Church Lingo: Keeping Our Message Obscure
Simplicity is a sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. Complexity can be a way of hiding the truth.”
— Helena Rubinstein
The message of Christianity is simple. God is love. Because God loves us, we are to love one another.
This simple message becomes obscure in the hands of theologians and church professionals. There is incentive to make it complicated. Church leadership has a very long tradition of cultivating mystery about their work.
Like many cloistered professions, the Church creates its own lingo. We know what we’re talking about. Why don’t you?
The difference is that our “business” is the message. We need to communicate clearly.
When we make our message obscure we defeat our purpose. It is no wonder that the “we” of the church is a shrinking number.
Let’s look at some of the hot buzzwords in the church today. (Warning! All words commonly used in the church are not actual words!)
Mission: Mission originally meant the act of sending. It has come to describe organizing for the propagation of faith. In that sense, it is a compelling word to Christians. Today, it is attached to almost every enterprise and is often the “hook” for fund-raising. Almost every solicitation for funds from any church-related institution has this word displayed prominently. People are far more likely to give to a “Mission Fund” then to sacrifice for the day-to-day operating expenses of bureaucracies—which is where the money can go. And so we have the Synod Mission Fund, the Seminary Mission Fund and the churchwide Mission Fund. The better to attract dollars. Congregations! Hurry! Start your own mission fund and get your piece of the pie!
Missional: This is an attempt to make mission an adjective so the word “mission” can be used more often. Coming soon: more non-words like “missioning.”
Discernment: This is the act of figuring things out. Discernment seems more intentional and focused. It is used often by church leaders and denominations. They spend a great deal of time trying to figure things out. When they can’t, they write about discernment and it seems like they have accomplished something or are about to accomplish something truly great. Results of discernment are not discussed nearly as often as the acts of discernment. Very few people actually recall the discernment process or a discernment meeting. They were probably busy trying to figure things out while someone else did the discerning.
Viability: Church leaders love to talk about viability — the ability to stay alive. They usually focus on other people’s viability and not their own.
Transform: This has been a church catch word for a while. The word “change” was just too scary. Nobody wanted to be “changed” by church leaders. They are not standing in line to be “transformed” either, but it sounds better. It is never quite clear what the goal of church transformation is or when transformation actually occurs, but we are all working at it.
Transformational Ministry: This is a much talked about but seldom seen phenomenon. Often, it has little to do with transformation or ministry. It has more to do with economic viability (see above). Congregations can transform greatly but go unrecognized until they can contribute more to the denomination or hire more professional help. If you are really good at transforming no one will notice. It is like a magic act. The rabbit appears and then it disappears. But what happened to the rabbit when it disappeared? It doesn’t matter to the church as long as the act keeps playing and it can be chalked up as transformational ministry.
Thus ends today’s vocabulary review. Do you have a favorite church buzzword?