Watch Your Language

by Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

What we say matters. The language we use to describe this adventure of Jesus contributes directly to our faith experience. Over time, the way we talk about our faith and common faith journeys gives shape to our church life.

For the last eight years, I’ve been working to drop the phrase “church member,” from my vocabulary, replacing it with “disciple.” Making this language shift has influenced me to take my spiritual identity far more seriously, recognizing the responsibility and opportunity inherent in disciple identity. I’m a member of many organizations, including church, while I’m a disciple of only one Lord.

Unsurprisingly, during this recent volatility, more new language is rising. When we encounter new experiences our former vocabularies often don’t contain the wording needed to capture new realities. Instead, we create new wording as it’s needed.

Savvy church leaders recognize the gift in new wording. They know we can help our churches adapt through the way we talk about being church. Savvy church leaders change their vocabularies to intentionally include specific wording to help their churches shift perspective and live into their callings. The following is a brief list of new wording for church leaders to consider.

Emerging Church Practice

Best Practices are defined as, “commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as correct or most effective.” (Thanks Google Online Dictionary.) Remember when churches inhabited the stable world wherein best practices could take shape? Now, effective church practice is being created as we speak. The church is unfolding before our eyes as conditions on the ground rapidly change. Through this new ECP phrase, we liberate ourselves from worn out paradigms, gaining permission to live into new forms of church community.

Christian Movement

Early on, Christianity was no established world religion, but a spiritual/social movement. As volatile events disrupt the organization and rhythms of churches, we are recapturing the awareness that we are churches on the move, part of a spiritual movement.

VUCA

Though first developed after the Cold War at the Army College, this anacronym for “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity,” is gaining popularity…for obvious reasons.

Snap Back Danger

As social distancing restrictions relax at some point this year, many church leaders are worried about the push in their churches to snap back to church just like it was before these volatile events. Though the energy behind snap back danger is understandable, we don’t want to abandon the great innovation we’ve achieved during this crazy time.

Growth Mindset

See my ReShape book for a chapter on this. Choosing a growth mindset directly influences how much our churches will transform and grow through volatile events.

Disciple Development

Christian education and even Christian formation are too weak for what we need now. We need invigorated, maturing disciples, caught up in the adventure of Jesus. So then churches are in the disciple development business, actively transforming ordinary human beings into Jesus imitators.

Disciple Care

Rather than pastoral care, we are doing disciple care. The focus in churches is on caring for each other, regardless of who provides the care. Using this disciple care phrase liberates the church to care in greater ways, avoiding the constraints of the pastoral care phrase.

Asset Management

How many times this week have I heard pastors say they don’t like doing administration? This volatility with its social distancing is teaching many of us new appreciation for the assets of our churches (buildings, property, finances, etc.). We are in the asset management business, endeavoring to make the most of God’s good gifts to us. Use this wording and increase engagement.

There are more, but I’ll stop here. Since we believe leadership matters, the language of leaders matters. To increase your church’s transformation, intentionally watch your language, accelerating our movement into the life-giving adventure of Jesus.