Shownotes
- How the language we use as a church creates our culture.
- The Top 10 Christianese words or sayings deciphered.
- What our language communicates to those outside the Church.
- How we can grow in our own “gospel fluency” and begin to speak in clear, meaningful ways about our faith and what life as a Christian is all about.
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
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Transcripts
The Bible in our Christian faith is all relevant.
Caesar:It is you don't have to make it.
Caesar:It is relevant unless we shroud everything in insider language, in weird terms that others can't understand or puts them off.
Caesar:Jesus spoke an everyday language and parables and story because he saw his relationship with his father and ours as a normal part of his life as a human.
Caesar:And we can learn to put aside our cultural oddities as Christians, as Christiany stuff.
Caesar:And we can learn to speak like Jesus spoke normal everyday life.
Caesar:It works.
Caesar:It fits okay.
Caesar:It is relevant.
Caesar:You don't have to make it relevant.
Caesar:Just don't make it irrelevant.
Heath:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated . Faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Heath:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Heath:And now here's your host Caesar.
Heath:Kalinowski
Caesar:well, Hey, Hey, good to be back with you.
Caesar:Hope your week's going good.
Caesar:Well, I, I gotta say it had to happen.
Caesar:It eventually had to happen.
Caesar:But, uh, my oldest grandson broke his arm last week.
Caesar:Yikes.
Caesar:It was crazy.
Caesar:I kind of had to expect it.
Caesar:He's all about the monkey bars right now, you know, going across the jungle gym stuff.
Caesar:I think maybe he just likes the term monkey bars, but yep.
Caesar:He fell off the monkey bars and broke his dominant arm, his elbow.
Caesar:And it was while he was at a VBS.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So I'm gonna blame the broken arm on going to VBS no, I don't know.
Caesar:I have nothing against VBS, but it was a little, it was a little freaky to see my best friend with a broken arm.
Caesar:And then he had to do really long surgery to get it all pinned and fixed.
Caesar:And I don't know.
Caesar:Anyway, if you think of it, pray for my little buddy, Paton and pray for his arm to heal good.
Caesar:I appreciate it.
Caesar:Thanks a lot.
Caesar:Hey, have you joined us over on Facebook yet?
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Caesar:Also love to hear any new.
Caesar:episode ideas, you have questions.
Caesar:You've got things that we've not addressed, which seems like almost everything.
Caesar:So if you ask about a certain episode, I might refer you to one, or if it's an idea that we've not talked about a topic we've not addressed yet, or maybe in the way you need, then boy, that'll be a great idea for us.
Caesar:And we would love that.
Caesar:All right.
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Caesar:Publish every single Monday for over five years now and gonna continue to do that.
Caesar:But, uh, if you are listening, whatever, you're listening on, take a moment, share this out every day, Disciple dot com slash podcast or, or however you want to.
Caesar:And let people know that there's some community happening here.
Caesar:There's some Gospel, gospel fluency.
Caesar:We're learning how to make disciples in everyday life.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:I would really appreciate that and we'll get more people listening to the show and learning how to make disciples in everyday.
Caesar:Now today I have a question for you is the language you use together with other Christians in your church?
Caesar:Is it creating the culture that you want?
Caesar:Have you ever thought about that?
Caesar:Could it be that certain language that we have adopted or, you know, started to use or just that's how we've always said things is some of that maybe not helpful, is it creating a culture that we don't really love or want and is some of that language spilling over into sort of insider language and Christianese that you know, us Christians use?
Caesar:When we talk about our faith or Christianity with others, I, I think it might be, I'll tell you even internally within the family, we say things like, you know, a so and so is a lost person, you know, nowhere in scripture.
Caesar:Do you see that mentioned?
Caesar:So to call someone lost a lost person, it's sort of this in and out mentality and it starts to set that up.
Caesar:Scripture does talk about Jesus talks about parables, which aren't true stories, but in parables that he was dead.
Caesar:Now he's alive.
Caesar:He was lost.
Caesar:And now he's found it's not meant to be a label for someone to label somebody.
Caesar:So is your brother a lost person?
Caesar:It's you know, it's like, where did he go?
Caesar:Is, do we need to get a mapped certain, not a search party.
Caesar:We've always chosen to use for a long time now.
Caesar:A phrase that I think is maybe more hopeful we say not yet believers . Yeah, but even that is kind of insider.
Caesar:I would not say that outside the church, like, Hey, that's an not yet believer, but I found it to be more hopeful.
Caesar:Also pet peeve.
Caesar:We say things like I'm going to church or Hey, welcome to our church.
Caesar:Or has he ever been to your church?
Caesar:And the church is people.
Caesar:So to use that word church.
Caesar:when we're talking about a building or a service.
Caesar:Nah, that's weird.
Caesar:And see there again, it creates culture because then we sort of continue to paint the picture that the church is an event.
Caesar:The church is a place versus it's a people on mission.
Caesar:It's a family of God filling the world with his glory.
Caesar:So that's a pet peeve of mind, don't say, welcome to church.
Caesar:Or are we going to church lose that?
Caesar:That's really crushing when it comes to the identity of the church.
Caesar:I was thinking about this even.
Caesar:A little bit more today, even the word like sanctuary, welcome to the sanctuary.
Caesar:Well, that word sanctuary means like a place of refuge or safety and you go, yeah, I want, I want that to feel that way when we're together, but what are we saying?
Caesar:Like, are we saying that this building is a refuge and, uh, a safety of, from what?
Caesar:From the world from regular life?
Caesar:See we, Jesus is our refuge and wherever we go, he's with us, his Spirit's in us.
Caesar:I, in you, you and me as we are in the father, all that.
Caesar:So even things like sanctuary, we would just call it our family room or things like that.
Caesar:Much more familial language.
Caesar:We use the word.
Caesar:You know, or missions.
Caesar:And we still, every, almost every church uses it to refer to overseas sort of missionary work or something, which totally denies the fact that our Trinitarian identity as sent ones, as part of that is we are all missionaries and it's not a locational based it's identity based.
Caesar:So you see what I'm saying is your language.
Caesar:And we stick with it, but why, but is it creating a culture and does it not help, perhaps here's another part of that is the way that you teach or preach in the words you use.
Caesar:Is it helping people to understand and articulate how the Gospel affects and transforms all of life?
Caesar:Or is there a special church language used that originated maybe.
Caesar:Doctrinal studies or seminary or lots of Bible commentaries.
Caesar:Maybe those originated in another era and time and culture, but our sermons are full of that stuff.
Caesar:And.
Caesar:The people in our community, in our church are getting a steady eye to that.
Caesar:And it's the only way they know how to talk about certain things.
Caesar:And it seems real insider.
Caesar:Is that helpful?
Caesar:I don't know that it is.
Caesar:And of course there's a big pile of Christianese that we've all learned and used oftentimes without even realizing it, all these words that only Christians use.
Caesar:And we don't realize how that stuff sounds to others outside of the church, or maybe even outside of our specific brand of church.
Caesar:I want you to think about that and, and take a listen to this conversation that I had with Heath about all of this, and then I'll be back at the end with some additional thoughts.
Caesar:If we in fact possess the keys to the kingdom of God and this good news of who God is and what he's done and through his son.
Caesar:And what's now true of us, needs to be communicated in some way.
Caesar:If we use a bunch of goofy, weird language.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:No one understands it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Then we blame it on like, oh, people are just rejectors
Caesar:. Heath: Yeah, exactly.
Caesar:No, you're like a fool.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Could it be.
Heath:All right.
Heath:So for the sake of, uh, our uninitiated listeners who claim that they don't know any Christianese or exactly what it is, and because it's kind of funny, it's kind, why don't you explain what Christianese is and give us a couple examples.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Well, it seems that many of us are kind of bilingual okay.
Caesar:In our life as Christians.
Caesar:We speak a normal everyday language.
Caesar:Most of the time sort of, you know, like for us, it's be English for others.
Caesar:It might be another language, but, you know, uh, but then when it comes time to talk about religion or spirituality, God, Jesus, or the church, we break out this special christianese language.
Caesar:It's like a whole other thing.
Caesar:And we use words and phrases like sanctified and.
Caesar:Washed in the blood and on fire and filled with the spirit Jesus in your heart, you know, and a whole all list of other terms gleaned from years and years of, I don't know, singing praise tunes or something, you know, worship music, like it's fair in a song, you know what I mean?
Caesar:But sure.
Caesar:You know, realize.
Caesar:So I think partly this comes from here in other Christians talk this way.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Some, some of it comes from the fact that most sermons we've heard use a lot of this special language, but if we wanna tell our stories in ways.
Caesar:Others who have not learned this unusual dialect can relate to and connect with.
Caesar:And it's important that they do that.
Caesar:We need to retrain ourselves to proclaim the Gospel, proclaim this good news of who God is and what he's done in Christ using language that actually communicates good news to the listener.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:So christianese is sometimes it's actually a biblical word, but like no one would ever use it nowadays.
Caesar:And so we have to give it meaning usually it's sort of a made up language that Christians have been taught and now use a.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So some of it's like, well, we it's, we can recapture biblical language.
Caesar:Absolutely can.
Caesar:But appropriately as a person's ready, just like my two year old grandson and one year old grandson, I don't use certain words.
Caesar:They're real use they're real words.
Caesar:I just don't use 'em with them yet, cuz they're not, you know, no crowd.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So some of this Christian is pretty weird.
Caesar:Most of it's unnecessarily confusing.
Caesar:I'll be honest with you.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And it certainly is a put off to those who don't know this very special language.
Caesar:Here are some common ones.
Caesar:There's a lot.
Caesar:And I'll bet if you're listening right now, you've heard all of these before.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Or actually, maybe even used them yourself.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And you probably would say, oh, oh, you missed this one.
Caesar:So yeah.
Caesar:I'm gonna miss a lot.
Caesar:I'm gonna give you just like 10.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Here's my top 10.
Caesar:Not necessarily in particular order, but kind of.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Uh, and I should just do 'em in reverse, but I don't know.
Caesar:Here's 10 and you'll have your own effect.
Caesar:Why don't you hit us up on Facebook group and tell us all the ones we forgot.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That'd be fun, like seriously.
Caesar:And how you use.
Caesar:Put it in context.
Caesar:first one's fellowship.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Only Christians really call hanging out fellow shipping.
Caesar:I had a buddy of mine who used to call it belly ship cause well, we always eat.
Caesar:So let's just call what it is.
Caesar:It's belly ship you.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:But people outside the church may think you're referring to like a work program, like a fellowship, you know, or some sort of a job fair or something.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It is a little weird.
Caesar:It's a little weird fellowship.
Caesar:Like people say like, were you fellowshipping?
Caesar:Like, I don't know.
Caesar:You're having a beer.
Caesar:You know, I don't know.
Caesar:Traveling mercies.
Caesar:There's another.
Caesar:Like what's a traveling mercy.
Caesar:No one on side.
Caesar:The church would ever say that.
Caesar:right.
Caesar:Hey man, what are you guys doing?
Caesar:I'm going to Finland, for what?
Caesar:For work.
Caesar:Oh, for work.
Caesar:Well traveling Mercy's brother.
Caesar:Like, you know who made that up?
Caesar:They'd just say have a safe trip.
Caesar:Parallel to traveling mercies for me.
Caesar:And this is kind of a bonus one.
Caesar:It's not even on a list here today.
Caesar:Is that bless the hands that prepared it when you pray for food.
Caesar:Oh yeah.
Caesar:Like what's that's that's like I heard one said like, like saying, Hey God, and bless the hands that cut my hair today.
Caesar:It's like, what?
Caesar:Just, just say thanks, cuz my wife can cook and she.
Caesar:Took time to do it again, or my sister or my brother here in community.
Caesar:Thank you.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Just say thanks.
Caesar:You know, uh, here's another one quiet time.
Caesar:Ooh.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Forgot about that one quiet time.
Caesar:That sounds like time out to me.
Caesar:Like you put your kids in quiet time.
Caesar:Like that's punishment.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I mean, quiet time.
Caesar:Kind of, I don't dig it.
Caesar:It doesn't exist in the Bible anywhere.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And people say like, did you have your quiet time?
Caesar:Don't forget your quiet time.
Caesar:Ah, it goes anyway.
Caesar:It's kinda crazy.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Born again.
Caesar:Um, oh yeah, that's another, that's a biblical one.
Caesar:And actually one, I love I'm bummed that it got so screwed over.
Caesar:True because it requires an explanation just like it did for Nicodemus and his response right.
Caesar:In scripture, like must be born again to enter the kingdom.
Caesar:How does that happen?
Caesar:How does that happen?
Caesar:Someone would climb back up inside their mother visual is just brutal, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So saying, you know, like one of those born agains, you know, washing the blood, like, oh boy.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Uh, anointed.
Caesar:Huh?
Caesar:Huh?
Caesar:Where would a person ever hear this word outside of Christian circles?
Caesar:It's really anointed, man.
Caesar:How's that work man.
Caesar:Like, dude, you did a freaking great job on setting up that screen at display, whatever it's like, eh, pretty annoying, talented, maybe simply just trying to say a person's usually good at what they do or they have a God given ability or that's man.
Caesar:You're really talented at that.
Caesar:So I don't know.
Caesar:We just.
Caesar:Here's one, it's just a hedge of protection.
Caesar:Oh God.
Caesar:That's my worst.
Caesar:That's the worst for me, you know, I know it's scriptural comes from book of job.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Uh, but wasn't it Satan, you actually used the phrase.
Caesar:why would we wanna pray it?
Caesar:You know, and there's a hedge enough.
Caesar:Like if really like, like Satan, you know, like the head of all demons and the most beautiful of all angels, but fallen leader of demonic realm is attacking me.
Caesar:I want more than a hedge.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Freaking wall.
Caesar:I know it's not politically correct to say a wall anymore, you know, but like, anyway, that's a weird one.
Caesar:Oh man.
Caesar:Here's one.
Caesar:The word, the Gospel.
Caesar:Huh?
Caesar:As in, you know, people say like, well, I haven't heard the Gospel or doesn't that mean they haven't, you know, are they thinking like the gospels?
Caesar:Um, do they think we're talking about Aretha Franklin song or some sort of a genre of music?
Caesar:You'd be surprised I'm even joking when we talk about like people say, well, I know you're a Christian and even Christians will say like, what do you do?
Caesar:Like, well, I help people understand how the Gospel fits into all of life.
Caesar:They're like, what do you mean by that?
Caesar:Like music, you know, it's the weirdest.
Caesar:So we have to be careful there again.
Caesar:It's Christianese.
Caesar:People don't understand it, even if it's a biblical word.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:We don't use it even like the good news we use it.
Caesar:I don't know, like a presentational green booklet or something anyway.
Caesar:Um, here's one and I'm getting down to my really like, Ooh, invite Jesus into your heart.
Caesar:Oh again, it's, you know, I understand what it means and people say it, but like you'll never catch Jesus saying, Hey, by the way, guys, after you drag those nets in, yeah.
Caesar:Would you invite me into your heart.
Caesar:It's just, it's not scriptural at all.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And it totally fails to communicate the fact that a life devoted to Jesus is surrender.
Caesar:You know, it's like a laying down and a picking up.
Caesar:It's not inviting him into your heart.
Caesar:I think they must have come up with that for kids or something.
Caesar:Huh?
Heath:It has to be originally.
Heath:Okay.
Heath:That's a little awkward.
Caesar:Invite me into your heart.
Caesar:What's that mean?
Caesar:I don't even know how to explain that.
Caesar:I would've more, I would've an easier time explaining the Trinity or, you know, lapsarianism or something.
Caesar:Anyway, it's Scooby don't use that word in public either.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um, here's one, the sinner's prayer like, or the, did you lead 'em in the sinner's prayer.
Caesar:Oh yeah.
Caesar:Like who's not a sinner in one sense, but then that's not our identity.
Caesar:It's just weird.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It's you can find, or the prayer of salvation.
Caesar:It's not biblical.
Caesar:You know.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:You know, and I, I know that God reaches everybody in different ways.
Caesar:And I actually, I grew up in a, you know, a, a form of, you know, evangelical church and all that helped me understand who God was.
Caesar:And he probably led me in the sinners prayer or something, you know?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:But, uh, Wow.
Caesar:It's a little wild.
Caesar:It's a little crazy.
Caesar:Jesus never did it.
Caesar:It's not what gets you saved?
Caesar:I don't know.
Caesar:I mean, I know that's gonna offend some people, but there are other guys way more important and bigger authors and futures than us.
Caesar:That'd say like, quit, quit doing that.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like that's not how any, you know, and then here probably it's a two for.
Caesar:10 ding, ding, you know, washed in the blood or washed by the blood or saved by the blood of the lamb.
Caesar:could anything sound more like a cult?
Caesar:You know what I, main thing like, you know, you're in the neighbors, literally, man, I actually people say like, but who really says that?
Caesar:Listen, man, we've told the stories before of doing the story of God at the cafe and the community.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:And I'm not kidding, man.
Caesar:Like, even though I, I, you know, you just hope for the best.
Caesar:Um, mostly it was my neighbors and just people that hung out this cafe and we're doing the story again.
Caesar:It was very, very cool and were very careful with our language and all.
Caesar:And, but there was some Christians that sniffed us out and they wanted to come see what it looked like.
Caesar:They actually.
Caesar:Like just be yeah, just be and talk about stuff spiritually, without being weird.
Caesar:And someone asked a question and literally Christian said, well, all I know is I've been washed the blood.
Caesar:So therefore I, you know, and they got into other Christianese right after that, it was like, wow.
Caesar:Like it was like, so gross and weird.
Heath:I'd rather you say I drank the Kool, he drank the Koolaid.
Caesar:I had to seriously, I had to uninvite that person.
Caesar:To never come back.
Caesar:Like I wanna invite you to never come back.
Caesar:So yeah.
Caesar:Serious.
Caesar:It's just, it was so really now, like we're just talking we're at.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It's so gross, man.
Caesar:So there's a lot of it though.
Caesar:And I hope people are getting the point where like we're picking on your favorite, you know, like I like praying about, you know, blessing the hands that prepare, you know, why don't you thank the person.
Caesar:How about that?
Caesar:You know, thank you.
Caesar:But, um,
Heath:So, um, as you're saying, as I'm like, man, I know that I've been guilty of using a bunch of these.
Heath:I'm sure that you have not even intentionally just saying it, you know, like
Caesar:I have others that I'm more guilty of and maybe a lot of our listeners I've had this list in my pocket.
Caesar:Folded.
Caesar:I just never say this.
Caesar:Never say I don't do it.
Caesar:like a zapper when I have does,
Heath:does speaking this language,
Caesar:just maybe my eye, my apple watch could just like, if.
Caesar:Get close to saying jolt ya, you know, the haptics just go nuts.
Caesar:Are you washed in the, yeah, don't even get it out there.
Caesar:Um,
Heath:do you think that that Christianese is actually a sign that we're more removed from our culture than we even dare to think in the first place?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Maybe.
Caesar:I mean removed.
Caesar:I mean, we're in it, but um, like the insider language, we just start talking a certain way and not, yeah, I think so.
Caesar:I think maybe some, some of it has, let me give you an analogy.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:If you learned all that you knew about the Bible.
Caesar:And your faith in Jesus.
Caesar:Let's say you learned it in French.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:For whatever reason, that's just, you know, you went to a church growing up and it's spoke French, you know?
Caesar:And so you really did.
Caesar:You got it.
Caesar:You came to faith, you understood your faith in all the biblical terms and all this, but in French, but now you live somewhere, that's a Spanish speaking culture, right?
Caesar:It would be really pretty pointless to try and speak to people or witness there's another one, by the way, or explain things about Jesus and the cross and our faith, um, in French to people who speak only Spanish.
Caesar:They look at you, like you're crazy.
Caesar:And, uh, you know, we need to know and learn the language of the culture.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Like you're saying, but guess what?
Caesar:You already do know the language of your culture.
Caesar:It goes back to what I was saying earlier that whole, like, somehow we've become bilingual.
Caesar:We really don't know how to talk about our faith in normal language, because what we've mostly heard has been full of Christianese and sort of, uh, Theo terms from seminary.
Caesar:And from Bible study programs and the pastors cut and paste all that stuff together, you know?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And so we literally, we learned our faith in French, but we're living in a Spanish speaking culture.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And we speak Spanish, but I don't know how to talk about it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:In Spanish.
Caesar:So I'll go ahead.
Caesar:I guess I'll just either do one or two things.
Caesar:I'll speak in French.
Caesar:washed in the blood.
Caesar:How do you say that in French?
Caesar:I don't know someone write that in, on our Facebook group.
Caesar:Um, but, or we'll just say nothing.
Caesar:Yeah, we just don't go there at all.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And I think sometimes it might be better to not say anything, but, um, some of it's just laziness.
Caesar:Like we're just, we use these crazy Christianese terms and we don't stop and think about what is the listener actually hearing and able.
Caesar:To understand.
Caesar:So I, I think we understand the language of our culture.
Caesar:I think what we've never been able to do is step out and, and hear how weird it sounds.
Caesar:So maybe if nothing else today, just hearing us go down that list.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And kind of poke fun a little bit, have a little bit of fun with it.
Caesar:We'll like, see how weird that sounds.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:Maybe somebody grabs it am.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like just listen.
Caesar:Think about what, like you hear at work and no one is all that crazy stuff.
Heath:Well, you know, and I don't see throughout scripture, many examples of Jesus speaking in code.
Heath:Like I don't, it doesn't seem he has his own weird language that.
Caesar:It's interesting.
Caesar:He does and, he doesn't.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But let's, let's look at that a little bit in Matthew 13.
Caesar:34.
Caesar:It says Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables.
Caesar:He did not say anything to them without using a parable.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Now it's interesting.
Caesar:Cuz what are parables?
Caesar:Parables are little short stories that use common everyday situations and language.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:That make a huge point.
Caesar:That kind of stick to you.
Caesar:Like you just, well, I can't shake that.
Caesar:I'm thinking about there's great implication here.
Caesar:Jesus spoke in parable, so he could be as simple and clear and memorable as possible.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:But it also goes on in scripture.
Caesar:And I think in, in Matthew as well, that says that the disciples understood some of these parables, but some of them kind of remained a mystery to him and he had to take him aside and unpack them later.
Caesar:But that's key.
Caesar:He did.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And part of what they didn't understand, wasn't the language.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:It was like, okay, what are you getting at?
Caesar:And that's what he talked about for those who have ears, they'll hear it.
Caesar:Let 'em hear.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:The kingdom of God is like a precious Pearl.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:It's worth giving everything you have for it.
Caesar:Now that's common language.
Caesar:And they lived where there was a lot of trade and going on and all kinds of stuff happening and they would understand all those words, but they might not have gone.
Caesar:Like why do I want a pearl.
Caesar:You see what I mean?
Caesar:So then he explains it to him.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Little nuance.
Caesar:So he always used common everyday situations and languages and made it make sense to people.
Caesar:And I also, I just really love the way he also used it to be so, so salty that sometimes they go, like, we don't get it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It wasn't because they didn't get the language.
Caesar:They just, they, they were like, what are you unpack in here?
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Wouldn't you love to have that where you talked in such a way that people understood the words you meant, but they go, whoa, tell me what, what do you mean by that?
Caesar:What's going on there.
Caesar:Wouldn't that be great.
Caesar:Cool.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's that's what the Bible talks about being salt and light salting is like, oh, I gotta have more, like, I can't see.
Caesar:Little bit chip.
Caesar:Can't just eat more.
Heath:I remember that first Missional Community.
Heath:When we moved to Tacoma, we were actually in Jeff and Janie.
Heath:Vants.
Heath:Missional Community.
Heath:And I remember one night he kind of called people out for some newer Christians and he said, Hey, we're not gonna talk in these terms anymore.
Heath:And ever since then, I've been on this kind of hunt to get rid of all Christianese in my life and to actually become more Gospel fluent, uh, which is something you actually talk a lot about.
Heath:Do you care to unpack that for us?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:When I have to say right upfront that Gospel fluent and Gospel fluency, just another insight.
Caesar:It's an insider term, so I don't use it.
Caesar:I'm not gonna use it with not yet believers.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:I'm not, I'm just not, and even when I use it with Christians, I always explain it because they don't under, they understand what fluent means or fluency means.
Caesar:They generally don't know what the two words mean together, so.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Um, it's kind of a, yeah.
Caesar:It's Christianese okay.
Caesar:So don't, don't use that term if you're not believing yet believe in friends.
Caesar:Um, and don't, you don't have to always use the word Gospel as a verb, you know, like I'm gonna Gospel your heart right now.
Caesar:Like they don't know what that means.
Caesar:Christians otherwise.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But we use this term Gospel fluency because it's the word fluency applies to a language, right.
Caesar:To be fluent in a language means I can speak it effectively.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:In other words, where it's understood.
Caesar:To be fluent is you're understood.
Caesar:I've used this example many times.
Caesar:It's in my book, bigger Gospel where I talk about, I can speak a little bit of Chec.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:But I, but I can't really do whole sentences very much.
Caesar:And so I kind of sound like a caveman.
Caesar:I'm not fluent.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:By any stretch.
Caesar:My son is actually a a hundred percent fluent in Chec.
Caesar:Isn't weird.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Yeah, he lived over there, but, um, I am not fluent in it, meaning I can't be easily understood.
Caesar:With nuance and meaning.
Caesar:Well, that's the case for many of us as Christians as well.
Caesar:We're not very fluent in the good news of the Gospel or the good news of the kingdom.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And so we lean on a bunch of Christianese terms that don't really have the meaning that scripture wants them to have, or we use scriptural terms that people don't use anymore.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:And we don't have to, there's no like, oh God, you know, you're not, he's not gonna love you.
Caesar:Or you're not a really good Christian, if you don't use Bible terms, it's like, listen, let me point out something.
Caesar:A lot of people have never seen before.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:When you look at either Paul quoting, like.
Caesar:The prophets mm-hmm , uh, you know, old Testament stuff, right.
Caesar:Or Jesus doing the same.
Caesar:It's not usually word for word.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:It's usually a paraphrase because he's making it relevant now.
Caesar:Hundreds or thousands of years later.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Or you'll see a little reference in your Bible where it's like, not even close, but it'll be a reference.
Caesar:It's like, that's what he's talking about, but he's just making it make sense now because this just happened.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:And so this idea of learning to be fluent in the good news.
Caesar:Is a big deal and you can, you can actually learn how to be fluent, where the way you talk about your faith is salty the way when you speak to someone's pain or their hopes, or they're pissed off, or they're angry about something, or they're really excited about something.
Caesar:And they just don't even know who to give credit to there's ways to speak.
Caesar:Good news.
Caesar:In other words, be fluent in the Gospel or fluent in the good news, like to give God glory, to give him credit.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:To show people that no, that's his God at work here.
Caesar:And that's what he intended all along.
Caesar:Now you're starting to experience that.
Caesar:So we get to, you know, we get to learn to speak that way instead of just sort of like, well, we'll always sort of use our French in our Spanish speaking culture.
Heath:Exactly.
Heath:Right.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:So what would you say are some good steps to people, uh, that want to begin creating this Gospel fluency?
Heath:Not just in themselves, uh, or in their families, but their Missional communities and all of life.
Caesar:So that.
Caesar:So I gotta point to some tools, right?
Caesar:I just gotta point to some tools for one is, uh, I'm gonna say, regardless of these tools, you have to practice a language in order to become fluent in it.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:You do.
Caesar:You just have to, I can remember when these things started changing for us and some of the other leaders within Soma communities, and we were like, we have to start speaking this stuff.
Caesar:It sounds a little awkward.
Caesar:, it sounds different to ask certain questions in different ways.
Caesar:Not because the language was so weird, we just weren't used to it.
Caesar:We were still so under the pile of do to be and we had to start giving each other permission to kinda.
Caesar:Like me suck at your Chec.
Caesar:Just keep practicing it, keep practicing it.
Caesar:So for instance, when we'd be, you know, having a, you know, leadership meeting, a team meeting about something, you could see someone getting really, really heated.
Caesar:Say stop just a second.
Caesar:I don't know how exactly I wanna ask this, but I wanna ask you, what are you not believing to be true about God and or your brother right now?
Caesar:Can we talk about that a little bit?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Can we just look at, like, what are you thinking?
Caesar:Is he anti you?
Caesar:Not against me.
Caesar:Is he trying to no, not that.
Caesar:Do you believe God is aware?
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So we would unpack it and then it would get kind of fixed in light of the Gospel.
Caesar:What's true of God and what's now true of us.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:So you have to practice it and you're not gonna.
Caesar:You're not gonna be very good at it first, just if you've ever learned another language, be beyond your first language, you realize, man, you just gotta suck forward.
Caesar:That's okay.
Caesar:Part of how you do that is you do that in community.
Caesar:So, you know, it's like, well, I'm gonna get on a soapbox and I'm gonna get a Bullhorn.
Caesar:I'm going downtown.
Caesar:And that's how I wanna practice.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Right, please.
Caesar:Don't okay.
Caesar:So tool wise.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um, Gospel primer.
Caesar:You've heard us talk about this before.
Caesar:There's book called the Gospel primer.
Caesar:It's eight weeks to transformation and community.
Caesar:And what it does is it kind of walks everybody at the same time.
Caesar:For eight weeks.
Caesar:You have a little thing you read and journal about every day.
Caesar:There's an action day during the week.
Caesar:There's a community day during the week.
Caesar:And, um, holy cow, just
Heath:we've done it in our Missional Community.
Heath:It's been.
Heath:It it amazing.
Caesar:It will teach you the language at the Gospel.
Caesar:Now you still gotta practice.
Caesar:That's why I started there, but man, it's crazy.
Caesar:Um, in the show notes, I will give you, uh, a link to, uh, a post that really explains exactly what it is and how to use it.
Caesar:And it'll even, you can download like a sample week, week one.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:And then I think it even, uh, the publisher who gives us that sample week, MISSIO, um, they even give you like a coupon, like code or something, so you can even get 'em cheap.
Caesar:So pretty good deal.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And then I wrote a book called bigger Gospel and the whole idea was like, Hey, what do we have to unlearn?
Caesar:yeah, some of it has to do with language and what is really true of the Gospel and how do we begin to see the thing behind the thing and speak good news into every area of life?
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And there again, in the show notes where you can go to everyday Disciple dot com forward slash bigger Gospel, and I will give you free copy of bigger Gospel.
Caesar:It's a full book.
Caesar:It's not like a digital, I mean, a print version.
Caesar:I will mail it to you if you'll just pick up the shipping.
Caesar:So there's a form.
Caesar:It'll tell you all about the book and all you have to do is pick up the shipping.
Caesar:Fair enough.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:I'll pay to print it.
Caesar:I, I wrote it , you know, took the time.
Caesar:So those care, those two tools, I don't really know of anything.
Caesar:More used right now.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And there's additional training, but that's further down the road when you wanna fine tune your language.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:There's, you know, we have a bigger Gospel masterclass and there's things down the road, but right now I'd say, check out a Gospel primer.
Caesar:You can get the free first week and, uh, check that out.
Caesar:Or you can get a free copy of bigger Gospel.
Caesar:I'll mail it out to you.
Caesar:All right.
Heath:We're just giving a bunch of free stuff.
Heath:I have something else we're gonna give away.
Heath:The big three.
Heath:How's that big three.
Caesar:You can get a printable PDF of this week's big three takeaways as a free download
Caesar:by
Caesar:going to everyday Disciple dot com slash big three.
Caesar:In fact, we do this every week, so you might wanna write it down or bookmark it everyday.
Caesar:Disciple dot com slash big.
Heath:Caesar, what are the big three for this week?
Caesar:Here's the big three things don't miss.
Caesar:If, if you, you know, if you're not paying attention, the whole episode, don't miss these.
Caesar:And if you want 'em written down.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Do what Heath said.
Caesar:First one, the Bible in our Christian faith is all relevant.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:It is.
Caesar:It's you don't have to make it.
Caesar:It is relevant unless we shroud everything in insider language in weird terms that others can't understand, or it puts him off.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Jesus spoke an everyday language and parables in story because he saw his relationship with his father.
Caesar:And ours as a normal part of his life as a human.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And we can learn to put aside our cultural oddities as Christians, as Christian stuff.
Caesar:And we can learn to speak like Jesus spoke normal everyday life.
Caesar:It works.
Caesar:It fits.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It is relevant.
Caesar:You don't have to make it relevant.
Caesar:Just don't make it irrelevant.
Caesar:okay.
Caesar:Second thing.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Um, everyone you've ever met is looking for truth and good news for their.
Caesar:It's like, I don't know anybody.
Caesar:Who's like, I got too much good news.
Caesar:I can't handle it.
Caesar:There's too much good stuff.
Caesar:There's too much for me.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Everyone's looking for truth in good news.
Caesar:Don't be deceived by Satan or your past bad experiences and poor attempts of maybe trying to share your faith or whatever or fear man.
Caesar:And what others think of you.
Caesar:Learning to share the story of God, what God's like, what is true of us as humans now because of Christ who, what God thinks is of us, all of that, how to become a Christian, how to find salvation restoration, it's all super important.
Caesar:And people are really are dying to know.
Caesar:Remember Romans one 16, this is a message version.
Caesar:I love it.
Caesar:It says.
Caesar:This is news.
Caesar:I'm most proud to proclaim this extraordinary message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him starting with the Jews and then right on down to everyone else.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:People need to hear it.
Caesar:It's that important?
Caesar:It's extraordinary.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And they really do.
Caesar:So I find so many, people's like, no one wants to hear this.
Caesar:No, they don't wanna hear your weird Christianese stuff and do to be it should.
Caesar:shoulding all over.
Caesar:They know, okay.
Caesar:They don't want that.
Caesar:Third thing is you can grow in your ability to speak the good news of Jesus and, and into, you know, into everyone's life and your life with him.
Caesar:You really can learn to explain that in ways that people are like, wow, that's super interesting.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Get the resources you need.
Caesar:Get started.
Caesar:It's like anything else and, and nothing is more important in your life and worthy of a small investment of your time.
Caesar:And, or, you know, if you wanna get a Booker that pay the ship, whatever, um, it'll change your heart and it'll give you the confidence.
Caesar:You need to really effectively talk about spiritual things and about the Gospel, about your faith without getting nervous or coming off like some crazy.
Caesar:Washed in the blood first and then, uh,
Heath:yeah, we're also gonna include the links, right?
Heath:For the Gospel primer that you talked about and the bigger Gospel as well.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:How to get that free.
Heath:Yep.
Heath:All that.
Heath:We'll put it all there.
Heath:It'll be in the big three.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And it'll also be on the show notes, or again, you can pick up your free copy of bigger Gospel right now, printed version.
Caesar:I'll send it to you by going to everyday Disciple dot com slash bigger Gospel.
Caesar:It's all one word, bigger Gospel, everyday Disciple dot com slash bigger Gospel.
Caesar:All you gotta do is pick up the shipping.
Caesar:It's like seven bucks, I think.
Caesar:And we'll ship that right out to you.
Caesar:I really hope you'll take us up on some of these free resources and start or continue to grow in your Gospel fluency.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Cool.
Caesar:Well, this has been fun.
Caesar:Thanks for being with me.
Caesar:He, I sure hope you'll join me next week.
Caesar:And we'll continue to look at discipleship as a lifestyle and how to live out the good news of the Gospel and everyday life.
Caesar:I'm looking forward to it.
Caesar:I'll talk to you soon.
Heath:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday Disciple dot com.
