I came across the following article on how to better communicate with "un-churched" people. I found the ideas in it to be very sensible. Most people have no idea (or worse; the wrong idea) about the meaning of many words, phrases, etc. that Christians use. I shortened the article a bit. Also, while you read, keep in mind what Paul said: "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/jargon.php:
Using the right words
Insider language excludes people[/b]
"
How difficult it is to be simple."
- Vincent Van Gogh
In most sermons for Christians, or any Christian magazine, there are usually very many jargon words and phrases. We feel comfortable with them! Using them makes us feel that we belong! In prayer too, we love to use these words.
Here are just a few:
"born again, salvation, saved, sinner, new birth, Savior, justification, Holy Spirit, testimony, evangelical, assurance, redeemed, redemption, saved, mission, outreach, repentance, witness, confess, found the Lord, have a burden"
This is the language we must unlearn and stop using, if we are to communicate effectively with non-Christians! They are 'insider terms' which exclude the typical unchurched person. We must learn to get inside their heads!
You mean, "I can't even say 'sin', 'repentance', 'faith'?"That's right – there are alternative ways of expressing all these concepts which will be much more meaningful. We must assume that those we contact know nothing about Christianity. A Barna Research survey found that in US (a country with a church-going rate 10 times that in most other places), only one third of adults could define the term 'the gospel'. 7 our of 10 had no clue what 'John 3:16' meant. 52% of people in the UK do not know who Pontius Pilate was.
Christian readers may commend the use of such words because it makes them feel comfortable, but we are not writing for Christians! You may indeed get criticism from Christians for not using such words. Live with it! Website writer Iyohi says she felt guilty for a year because she had seen it stated that pages should make a Christian statement by placing a Bible or a cross at the top of a web page, whereas she was rightly trying to "make my main pages nonchalant and less Christian [in appearance] just to get people to click."
"This is for them, not for us"In all our writing, we must keep in mind our target non-Christian reader. We are not writing to Christians, or even to people likely to have any significant Christian understanding. The test for every word, idea, concept should be: "Will they understand this? This is for them, not for us." Otherwise, non-Christians will quickly come to their own conclusion: "This is for them, not for us."
We must also realise that some non-Christians may be familiar with Christian jargon words due to a Christian upbringing, but can be repelled by words from the past that they regard as cringe-making and religious. They too need the message in non-threatening neutral language. Evangelicals, as a grouping, are viewed in a very negative way in most countries. Surprisingly this is true even in America, as a recent Barna Research study demonstrates. In many countries in continental Europe (e.g. Poland) evangelicals are perceived as a cult.
Charity, a Christian who visited such a lowkey-start evangelistic site recently, saw the significance of this approach, writing: "It is really cool to see how God is using this to reach the world! At first I was sure it was a New Age thing because it was so down-to-earth and easy to understand. It kept me interested!"
If this site was written in business-seminar-speak, we would no doubt talk of "leveraging new conceptual paradigms". But we don't!
Reaching the inoculated onesBoth C S Lewis and Stanley Jones spoke of people who have been exposed to just enough Christianity to inoculate them against the real thing. These people are another group for whom we should avoid jargon – not because they do not know it, but because they do! As past (or even present) church attenders, they are familiar with these religious words yet do not discern the spiritual meaning behind them, at least so far as their own lives are concerned. And if they also view Christianity negatively for whatever reason, these familiar words will carry negative and possibly hurtful baggage.
But if those same words are re-expressed in neutral, everyday language, the meaning may be suddenly illuminated. Even committed Christians often comment that a verse paraphrased in, for example, The Message, brings a powerful meaning to something which had for them lost its power through over-familiarity.
CapitalizationIt is also wise to avoid capitalizing pronouns referring to God and Jesus, for two reasons:
It breaks up the flow of reading, especially for second-language readers.
It looks religious and 'churchy'. Although this Guide does capitalize pronouns for a Christian readership, we do not in an evangelistic context.
Modern Bible translations avoid capitals for these reasons. Indeed, the first editions of the King James Bible did not do it either – it was a much later idea. Also consider whether you need to give a Bible reference when you quote a piece of scripture. As you are writing for non-Christians, they may not understand the reference system anyway. Rather than writing for example, '1 Cor 2;13', we can say that the words were 'written by Paul, an early Christian leader'. This email from northern Europe illustrates the widespread unfamiliarity with the Bible: "I am a reader of your web site, which I read with interest. But there is some things, which I don't understand: John 10:10b, NIV. What it is NIV? Could you tell me please, what it is? The Book of Revelation and where it can be found? What is Acts?"
Organizational names can also contain jargon words – in an evangelistic setting, it may be appropriate to choose a different name to brand the site.
Author