Within every profession, service industry, and organization, secret languages are understood only by its patrons. For example, walk into a Starbucks and listen to the customers order their favorite drink. You are likely to hear a combination of words and phrases that would lead you to believe aliens had landed from the far side of the moon. My usual Starbucks order sounds like this, “I’ll have a venti bold with no room.” I am saying to the barista: “I will have your largest and strongest coffee; by the way, I do not need room for cream.” Businesses have created environments that require consumers to learn a language specific to the product they wish to consume. This may or may not be intentional. What’s being communicated is this: “If you want to be part of our group, you need to learn our language.” Sound unfair? Before you answer, think about the church.

Before we blame businesses for requiring us to learn a foreign language, let’s look at how the Christian church is, at times, guilty of the same practice. Most agree that Christians have a specific vocabulary and vernacular that we are comfortable with. We use phrases and words that may leave the first-time guest in our services scratching their head and asking, “What are they talking about?” We use words such as advent, apostle, disciple, rapture, righteous, sanctification, elect, trinity, covenant, redemption, and salvation, much like we would car, home, cheeseburger, chair, or grass. Phrases such as “washed in the blood,” “give your heart to Jesus,” “profession of faith,” and “walk down the aisle” roll off our church-influenced tongues the same as “turn off the light,” “answer the phone,” and “wash the car.” Think of the questions that must run through the mind of the person who has never been in church before: “Is that going to hurt?” “You’re asking me to do what?” “Is that legal?” I may exaggerate, but you understand my point.

As a pastor, I believe the church is responsible for removing barriers that keep individuals with no personal relationship with Jesus Christ from coming to know Him. Barriers such as personal preferences, fear, and past hurt are hard enough to overcome without imposing a new language for which Rosetta Stone still needs to write software. I am becoming increasingly aware that the guests in our worship services sometimes have no idea what we are talking about. What should we do? First, it is essential to acknowledge we are guilty of speaking “church.” Second, every ministry leader should ask this question when communicating: “Can a person who has never been in church before clearly understand the words I have written and spoken?” We owe it to the first-time guest, the seeker, and the believer desiring to serve the Lord our commitment to remove the barriers that would hinder them – including our church language.