Church speak, mission statements and why all babies must eat

Without getting into a raging debate over speaking in tongues, those in charge of getting out their church's message need to understand that, at least in the U.S., 1 in 3 adults is unchurched. Meaning 1 in 3 adults don't understand the church-speak that 'bables-up' scribed in expensive color brochures, sermon videos and web sites. Don't believe me? Consider the following:

Growing Affliction

In March of 2005, The Barna Group reported:

'Despite widespread efforts to increase church attendance across the nation,   the annual survey of church attendance conducted by The Barna Group shows that   one-third of all adults (34%) remain "unchurched." That proportion has changed   little during the past five years. However, because of the nation’s population   continuing growth, the number of unchurched adults continues to grow by nearly   a million people annually.'

Now some might argue "but Dean, if that percentage is true, how then do you explain the successes of the church growth movement?"

I'll let Rowland Croucher, the Director of John Mark Ministries respond that question where he writes:

"But why are evangelical or conservative or charismatic/Pentecostal churches -   particularly ‘megachurches’ - holding their own or growing? Simple: musical   chairs - ‘church hopping growth’. One survey in the U.S.: ‘more than 80%’ is   transfer growth; another in Canada: only 5.5% of church attenders come from an   unchurched background."

While the emphasis is mine, the combination of the above information should hopefully lead one to diagnose the sickness in as simple and succinct terms as quoted by both 'The Captain' and 'Luke' in the 1967 classic 'Cool Hand Luke:'

"What we've got here is ... (a) failure to communicate"

I think David Cho best classifies this affliction as 'Christianese:'

'Every group, be it a profession, subculture, religion, or social group, has   its own collective lexicon of unique jargon, understood and appreciated only   by its members. To them, it gives a sense of belonging, identity, and even   superiority over outsiders. We computer geeks are notorious for that ...

... My fellow Evangelical Christians are no exception. We have our own   glossary of fancy expressions spoken and understood only in our circles, which   some derisively refer to as "Christianese."'

Amen brother ... whoops ... see?

Short Term Cure

Knowing the sickness, it's time for a cure. A remedy that, at least as I see it, includes both a long term and short term solution.

Let's start with the short term cure as it has a more direct and immediate path to success. The first step coraling all of your church's external communications and then inspecting them for instances of Christianese.

I realize this may be about as fun as herding cats, so here are some likely suspect with which to start:

•     mission statements  
•     weekly newsletters  
•     church website  

I'm starting with mission statements because to me, they are the most egregious of examples of church-speak.  Father Flanders best sums up my observations regarding mission statements when he said: 

“[Mission statements] should be abolished because every Mission Statement     ever written can be summarized in four words — ‘All babies must eat.’” —     Vincent Flanders, author of     Son of Web Pages that Suck  

While I don't feel church mission statements should be abolished, I do think that in most cases that they're nothing more than a lot of flowery repackaging of Christ's great commission issued the Body in Matthew 28:16-20.

I'd suggest re-factoring along those lines, in plain, easy-to-understand terms even the unchurched get.

Next I'd inspect weekly newsletters for instances of clichés. While this approach won't make your weekly tomes 100% Christianese-free, it is an easy enough step that I think will remove a large percentage of the stumbling blocks ... whoops ... see?

Tim Challies offers some excellent examples of how to spot and thwart this affliction in his post aptly entitled 'Clichéd Christianity.'

Finally, my favorite target, church websites. Here are some quick suggestions:

•     remove the mission statement from the front page  
•     re-factor your church slogan to reach the unchurched  
•     make sure your 'about us' page simply and clearly explains what your     organization does

I write a bit more on this topic in my somewhat dated post entitled 'One in Three Adults Is Unchurched Means 1 in 3 Adults Don’t Church Speak.'

Long Term Cure

Now for the hard work - getting everyone in your organization to look inward to change their outward communications.

That's a tough one because some of you may not be in the power seat, but instead have to point out to whomever owns the bully pulpit that their message is about as understandable as ancient Greek.

I'll help ya out here and provide some articles on this topic that you can either aim them at directly - or indirectly by directing their attention to this post:

• What Are You Saying by Kelly Pollock: sometimes, Christians use some words that just don't make much sense.
• Using the Right Words via  Online Evangelism: the language we must unlearn and stop using, if we are to communicate effectively with non-Christians.
• When Words Get in the Way by Lynn Waalkes: when sharing the gospel, even our best intentions fall short if people don't understand what we're talking about.
• Beyond ‘Christianese’ by Ron Hutchcraft: when a first time visit to the 'church zone' was more like a visit to 'The Twilight Zone.'

Don't worry if they leave me scathing comments - in most cases only 2 in 3 individuals will understand said insults; even if most are computer generated !-)

Comments

[Antoine of MMM]

I really like this post, and mainly because it really encourages us to cut the fat out of what we say and "get to the point." Like the author of the post says, some of these might sound a bit drastic, and far reaching, but if we are really going to work out of those mission statements, then we need to speak the language of those whom we are looking to reach.

[Bob Morgan]

What I'd like to see is a translation matrix. Is one available?