Although most of us understand that we, as God’s people, are the church, we consistently misuse that term and many others. I remain guilty of this myself. But, the result is that we use language that continuously waters down the true wonder of who we are in Christ and our purpose in Him.
When we say, “I’m going to church,” we are not affirming that we, His people, are His church, His spiritual temple, filled by the Spirit of God in order to take His fragrance everywhere we go. We must regularly declare the truth of who we are in order to fully walk in it!
When we say, “I’m a member of so-and-so church,” we fail to affirm that each of us is a member of the Body of Christ, not a local organization, connected organically to Jesus as the Head from Whom flows all manner of life, power, and privileges.
When we say, “There is a church over there,” we are reducing the beauty of being a called out people who have been adopted into God’s family to a mere building where believers gather to worship.
When we say, “He is a pastor of that church,” we are splitting the church, God’s people, into a million artificial units in our mind which detracts from the amazing work that Jesus did in which He joined us together into ‘one Body and one Spirit.’ In fact, it this unity with one another and the Father that is meant to demonstrate God’s reality to the world.
When we talk about “the church service” we tend to think that the spiritual gifts and power given to God’s people are meant to operate primarily within a building at a specific time. How limiting this is to a broken world that desperately needs to hear, see, feel, and touch the living Jesus through each one of us every day and everywhere.
I’m sure you could come up with dozens of more examples. Feel free to share them here.
But, no, I am not trying to split hairs. Our language, when used consistently, does matter and, in this case, often robs us of the power and beauty of who we are and the work that Jesus Christ did to make us His people, friends, family, bridegroom, and ambassadors 24/7 in every place we walk.
Comments
8 responses to “Our Language Matters”
This has been a specific observation of my own for years, one which has been mostly dismissed as being over the top.
I concur that our language matters. (Language created all that exists, after all.) No matter what we may say we mean, our language usage both reveals and reinforces what is in our hearts.
Amen. Our language, our rhetoric can be divisive if we don’t think first. I’m as guilty or more as anyone else. James has something to say about this I think? };-)
If we take Jesus seriously in John 17 and Paul seriously in First Corinthians 3, we can realize that we Christians, by dividing ourselves into sects based on disagreements over doctrines, and taking denominational names, is a major hindrance to the Kingdom of God coming on earth.
Imagine the ‘oneness’ that we would experience in the Body if we took all the names off all the buildings we meet in and refused to call ourselves anything other than Christians.
The word “church” is important because it is the expression of God’s eternal purpose. It is His heart’s desire, His bride, His body on earth, His living earthly temple, His decision making, kingdom establishing body and the means by which His glory is seen on the earth. How dare us use the word flippantly as if the meaning is up to us!
The phrase “doing church” can also be problematic. It usually refers to the activities that we associate with “church.” It betrays our cultural bias of “doing” over “being.” We ARE the church, we don’t DO church.
Loyd, I think you are accurate in all descriptions of church listed. What I believe Roger was trying to say by the article, was that the labels we use in how we describe church (going to, being a member of, ect) often reduce it to a building or a generic community the way any other secular group would describe themselves. By using the word ‘church’ in this way, we leave no room for church being the “expression of God’s eternal purpose” that you’ve talked about.
Good stuff. The term “worship service” is one of the more pervasive and reality-eclipsing terms in common use. http://blcasey.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/voices-unhelpful-language/
I’m in complete agreement with you and with Roger. I was merely re-emphasizing the point he was making. Blessings.