Let’s throw out the insider language.
A few years ago, a friend, who was a successful insurance agent, invited me to attend a high-end luncheon. The hotel ballroom was filled with a few hundred insurance agents from around the region. After lunch was served, a prominent leader in the insurance industry spoke, joking about “claimants,” “negligence,” and “aggregate limits of indemnity.” While the other agents laughed, nodding in agreement with the speaker’s comments, I fidgeted in my seat. I appreciated my friend’s invitation and ticket to the lunch, but I left feeling unintelligent and confused.
Every group, if it’s together long enough, develops insider language. The luncheon I attended used insider language targeted to their specific industry. They didn’t use it to be exclusionary; they employed it for the sake of identity, clarity, and efficiency. But I realized—in maybe the clearest manner in my life—what happens in the hearts and minds of visitors and spiritual sojourners when we use insider language in a local church.
My experience at the lunch brought to mind the biblical story of Zaccheaus the tax collector. What prompted Zacchaeus to climb a tree and become immortalized in that Sunday-school song you’re probably humming in your head right now? “He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd” (Luke 19:3). In their pursuit of Jesus, the crowd blocked Zacchaeus (and maybe others) from seeing and experiencing Jesus.
We do this too when we use church-specific language. Call it the “Zacchaeus Effect.” Is it at play in your church? Read More
image: christianitytoday.com
No comments:
Post a Comment