Language Barrier
I had an encounter with someone today that took me somewhat aback.
This was a person in her mid-20's, with a good job with a movie production company that she enjoys, who was sent out to scout a possible location for filming. She needed a country church with a cemetery, so she went online and hunted for a church or two that fit the bill.
At one point, she asked me what my proper title would be - realized that "Father" probably wasn't right, but wasn't sure if I should be referred to as the pastor or as the minister (I told her answer to both, but that technically I would be called "the minister" in my congregation).
She could pronounce Presbyterian fairly well, but didn't know if it was Christian. This was after she kept interchanging "religion" for "denomination." I cleared a few things up for her, I think, but I don't know if she'll remember them.
It became very clear to me that this young woman has no faith. Probably doesn't think about God much. Probably doesn't miss it. I mean, she never had it, so how is she to know that she's missing anything?
I'm not saying this to mock her, belittle her, or be patronizing to her (should she have found this somehow). What I'm saying is that here was a person that all of my mental faculties about being a Christian minister and a pastor struggled to find an anchor with, and I kept having to tell myself "back a step, back a step, back a step..." And I ended up back at the very beginning.
It's the same with another young lady who has come into the family circle. No church background. No church language. I'm sure she thought Sunday was interesting, but part of her probably wondered what I was talking about. As someone said recently, we are into the second, potentially the third generation that actually has no background in the Church, and yet we think we're going to go out there and somehow reel them in?! It's not the ex-Sunday School kids coming back to the roost.
It's the people who think "Christ" is Jesus' last name.
It's the people who think the cross is just a funky design that looks good in a tattoo or on a piece of jewellry (delightfully retro!).
It's the people who don't give a tin s*** (to use a phrase of my father's) about what makes me Presbyterian, you United, you Lutheran, you Pentecostal, or the folks over there Jehovah's Witnesses. Kody Brown has four "wives" and gets to talk about it on TV? What makes his beliefs different from yours? And let's start at the beginning...
This is the uphill battle, folks. We are going to have to toooooootally rethink our language if we're going to reach out into this world, which is something that I've known intellectually for some time, but which was viscerally brought home to me today. I don't know *how* we're going to do it, but we are going to have to do it!
This was a person in her mid-20's, with a good job with a movie production company that she enjoys, who was sent out to scout a possible location for filming. She needed a country church with a cemetery, so she went online and hunted for a church or two that fit the bill.
At one point, she asked me what my proper title would be - realized that "Father" probably wasn't right, but wasn't sure if I should be referred to as the pastor or as the minister (I told her answer to both, but that technically I would be called "the minister" in my congregation).
She could pronounce Presbyterian fairly well, but didn't know if it was Christian. This was after she kept interchanging "religion" for "denomination." I cleared a few things up for her, I think, but I don't know if she'll remember them.
It became very clear to me that this young woman has no faith. Probably doesn't think about God much. Probably doesn't miss it. I mean, she never had it, so how is she to know that she's missing anything?
I'm not saying this to mock her, belittle her, or be patronizing to her (should she have found this somehow). What I'm saying is that here was a person that all of my mental faculties about being a Christian minister and a pastor struggled to find an anchor with, and I kept having to tell myself "back a step, back a step, back a step..." And I ended up back at the very beginning.
It's the same with another young lady who has come into the family circle. No church background. No church language. I'm sure she thought Sunday was interesting, but part of her probably wondered what I was talking about. As someone said recently, we are into the second, potentially the third generation that actually has no background in the Church, and yet we think we're going to go out there and somehow reel them in?! It's not the ex-Sunday School kids coming back to the roost.
It's the people who think "Christ" is Jesus' last name.
It's the people who think the cross is just a funky design that looks good in a tattoo or on a piece of jewellry (delightfully retro!).
It's the people who don't give a tin s*** (to use a phrase of my father's) about what makes me Presbyterian, you United, you Lutheran, you Pentecostal, or the folks over there Jehovah's Witnesses. Kody Brown has four "wives" and gets to talk about it on TV? What makes his beliefs different from yours? And let's start at the beginning...
This is the uphill battle, folks. We are going to have to toooooootally rethink our language if we're going to reach out into this world, which is something that I've known intellectually for some time, but which was viscerally brought home to me today. I don't know *how* we're going to do it, but we are going to have to do it!