12 Christianese Words and Phrases We Need to Explain
Are you fluent in Christianese?
Christianese is the insider language that church people speak which may sound confusing or odd to non-Christians.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, watch this video poking fun at the words Christians say.
VIDEO: Shoot Christians Say
Can’t see the video? Click here.
This video is funny because it’s true.
How many times have you said or heard these things in your conversations with other Christians?
But how many people feel like outsiders in Christian circles because they do not know the lingo.
People are intimidated enough to walk through the doors of a church on a Sunday morning. They already feel like an outsider. They are already questioning whether or not your church is a place where they could fit in.
Speaking Christianese from the stage is a quick way to signal, “Yes, you are an outsider, and you do not fit in here.”
We have the most important message in the world. Life and death are literally in the balance. We must be clear with the words we use and how we communicate to newcomers.
So I made a list of words we say that might be confusing to outsiders.
I am not saying that we should not use these phrases. Some of them are straight from the Bible. However, when we use them, we had better provide a simple definition.
However, when we use them, we better explain them. Defining these terms lets guests know that you are thinking about them, shows them that you care, and helps clarify your message.
12 Christianese Words a Phrases We Say
1. “Fellowship”
Only Christians call hanging out together fellowshipping. Those outside the church may think you are referring to a work program for on the job training.
2. “Quiet Time”
Is that like time out? Christians may know that you mean time spent in prayer and reading God’s word (usually in the morning with a cup of coffee), but non-Christians don’t.
3. “Hedge of Protection”
How much protection does a hedge even provide? I for one would rather have some bulletproof glass of protection, or maybe a castle with a moat of protection.
4. “Small Group” / “Home Group” / “Life Group” / “Missional Community Group” / “Life Transformation Group” …
It seems every church has a different name for their groups. Whatever you brand them, explain what they are. These names mean nothing to outsiders.
5. “Traveling Mercies”
What is a traveling mercy anyway? Nobody outside of the church talks like this. Could you just say “safe trip” instead?
6. “Washed by the Blood” / “Saved by the Blood of the Lamb”
Could anything sound more like a cult to an outsider than the mental image of people getting washed in sheep blood? Gross.
7. “Anointed”
Where would a person ever hear this word outside of Christian circles? Usually, you are simply trying to say that a person has a God-given ability.
8. “Hallelujah”
Most people know that Hallelujah is a word Christians say when they are praising God for something. But still, I doubt the average guest at your church is fluent in Hebrew.
9. “Tithe” / “Tithing” / “Tithes and Offerings”
It is intimidating enough to a new comer that you are asking them to give you money. The least you could do is clarify the words you use when you do it.
10. “Communion” / “Lord’s Supper” / “Lord’s Table” / “Eucharist” …
We have a lot of words for the Christian ritual of eating stale crackers with a shot of grape juice. Don’t assume that everyone knows what you mean, even Christians from a different church tradition.
11. “Lay Hands On”
Does this sound a bit violent to anyone else? It sounds similar to the phrase “don’t lay a hand on her.” Of course, Christians know you mean prayer, but they are the insiders.
12. “Body of Christ”
Are you talking about Jesus’ physical body or an insider’s metaphor for the church?
What Else?
This list is not comprehensive. There are many other Christianese words and phrases we use. So help us out.
What am I missing? What Christianese words and phrases should we add to this list?
Great observation! I’d add “gospel” as in “They haven’t heard the gospel.” Does that mean they haven’t heard the 4 gospels read aloud or the good news of Jesus? Another term requiring an explanation is “born again” even Nicodemus needed an explanation. By the way what exactly is an “evangelical” other than a voting block.
Thanks Robert. I agree with all of those too. Great points! I also wonder how many people hear “gospel” and think we are talking about a music genre.
Going through sanctification.
In sin.
Give my life to Jesus.
Get saved.
.
How about faith? You must have faith. Or believe? Just believe. One word is a noun and the other is a verb. Yet they are used as though they mean the same thing.
“Doing life together”. I hate that phrase with a passion. It is not found anywhere in the Bible and I am not sure where it originated but I wish people would stop saying it.
Breakthrough. Break through what?
You forgot the term “loving on people.” I know what it means, but it sounds really pervy.
As a non-church going Christian, slowly making my way back to “fellowship ” with “the body,” I am in whole-hearted agreement with the article and the posted additions to the list. Was watching a well known preacher describing ways to “get [my] breakthrough” and just lost it, realizing how much of an outsider I still am. Googled “sick of Christian-ease” and this article came up. Thank you. I feel less alone.
Thanks for sharing, Kay. This is proof of what I’m talking about in the article. I need to add “breakthrough” to this list. What are we breaking, and where are we going through to? 🙂
So help me understand how we can change our language from Christianese to a better way of talking so we let people know we are including them?
Good question. It’s not easy, but essentially it boils down to being more mindful of the words that we say and how they might be confusing to outsiders. Then, if we use those words, we should at least pause for a moment to explain what we mean by them before moving on.
Outsiders?
This “us” vs “them” mentality also doesn’t help matters.
I totally love the sentiments expressed here. Working out my salvation (see what I did there?) is complex enough without adding an entire lingo to the mix. We should find a way to make it easier for the ordinary English speaker.
As a Christian, it was SO funny to laugh at myself! This is really well done. In these “end times” this really “exhorted” me. Thank you. I’d better get back to the “sanctification” process, “dying to myself” daily. Rough week “pleading the blood of the lamb” to get me out of the “Refiner’s Fire.”
“Blessings”
Jenny
Check in my spirit!
God is good all the time
Christ Centered is one I’ve heard overused. While I get what it means and even agree, I get tired of it sometimes.
What does a Christian mean when he or she says “speak into that ” (subject, verse, topic, whatever)
Since I went back to a church after 15 years of atheism, I refuse to speak ANY christianese. It makes my skin crawl when people in other denominations speak like that as it does sound cult like (as my denomination this doesnt come up much at all if ever). It was one reason I left church when I was younger, I wanted to be around people who talked normal. There were many reasons beyond that as it was a minor one, but christianese should never be spoken IMO as many young people want nothing to do with it. It’s sad when I still at times have an easier time communicating lessons from the Bible with non believers than other followers of Christ simply because I will not speak in cliches…I always think of how when I was where they are would I want to be approached, anyone speaking like this automatically made me ignore everything they had to say.
Many Christians assume that one of the best ways to encourage their non-Christian neighbors to trust the Lord is to invite them to attend worship services.
When my siblings and I were children, our parents weren’t clergy but they were often elected to lay offices of the congregations of which they were members. (“Congregations” is plural here because we moved five times between 1944 and 1960.) They told us that, even when we didn’t actually have visitors with us during a worship service, we should pay close attention so as to be better prepared to answer visitors’ questions about what was said and done.
I think our parents’ primary motive was that they expected us to someday be elected to various lay offices which would put us in positions to either be on the platform ourselves during services or to be making decisions about whom to invite to participate. I think our parents wanted us to think about how, in that context, to use words the visitors would be able to comprehend.
That same ability can also reduce barriers to evangelism when Christians are speaking with our neighbors “over the backyard fence”.
Step one in developing this ability is to find out what our neighbors’ interests are. No, we don’t need to accept their invitations to participate in activities that we wouldn’t recommend for our own offspring. But there are ways to ask people about where they have lived or other questions without being “too personal”.
Even if our neighbors use language that seems to indicate they have a Christian “background”, we can ask them what they mean. More than once, I have asked people what they mean by “saved”. Saved from what?
The use of Christianese doesn’t always translate into Christian maturity. And not everyone – not even all the people who think of themselves as Christians – actually want to embark on or continue a spiritual journey. Some people are quite satisfied with the version of Christianity they inherited from their parents or learned from a friend or relative or from the pastor of a local congregation.
Mrs. Mohandas Gandhi has been quoted as saying to her husband “It (the lifestyle he had chosen) is even harder for those of us who don’t even want to be as good as you are.”
Using language our neighbors understand is a way to avoid having people think of us as urging steps they are not ready to take. A person doesn’t perceive a need for salvation from sin or from guilt until he first sees himself as a sinner. Telling someone he is a sinner is an exercise in futility until he first has a working definition of “sin”. Offering such a definition is almost never the best way to begin earning our neighbors’ trust.
I fully agree that the main aim of any Christian is to be a light to this fallen world and spread the good word. As a light bearer we should follow the leading of the spirit in the words we use to “preach” to others, that’s biblical and where all our leading should stem from, the Spirit. With the world asking Christian’s to pack it up a bit and not be so in your face about our beliefs and be more worldly in our speach, I proudly speak Christanese because for me it is far more important to do what God wants and has placed on my heart than being acceptable, non offensive and appealing to the world’s views. I in no way believe your article is trying to encourage us to dum down our views for the world but noticed that my conviction about this topic was different to that of other commenters and thought I’d add my perspective for thought. I don’t judge and each should follow the leading of their heart and spirit in how God wants you to communicate his message. Blessings.
I quit attending church several years ago, and a friend told me recently to not let anyone or anything steal my fire. I’m like what the heck does that mean. I didn’t know I was a traveling camp fire. Funny, funny. Oh well I guess she meant well.
This article only diagnoses the problem; it offers very little in the way of alternatives. I understand the need to define our terms for those who don’t understand the words we’re using — this applies far beyond Christianity; it’s just a good communication principle.
But I do think the author goes too far when he calls actual biblical terms as Christianese. For example, “hedge of protection” comes from Job. And “washed by the blood” comes straight from Exodus as well as the Gospels. Explaining the term “Body of Christ” from the stage is crucially important so that members understand what their relationships with each other should look like. So yes, we should explain it, but we should also continue using it.
The principles of Proverbs and Psalms, as well as some Gospel passages, suggest that our speech should be seasoned with God’s own words. If we can’t even do that in church, which is where Christ’s own family gathers together, then where can we do it?
This strikes at a faulty presupposition of this article. Church services are not primarily for unsaved or unchurched people; they are for Christians to gather together in deeper relational fellowship (and yes, we must use that term because it indicates a deepness that “hanging out” cannot communicate”) where together they worship their Savior and encourage one another through “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t invite unsaved people to church, but this should not be our primary evangelistic tool. I need to improve with my personal evangelism. I should just expect an impersonal experience at church do it for me.
“Planting churches”
Our pastor is moving to Italy to “plant churches.” Over and over, despite the fact that visitors are among the congregation, he uses this phrase. Why not , start a church.
The words I could not Find was not found in this site. SO if you are looking for positive words here is my personal list. Please add. It’s what I was in search of was puzzle pieces I missed.
PRAYER FAITH HOPE MERCY GRACE GLORY TRUST SPIRIT BLESSINGS RIGHTEOUSNESS PROMISE LOVE WISDOM ETERNAL
TRACY RUMP
I am laughing 😂 at myself. I once said, “let’s go to the throne.” I did correct myself and say, “ let’s pray.” I really didn’t realize we have our on language in church. 🤣🤣
There are a range of words that Christians take for granted that non Christian’s may not understand.
Redemption
Atonement
Substitutionary
Salvation
Agape
This is just a very short list of words that many who have experience going to Church may casually say without comprehending the person they are talking too may not fully understand. We need to be mindful of this language challenge when sharing the Gospel.
I think it is important to remember that not one English word is written in Hebrew Old Testament or Greek New Testament. (Duh) As culture and society change, words fall out of popularity or change meaning, or acquire a double meaning. Using “Chirstinize” words that were commonly known and understood years ago as well as phrases that are known only in the church most definitely give newer believers the deer in the headlight look when we use them. I pastor a group of older people who come from the motorcycle community. When I slip into Christianize, they often ask me to explain in English. It is very possible to use words that are common today to explain the Gospel. And as I tell them, keep reading the Book and the Holy Spirit will give you the meaning of those big and weird-sounding phrases.
You all might enjoy the film “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone”, which indirectly addresses this plague of Biblical proportions. https://youtu.be/Iw8p8LKBPRw
Interesting aritcle and comments. I searched through the comments and noticed that no one has included the word “witnessing”. This is not only Christianese, it is used in reverse. A witness (to all the rest of the world) is one who sees or has seen. The term witnessing is not used anywhere in scripture. If it was in scripture is would not mean talking, or sharing, or explaining the gospel. Witnessing means seeing. A witness has seen an event and when they talk about what they have seen, they are not witnessing, they are bearing witness or we might say, they are testifying. But in the secular world, if they hear you say you were witnessing to somebody, it is totally confusing. Witnessing = seeing or observing. Thats it! My little rant.
“Mock”. Its almost guaranteed that someone using this obsolete word is a Christian.
Nearly forgot… (!!) “Thee”, and “Thou” and “shalt not” and other Elizabethan words from an obsolete translation of the Bible. Artificial archaic language isn’t just limited to Christians though, the Wiccans use it too.
Disrespectful! You don’t have to believe but you can keep from your disrespectful comments.
Speak INTO your life, speak a blessing OVER you, speak life OVER you, pray OVER you vs pray with or for you, speak OVER you.
The word “season” instead of time or period,
Why do we talk this way? Is it to sound super spiritual?