Why Christians Speak “Christianese”, And Why It’s A Problem

Did you know that some researchers think Christians have their own religious dialect?

I’m referring to how Christians speak a kind of insider lingo in church. This so-called Christianese can be biblical or theological terms, like speaking in tongues, the Gospels or anointing. Other parts of our language are drawn from broader culture, like small group, quiet time and transparency.

Christian buzzwords can even deviate from standard grammar. For instance, we say we do life together, a friend spoke into our life, or that we were called to move to a new job.

Like any other group that’s been together long enough, Christians have what’s essentially jargon – a group of special words and expressions that others find difficult to understand. When you’re in the know, it just makes sense to say “sin” rather than to define it all the time.

But something about our Christian jargon makes me uneasy. I’m not sure we’re thinking about our language critically enough – or at all. And that can cause big problems.

Here are some potential hazards.

Christianese creates a culture that’s exclusive.

Imagine you walked into a room and heard the following:

“The patient’s haemorrhage dropped the haematocrit to the point where the myocardium became compromised, causing an infarction.”

For some people, that sentence may make perfect sense. But unless you’re a doctor, you’d probably realise pretty quickly, I don’t belong here.

It’s the same in church. When we’re busy talking about hedges of protection, mutual encouragement and praying in the Spirit, we can assume our listeners are familiar with Christian culture or have the same level of biblical literacy.

All this is fine, if you assume your audience are all the same as you. But spare a thought for those who might not be. For example, I heard of a man who was visiting a church, and the pastor said, “Please, Lord, cover this city with your blood.” You can guess how terrified the man was.

This doesn’t mean we don’t use biblical concepts at all, but we need to do so thoughtfully and with our audience in mind. Think of Acts 8:26-40, where Philip was able to translate the gospel into words that the Ethiopian official could understand.

Christianese can prevent openness.

Jargon can be a useful way of describing thoughts and feelings. But are the terms starting to detach from what we’re describing?

Are we saying hedge of protection not because we know what it is, but because that’s what everyone else is saying? Am I saying I’m loving on people, not because that’s how I feel, but because that’s the accepted lingo?

Using these terms because they feel true and accurate is perfectly fine. The danger is when, as Nadia Bolz-Weber points out, the lingo replaces when we’re actually describing, and we end up losing the meaning because we don’t know what we mean any more.

When jargon replaces open talk, there’s a problem.

Christianese can hide poor theology.

Broken is a popular term in Christian circles, but is this really a biblical concept?

It’s easy to quote our Christian jargon alongside the Bible – and often, our jargon has a basis in scripture. But if we don’t think about it critically, we can run into sloppy theology.

For example, we can say “Let’s pray before we worship,” as though worship is only through song.

We say that “God won’t give you more than you can handle”, only to discover that the Bible doesn’t really say this.

And why do we talk like we’re only “blessed” when good things happen?

And sometimes, our Christian buzzwords just don’t make sense.

What is doing life together? Why do Christians only use this phrase – don’t others do life together?

What am I supposed to do when I am told by a friend be blessed?

When someone says they want to love on these children, should I call the police?

And my personal favourite, intentional. Isn’t everything we choose to do intentional? Why is this thing I’m choosing to do more intentional than anything else I’ve done?

Christians need to be translators, too.

Our biblical and theological Christianese has its place. However, like any jargon, we can start to sacrifice clarity when we use these words thoughtlessly.

It isn’t about throwing Christianese away. It is about using these terms with healthy self-awareness and care. Like Paul, we need to learn how to flexible and adaptable, aiming to reach others the best way we can (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

Consider your audience.

Is there a likelihood people in the audience might not have the same background knowledge you do? The onus is on us to bridge the communication gap.

Use words that are precise.

There’s nothing wrong with using words that come naturally to me. But I don’t need to dress up my speech to seem more spiritual – and in fact, we’re cautioned not to (Matthew 6:5-8).

My personal mantra is that, if a metaphor is the most effective way of explaining something, I’ll use that. However, if there’s a plain English equivalent, I’ll use that.

Make sure you know a simple definition of what you’re talking about.

As Albert Einstein was attributed as saying, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Rethinking all this is not an easy task. But if we communicate well, then it will help others to understand the gospel better.

That’s worth the work.