Or “If I speak in the tongues of theologians and the Authorised Version, but have not communication…”

The issue of spiritual gifts is a thorny one, and there are often sharp disagreements among Christians about what exactly they involve and how they should be exercise. But I’m not going to talk about that, but another phenomenon the pervades the church – Christianspeak, that peculiar form of language exclusively used within the Christian subculture.

The dialects vary from church to church, but every congregation uses it to some extent. If you’ve ever been baffled by phrases like “laid aside on a bed of sickness” and “travelling mercies”, or come across tortured syntax like “bless this food to our bodies” or puzzling terms like “unction” or overused euphemisms like “unhelpful”, then you know the kind of thing I’m talking about.

Even theological terms which we Christians take for granted can be baffling to the uninitiated. On the Navigators conference, in a seminar on Engaging Culture, we were set the task of explaining the Gospel in two minutes without jargon. Believe me, it wasn’t an easy task. “Sin”, “grace” and “atonement”, for example, need explaining to those not used to Biblical lingo.

Recently, I spent some time singing from the updated version of Christian Hymns (which my sister Becky has just bought the music edition of) and from Praise!, both of which are being considered by our church as potential replacements for our battered old copies of Mission Praise. After comparing the selection of songs, the general tone and the different ways they’ve updated old hymns, I have to say that I think Praise! is the better of the two. One of the major reasons I think this is that it does a much better job of translating old classics into understandable, modern English. Becky, on the other hand, doesn’t like it for much the same reason! She thinks firstly that Praise! mangles the hymns and secondly that people wouldn’t have a problem understanding the older language. She and Hannah, my youngest sister, disagreed that there was a cultural gap between the church and wider society.

I’m sorry Becky, but I don’t think you appreciate just how weird and alien the Christian subculture can be to non-Christians. Everyone currently in Bala Evangelical Church may well be able to understand the language of Christian Hymns, but our vision should be to bring new people into the church who aren’t from Christian backgrounds. The world shouldn’t have to learn our language before they can hear the Gospel and worship God.

I think Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is very instructive in how we should speak to communicate. In 1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23, he says “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible… I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings”. Christians’ priority should not be sticking to the forms, conventions and vocabulary that we find comfortable, but using all possible means to communicate the truths of the Gospel.

Paul’s teaching on tongues is also handy. You might think that I’m torturing the text here by applying it to Christianspeak, but if you consider that some churches still retain the language of centuries ago, then I think it’s clear that we can indeed end up speaking something that is a foreign language to the culture around us. Paul says in 1 Cor 14:11, “If I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me”. Our use of Christianspeak makes this a very real danger.

So what principles does Paul lay down? Our priority should be using gifts that “build up the church” (14:12). “Building up” suggests both helping to edify those already in the church and to build up the number of people in the church. This must be our criteria for evaluating what we do in church. Let’s go through some of the principles laid down:

• Anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may intepret what he says (v13)

It isn’t wrong to make use of old language as long as it is explained so that all can understand. If we exclusively use plain modern English, we are in danger of losing much of the power and majesty of the language of the past. The King James Version helped shape our language, and its rhythms and wordings are often beautiful and poetic. That can be put to good use, but it must be explained, it must be translated. As Paul elaborates in verses 16 and 17, how can a man be edified or agree with what you are saying if he does not understand?

• For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful (v14)

We can be praying genuinely from our hearts when speaking in our Christianese, but in employing dry clichés and pet phrases, we are failing to really think through what we’re actually saying. Putting the truths of the Gospel into jargon-free language can really make us think about the wonder of what we are talking about. We can trot out words like “atonement” and “grace” as mere dry words, dull doctrines, and fail to appreciate how alive, wonderful and life-changing they are. Rephrasing is a useful way of meditating on the truths of God’s word.

• If the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? (v23)

One of the things we should be seeking is for people who have not heard the Gospel, who may have never been in a church, to come to our meetings and hear the wonderful news about Jesus Christ. If we’re talking gobbledegook, then they’ll be completely put off and think we’re a load of nutters. If just one soul is prevented from accepting the Gospel by our language, then it is a price infinitely too dear to pay. (I believe in God’s complete sovereignty in salvation, as in all matters, so this could not happen outside the will of God, but I also believe that this does not deny our own responsibility).

• If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God (v28)

You may find Christianspeak useful, but when we meet together, each of us should be seeking the good of others above our own. Unless what you’re saying will “strengthen the church” (v26), then keep it between you and God. Worship God however you like when you’re alone, but with others, bear with them.

I hope those are helpful. I think we really need to work at finding ways of communicating the Gospel both faithfully and clearly to a generation that has largely grown up not knowing church and not knowing the Bible. As missionaries to the world, in whatever area of life we find ourselves, we need to learn to speak the language of those we are seeking to reach. Cross-cultural evangelism is a reality not just for Christians abroad, but often for those of us at home here in the UK.

Tags: Christianity culture speaking in tongues evangelism language evangelical