This month let's question Christianese and ditch it for better language, ponder Mike Cosper's Sojourn experience, and explore what it might mean to live an embodied life.
Rereading this as it spoke to me in my own faith journey. So many words you have written are the same things I have often pondered in my adult years. I grew up in the 70s and revivals were a huge part of my church experiences. Getting people saved, many times fear based. You don’t want to leave this place and die in a car wreck and spend eternity in hell. Many of us were “rededicating” our lives to God over and over. Then I spent a majority of my early adulthood wondering if I had said the right prayer. Was I living life right etc. Eventually I worked it out. I am so grateful for people that share their struggles, their questions and pondering’s. We are all on a journey of connecting and reconnecting. I think that happens daily as we walk with God. We hear often, we were not made for this world. True in many ways, but also not so true. We were made for connection with God. He wants that relationship with us and when we focus on this-connecting with God-then I think we become more relatable to others as they witness how we navigate our own faith. Instead of constantly focusing on “not going to hell”. Fear is never a motivator to change. Thank you for sharing and my word for the year is connect too.
Thank you for writing such a lovely response! I’m so glad my words connected with you and I love how the Holy Spirit speaks the same word to multiple people. 😊
Thank you for this piece. It has given me grist to ponder and reflect upon. I think particularly of friends who, I believe, are on the cusp of being a believer, but I agree that the language has gotten in the way. I shall continue to pray and walk along side them.
You have a point about the phrase ‘get saved’, Christy. Words like “sin” and “salvation” have significant theological import, so they are here to stay. However, they should be explained in a way that makes sense both to the Christian and the non religious. Unfortunately, whole books have to be written to do that, such as Mitchell L. Chase’s “Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall” (2023) in his attempt to explain what it means to live in a fallen world, and hence, the need to ‘get saved.’
Agreed. But even though those words are impotent theological concepts many times they have been used in ways that wound and trigger. I like to explain them with words that are different. I often use brokenness to explain sin (which of so much more than outward actions).
Totally agree with you there, Christy, about the use of ‘brokenness’ as another word for sin. In the context of engaging people to talk about life and faith - people who are new to Christianity or hurt by its worst practitioners - we would need to re-write Christianity, as it were, for them.
Such re-writing must acknowledge that human brokenness can come with its own potential for horror, as British historian Richard Evans observes in his 2024 book “Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich.” Nazi Germany’s leading lights were not “psychopaths; nor were they deranged, or perverted, or insane.” Instead, in most aspects of their lives, they were “terribly and terrifyingly normal,” as someone observed. Any re-writing will have to include a robust theology that can explain such a phenomenon.
Beautiful, Christy. I’ve been thinking about that verbage lately and have begun to explain the gospel to people a different way. We can have abundant life in this life - why wouldn’t we want that? Love you, sweet niece.
Rereading this as it spoke to me in my own faith journey. So many words you have written are the same things I have often pondered in my adult years. I grew up in the 70s and revivals were a huge part of my church experiences. Getting people saved, many times fear based. You don’t want to leave this place and die in a car wreck and spend eternity in hell. Many of us were “rededicating” our lives to God over and over. Then I spent a majority of my early adulthood wondering if I had said the right prayer. Was I living life right etc. Eventually I worked it out. I am so grateful for people that share their struggles, their questions and pondering’s. We are all on a journey of connecting and reconnecting. I think that happens daily as we walk with God. We hear often, we were not made for this world. True in many ways, but also not so true. We were made for connection with God. He wants that relationship with us and when we focus on this-connecting with God-then I think we become more relatable to others as they witness how we navigate our own faith. Instead of constantly focusing on “not going to hell”. Fear is never a motivator to change. Thank you for sharing and my word for the year is connect too.
Thank you for writing such a lovely response! I’m so glad my words connected with you and I love how the Holy Spirit speaks the same word to multiple people. 😊
Thank you for this piece. It has given me grist to ponder and reflect upon. I think particularly of friends who, I believe, are on the cusp of being a believer, but I agree that the language has gotten in the way. I shall continue to pray and walk along side them.
I’m so glad you were encouraged! I’ll pray with you for your friends.
You have a point about the phrase ‘get saved’, Christy. Words like “sin” and “salvation” have significant theological import, so they are here to stay. However, they should be explained in a way that makes sense both to the Christian and the non religious. Unfortunately, whole books have to be written to do that, such as Mitchell L. Chase’s “Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall” (2023) in his attempt to explain what it means to live in a fallen world, and hence, the need to ‘get saved.’
Agreed. But even though those words are impotent theological concepts many times they have been used in ways that wound and trigger. I like to explain them with words that are different. I often use brokenness to explain sin (which of so much more than outward actions).
Totally agree with you there, Christy, about the use of ‘brokenness’ as another word for sin. In the context of engaging people to talk about life and faith - people who are new to Christianity or hurt by its worst practitioners - we would need to re-write Christianity, as it were, for them.
Such re-writing must acknowledge that human brokenness can come with its own potential for horror, as British historian Richard Evans observes in his 2024 book “Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich.” Nazi Germany’s leading lights were not “psychopaths; nor were they deranged, or perverted, or insane.” Instead, in most aspects of their lives, they were “terribly and terrifyingly normal,” as someone observed. Any re-writing will have to include a robust theology that can explain such a phenomenon.
Beautiful, Christy. I’ve been thinking about that verbage lately and have begun to explain the gospel to people a different way. We can have abundant life in this life - why wouldn’t we want that? Love you, sweet niece.
Love that!
Touched base with me. I could have restacked and quoted more.
Connect in mind, body and spirit.
“Connect” is my word of 2025.
So far I have:
Connect with God
Connect with others
Connect with my gifts.
We are complicated. And God can use each one of us to glorify Him if we get connected.
I love this!!