Preaching in a foreign language
Preachers, do we use terms the lost don't understand when we present the gospel?
I saw one recently that proclaimed "REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL" If I was a betting man, I would lay a wager that 9 out of 10 people who read that sign had no idea what it really means. But hey it made the people inside the church feel better, they were proclaiming the gospel!I agree (Link via Kouya Chronicle). For a linguist's view on the same basic topic, read Wayne Leman's recent blog post.
All joking aside, this is an enormously important issue in Western culture. The words we use to convey the meaning of what it means to become and live as a Christian are largely incomprehensible to the average person in the street.
posted by Milton Stanley at 10:20 AM
4 Comments:
I think there is a careful balance here. I don't think we need to toss our terms just because outsiders don't get them. On the other hand when talking to outsiders/the uninitiated we need to be careful to communicate on their level. There are some really good, rich terms that we don't want to lose but we also cannot let those get in the way of communicating in ways people understand. It is a balance and there are some words we simply should not let go of! Thanks for bringing it up.
i was just talking to someone about what it really means to repent. i'm not sure we Christians know. We package it in terms of repenting of living life according to our own way rather than God's, but then i wonder how many of us have really repented.
i've been speaking on human justice and i want to hide behind the pulpit when i'm done because people think i'm getting "political". Yet human justice is probably the biggest theme in the bible, and the biggest reason God judged the nations. Repentance needs to be defined for Christians.
And yes, we do use too much Christinese. Maybe if we used less then even the Christians would begin to understand what we're talking about.
I agree, Matt. Thanks for adding t the discussion.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, WR.
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