In my books, I write frequently about making sure that in our scripts and programming, we stop the “Christian Lingo” and speak in a language and style the culture understands. As an example, a few years ago, I received this email from a media executive that brilliantly illustrates the point:
Phil:
This month, in your newsletter, you mentioned how sometimes we, as Christians, don’t communicate very well with non-believers. Several years ago, my wife and I bought a radio station in a small market in rural Indiana. We decided on a positive country format and included select Christian artists that fit that format. One DJ was given a Christian CD and told to listen to a particular song. In a few minutes, he came out of the studio and announced that it was a gross and disgusting song. We were surprised and asked him why. His statement was, “That song talks about being washed in the blood.”
For us, being active in church all of our lives, that was common church language, but to an unchurched person who took the literal meaning, it was gross. My wife had the chance to explain it to him, but we have used this example many times, trying to get “church” people to see how our familiar use of words is not understood by the world.
Thanks for all you do. We appreciate you and your forward thinking. You do good stuff!!!!!!!!!
It’s a perfect example. Drop the lingo. Let’s write scripts, speak, and share our story in a language and style the audience understands. Have you discovered any other good examples?
This article about Christian lingo originally appeared here and is used by permission.
