Christianese: What Are We Talking About?

By: Stephanie Defoyd
November 4th, 2013

Lately one of the topics between some of my friends and me has been Christianese.  The different phrases and words we Christians use when we talk to each other as well as to others.  Has anyone else ever noticed how odd some of these phrases or words sound when used in conversation?  Another thought: what on earth are we meaning when we say these things, and why don’t we just speak plain English?  Why do we always revert to using Christianese, and what purpose does it serve?

Yesterday morning, I joined a group of friends for a beginner’s Sunday school class at church.  One of our friends in the group is a new Christian, so the rest of us throughout the lesson were trying to help with explaining different points and concepts.  While talking about salvation and eternal life, God’s grace was of course brought up in the explanation.  The next question was how to break down and define grace more clearly.  We noticed right away that all of our answers we were giving were, in one way or another, reverting back to using Christianese, which wasn’t clearing anything up.  Finally with all of us working together, and with the help of a dictionary, we were able to explain with more clarity what it was we were trying to say.

When I got to work last night, I found myself still going over this in my mind.  And as I started copying down another friend’s Bible study notes during a lull in my shift, I noticed I was picking up on every cliché, every term we Christians use all the time and never really give any thought about – and some whose meanings we use far too loosely – throughout the whole page.  “To build up and edify,” “actively abide in Christ,” “God flows in us,” “fellowshipping,” “communion,” “spiritual fellowship,” “prayer warrior,” “born again.”  These are just a few examples.  Others I either hear people use, or hear referred to often jokingly would be “I’m praying for a hedge of protection around you,” and “so-and-so has a servant’s heart.”

Why is it that we don’t use simple language when we speak?  After a good sermon, a lot of the time we don’t just say something like, “That was a really powerful message Pastor shared today.”  No, instead it might go along the lines of, “Pastor was definitely filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Word was anointed.”  But that’s not all.  To quote Tim Hawkins, “It’s like we don’t say someone’s a gossip. No, ‘She has the gift of “discernment”.’  We don’t say, ‘No,’ we say, ‘I’ll pray about it.’  We don’t say, ‘He’s out of his mind,’ no, ‘That’s our youth pastor.’”  While what Tim said was in jest, there’s a lot of truth behind it.  For some reason, we Christians don’t seem to always just say what we mean.  Evidently we feel the need to spruce what we say instead of being blunt and telling it as it is.  I know a lot of Christians probably revert to Christianese because it’s something they grew up hearing from other Christians in their lives, and just have picked up on it over the years.  But sometimes I wonder if a lot of us feel the need to use these big words, certain terms, and clichés to make us at least sound better or more knowledgeable than others around us.

I think there are probably more of us than we realize who actually don’t know what half of the clichés we use even MEAN.  I know I’m pretty clueless on a good majority of them.  To top it off, Christianese causes many if not all Christians to use a lot of words far too loosely.  Take the word “fellowship” for instance.  A church announcement might say, “Come join us Wednesday at 6PM for Bible study, followed by a potluck dinner, and wonderful fellowship.”  What does this mean?  Well, almost always fellowship refers to casually chatting with fellow Christians about everything under the sun and participating in other various activities together.  You know what’s pretty interesting though?  That’s NOT the definition of fellowship in the Bible.  In fact, the meaning is very different.  The Greek word for fellowship is ‘koinonia’, and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as follows: “intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community.”  It means having GOD at the center of our thoughts and conversations, sharing what He’s doing in our lives with one another, working to encourage and help each other, etc.  It’s not about Christians just “hanging out” together. (There’s a lot more involved in the meaning of fellowship, but I will save that for a later date).  Hmm…doesn’t sound much like our definition of fellowship, now does it?

We Christians really need to stop using Christianese.  First off, it has no other purpose than to make one sound like they know a lot about something.  Secondly, a lot of the meanings to these clichés can’t be explained and are hard to understand, not only for new Christians or for those who aren’t familiar with Christianity, but also for those of us who have been Christians for quite a few years.  Explanations about God and salvation and the Bible that should be fairly simple to give (this only applies to something things, since there are a lot of concepts that just are not and never will be comprehendible to man) become almost ten times harder to explain and understand, if grasped at all.  And finally, when we use Christianese, we tend to use words like “fellowship” so casually that their true meaning is lost.