I stood in church, and I cringed inside.  Why?  After all, I was singing in the worship team this particular Sunday.  This day, I was charged, with the rest of the musicians, with helping lead people into the presence of God through worship.  But I was woefully uncomfortable.  Me, a follow of Christ for over 20 years.  I was struck by the language of religion, by the rhetoric of Christianese.  As I stood looking out over the sedate crowd (we in the Pacific NW are not prone to showing even slight involvement with Sunday morning church proceedings, even staying startlingly passive as fire alarms go off), I listened intently to the guest telling us about the mission organization he leads.  And I saw the blank stares of the people in the crowd.

It’s not that he had bad things to say, really.  His organization was working hard to change lives with the life-changing message of Jesus’ grace.  It is how he said it.   I have been in the church for many years, and have heard my share of Christian lingo and insider language.  And now, I felt like this type of language was a disservice to those that are trying to find their place with God.

You see, my church is a very outwardly-focused church.  We focus more on those that are in need of Christ’s redemption on Sundays than those that are part of the holy club. In my humble estimation the church is for those that don’t have a relationship with Christ, yet (and the Bible supports this).  Throughout the modern-day church, we do real well at communicating to and building the lives of believers (the Bible supports this too).  But we fail miserably at speaking to those that are seeking the redeemer of the universe.  They get stuck on words that we assume everyone understands because we do. 

As I listen to the terminology thrown about in the church, I myself even wonder what it means sometimes (and we are better than most about this). 

“Join us now for the benediction, and then join us in the narthex for some fellowship.”

“The outpouring of God”s spirit is happening and revival is transforming lives.”

“Join with us now in the holy sacrament of baptism, where we will partake in the body and blood of Jesus.”

“We are seeing a new work in the body of Christ.”

There are other examples for sure.  None of the concepts above are bad or wrong.  In fact, they are profound and beautiful.  Why is that we have such a hard time paraphrasing the truth for those that don’t know Jesus so they can better understand his profound grace?  I submit it is because we have become too self-focused as the Church.  We have become a ghetto, primarily fixated on the institution of Christianity and the verbal trappings of it’s culture.  Notice I did not say “Truth” or the actual movement of Jesus in the world. 

Is it time we become more vigilant about who our audience is?  Is it time we looked more deeply back to our greatest example, Jesus?  I think both are important.

Have we forgotten?  Have we forgotten that there are people right now, sitting in their homes that don’t have their eternities sewn up with God?  Do we not realize that there are thousands, nay even millions that don’t know Jesus as a savior and friend right in our immediate neighborhoods and regions.

Gone are the days when the assumed worldview is Christian.  We are in an age of people that were brought up with no religion of any kind, Christian or not.  Do you think these people understand the insider terminology of our culturized Christian institutions?  In many cases, they do not.  Yet our language makes huge leaps of assumption.  And those that seek Jesus are dishonored in the process. 

Some of you may bristle at my next comment, but we must — I repeat, must – know our audience.  We must assume pain, despair, hopelessness, coupled with plain ignorance, along with a total lack of knowledge of Christian jargon and/or concepts.  Does that mean we water down the truth?  Not by any means. Let’s look at how Jesus, the Word in the Flesh, addressed those who sought him during his time.

You will notice, in many cases, that Jesus spoke in metaphors to explain the truth, which was of course, he was the embodiment of.  He keenly understood that he needed to adapt his message to relate effectively to the many people that sought him out.  He could’ve just used a bunch of terminology only understood by him and left the rest up to God.  After all, since he had an inside line to the father, he could have left the interpreting of the jargon up to him.  But in fact, he took the time to relate simple (yet profound) truths to people in terms they understood.  And even so, many misunderstood, even his disciples.

How can we then believe that lives can be changed as a result of our insider communications with those that are seeking something, even though they may not know that it is Jesus yet?  We have become so engrained in our internalized language, I am afraid many people walk right out of the doors of our churches wondering what it is they just heard about.  Yet Jesus loved the lost and seeking enough to not assume that everyone would understand his redemptive message.  He loved this world enough to explain his grace and love in terms that the world at the time, and for all ages, would understand. 

Because we are no longer in an agrarian economy where Jesus walks alongside us in the flesh, we must seriously re-evaluate our language.  While his agricultural metaphors (”The kingdom of God is like a vineyard”) still hold great truth for us today, our charge is to explain the truth within our cultural context assuming that there are those in our midst that have absolutely no understanding of any even vaguely religious terminology.  I challenge anyone to show me where the Bible would have us do otherwise.

Of course, the scriptures are the great user-guide to a redeemed life following Jesus.  And quoting scripture is key, bounded with thoughtful teaching and explanation.  How can we get better about communicating to seekers without condescension? Here are some steps that might get us along a better path:

1. Assume our audience is completely without knowledge of Jesus or any of the cultural/verbal trappings of the institution of Christianity - “ We are in a post-Christian era.  There are great multitudes of people that were not raised in Christian homes, as we or our parents likely were.  Bantering about evangelical lingo leaves people bewildered.  Sure, the Holy Spirit ultimately is the arbiter of changed lives, but don’t we too have a responsibility to use our gifts of communication in the best ways possible.  Does God’s Holy Spirit appreciate us using him as a cop out for half-baked efforts?  After all, we are partners with God to share his love with the world.
    
2. Communicate with clarity, in total love - “ We can all communicate in our own ways.  Our lives are a story that people are reading on a daily basis.  We don’t need to be great communicators like Billy Graham to communicate the life-changing message of Jesus.  We all have a complete understanding of something in our lives, and of those around us, like a hobby, family, the work we do, the places we spend time.  Coupled with God’s wisdom and leading, he can make all these aspects come to life in clear, loving communication of his message.
3. Seek out and use current metaphors - “ We live in a dot.com world.  The news is filled with corporate downfall, war, and natural travail.  God makes himself manifest in these situations, and he gives us the ability to use these compelling stories to portray his kingdom.  Everything can be used to communicate God to the world around us, whether it’s a movie scene or a story of moral downfall, God can give us the mental and spiritual means to leverage these ideas to communicate his kingdom.  All we need do is ask him.  His wisdom is right there at our bidding.
4. Tell personal stories of lives changed by God, in context of God’s word  - “ There is nothing more powerful that a story about a person in desperation seeing God and being changed by him.  There is nothing more moving than hearing a story about personal healing, whether its from alcoholism or from cancer.  Its in the daily stuff of life that God lavishes his love on us.  It is in the despairing ruts of life that he shines forth.  These are the stories that catch the spiritual ears of those that don’t know Jesus.  And the beautiful thing is that they do not rely on our personal credibility.  God will speak for himself through the redemptive change he works in our lives.
5. Focus on people who don’t believe - We do great focusing on believers, making sure they feel comfortable with the teaching they are getting so they can grow.  I think we spend a good deal of time enabling a “what do I get of out of church” attitude by this focus.  Could it be that if we focus on unbelievers and seekers in all aspects of our lives, that we would in fact learn more than we would during any sermon or bible class? 

It is our charge to communicate God’s message with outwardly looking eyes and hearts.  Church structures are beautifully self-sustaining when it comes to “preaching to the choir.” But when we place our focus on the despairing and the seeking, it is less comfortable and we may feel out of place.  It is a risk, because we may lose those that only want messages and language aimed toward their long-believing hearts.  But the fulfillment and the great glory of seeing seekers changed by God will surely bring back the joy of our salvation.  It is thus the Church will grow beyond anything we can expect or do under our own severely limited power.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2006 at 1:04 pm and is filed under By Alex, Challenge/Growth, Emergent Church, Evangelism/Outreach, Life, Spiritual Formation, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.