the church that outsiders don’t quite understand. Because it divides Christians from nonChristians more and more Christians bemoan the use of such language within the church. While I agree that we shouldn’t place any unnecessary boundaries between ourselves and those we seek to invite, our language must and always should be distinct. Here’s why.
that fact alone many younger Christians bemoan such language.
The Urban dictionary defines Christianese as
a communicable language within the Christian subculture with words and phrases created, redefined, and / or patened that applies only to Christian sphere of influence.
or
Christianese is the language spoken by Christians. It makes no sense to anyone unfamiliar with biblical texts, but earns you major points in the eyes of other Christians, because it means you are holy.
or
Words used by Christians that the unsaved masses are unlikely to understand. Christian buzzwords.
or
Such words have become the dreaded Christianese. The insider language of the church that no one understands except those who have been in church. What most people think what’s wrong with the church. But while there is a danger in Christianeese – in pushing people away with our language there is something great about Christianeese – a reason we need. A reason that without it the Church would die.
It’s the stories we tell! It’s the outworking of our belief and the reminder of what we truly believe. If we didn’t have Christianese we would be like the world. The reason that we have our own jargon is because we are definition different than the world, we tell different stories than the world and we are different than the world. I know its shocking huh. Without Christianese there would be confusion. As the tower of Babel illustrates. There’s nothing wrong with speaking your own language at home but we must use the common language that’s in use in public forums. A country can never successfully have two official languages. Just look at Canada – where there’s two different languages that’s where the fault line lays.
This is the problem with what the church is doing by denying Christianese in order to reach the world. In denying Christianese the Church is allowing the world to infiltrate the church. Instead of the bible they use a movie to tell the story of scripture. The problem with that is that in using a movie instead of the bible the church simply becomes like the world. But as Christians we believe there is something uniquely different about those who believe in Jesus Christ and those that don’t. The stories that we tell matters. The language that we use matters. It’s not the problem. The problem is when we cease to have a discipleship thrust to adequately teach people the story of the scriptures and the language of the church. That’s the real problem. Not the language itself.
Christianese should not be used when engaging in outsider witness. This is where we fail miserably. That’s where movies are appropriate tracks and witness to the truth of the gospel. They are fitting illustrations to help the church in its efforts to reach the lost. But among believers Christianese is vitally important. The question is is our services for believers or nonbelievers. That’s the problem with Church today.
This is the problem we want to use our language and
But boundaries are essential to identity. Our common stories effect our language. Like friends sitting around a table, talking over a meal there is plenty of insider speak going on. It’s born out of experience with each other. Two friends that laugh over an event and then say I guess you had to be there.
While it’s true that Christianese creates a boundary between the Church and the world. We hate it because it separates us from the world and the world is separated from us. When we want to witness – it becomes a terrible means of communication.
The Passion of the Christ was a form of Christianese. Christians saw the beautify in the cross, outsiders saw a man brutalized for two and half hours.
And this boundary is a tension in Christianity.
The Bible is the source of our language. It’s the source of the story that we tell. It’s the source of our unity. When we make the Bible a little less or tell other stories that our louder then the story of scripture we cease to have unity within the church.
The word “Holy” get’s on my nerves. Not because there’s anything wrong with the word Holy. In fact it’s a great word. The reason it gets on my nerves is that few people in the church can define exactly what it means. It’s a word that the church can’t do without and yet no one seems to know what it means. We aren’t teaching people Christianeese. The insider language of the church. The words and stories that have meaning.
Language is important to tell our story. Why we are here and why we exist. Why we are not the group down the street. What’s unique about our story. Language does that. It becomes the short hand vehicle for telling those stories and reminding us of what we’re about.
Meeting someone new is always awkward. What do you talk about. What do you share. What do you have in common. The more time you spend with someone though the more you find that you have things to talk about. The memories that you have become insider jokes and reference to events that mean something to each one of you.
That’s what Christianeese it’s an important language of communication that helps us to remember our relationship with each other.
The problem is that when we cease to explain the language – cease to help people move from the language of the world to the language of the church. Without Christianeese the church just becomes another entity of the world. Christianeese makes us distinctive.
