I think many Christians don't realize it, but Christians in America are required to learn a new language. I'm not talking about old school Catholic Latin or toting around a Greek Bible. I am referring to the language of Christianese. You see Christians develop their own terminology. I'm not sure where this is found in the Bible, but I am sure it's somewhere in Acts. They were sharing meals, selling their stuff, giving to the poor and writing a new Christian language. I can see Peter looking at Paul and saying, "these Greeks can understand us when we talk and we really need to develop a way of confusing them so it's harder for them to understand the basic principles of God's love." Paul looked back at Peter and said, "I have it, let's develop our own language. We can start throwing out terms like salvation, sanctification, redeemed, and justification. They will be so confused. This is great!" That may not be exactly what went down, but I can still theorize.

However it happened, we developed out own terminology and this terminology differs depending on what type of church you attend. Some churches use the terms 'brother' and 'sister' while others shun these words. Some traditional liturgical churches use words like justification, sanctification, and epiphany. Still other churches who adhere primarily to the King James version of the Bible throw in Shakespearean terminology like thee, thou, art, and lots of words with 'eth' added to the end. It's really confusing for us Christians and I can't imagine what it is like for seekers, uh unbelievers, let's try that again - sinners, maybe not - how about pagans, yeah that was too harsh, let's just say people who do not ascribe to Christianity - there that will work.


I decided it might be fun to create a hypothetical conversation between a unchurched person (we will call him Hal) and an churched person (we will call him Floyd). Let's see what happens.

Hal steps up to the church:

Floyd: Welcome to the First Second Third Independent Church of the Holy Scriptures as Told by Jesus Christ Our Lord

Hal: Ummm, Hi?

Floyd: Is this your first time at church?

Hal: Yes.

Floyd: Well sir I need to ask you a very important question. Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Hal: What?


Floyd: Oh, wow you must be a seeker. Have you accepted the eternal salvation of our Lord and Savior?

Hal: I'm sorry, I'm still a little lost.

Floyd: I figured you were lost. Well, you came to the right place because today you can be found. You can be saved and you can join the family and become my brother.

Hal: Is this a reality show? Am I on Sister Wives or being Punked or something?

Floyd: I'm sorry, what?

This is a funny Friday which means my blog is really low on principle or in giving deep nuggets of wisdom. I will leave you with this, however. Let's try to communicate the good news of the way to God in a way people who do not ascribe to Christianity can understand.

Thanks. Tim