I recently went to lunch with a couple of my friends. When the waitress came to take our order we told her that we were going “Dutch.” She got a puzzled look in her eyes and I thought perhaps she had just not heard me so I repeated myself. The young lady asked, “What’s that?” I asked if she had not heard that phrase before: “We’re going Dutch.” To my surprise, she said that she had never heard that expression before. I began to feel very old and realized an important truth concerning evangelism all at the same time.

Since most of our expressions of faith are learned inside our faith communities, how can we expect anyone outside of those communities to understand every acronym, slang term, or “ordinance” of the Church? In short—we can’t. For example, I told a young man once that I was an ordained minister. He said, “What’s that?” This man had never been in church and did not know the first thing about church language. Thankfully, he was gracious enough to ask what something meant. When trying to share what God has done in your life with someone else, you must never take it for granted that they understand the language of your faith community.

Although Jesus Christ said that no one can come to him “except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44, KJV), we must accept some responsibility for the words we use when presenting the Gospel message. It is our job to work hard at simplifying our spiritual language and present it in a spirit of Christ’s love and grace. Paul told the Colossians in chapter 4:6 (ESV), “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Being gracious will go far in helping us communicate as we seek to share biblical truths.

Since most people we talk to usually try to be polite, unchurched people won’t normally tell us when they fail to understand something we have said. That’s why it is so crucial to understand your audience and foster a gracious attitude. Wouldn’t you appreciate it if someone talked with you about important issues with a gracious attitude and in a language that you could understand—and even allowed you opportunities to ask questions? Most assuredly, we all would.

For Him,
Dr. Marshall M. Windsor