Do we speak the right language?

I was skyping today with our missionaries in Koper, Slovenia. I asked them what the hardest thing had been so far planting a church where none exists. They said it was the language barrier. They are hitting the language classes really hard but they still only speak at a Kindergarten level. In fact, Tina said she spoke really broken Slovene... "go. market. now." It's hard to share your faith in a way that could spark life change when the people can't understand what you're saying. If the message of Jesus is lost in translation life change is impossible.

I think Christians in the U.S. have the same language barrier. For years the church has spoken Christianese and then wondered why the non-christian world didn't understand what we were saying. We essentially said, "you learn our language so you can come to our church." Then we griped about how non-Christan's stayed non-Christians and didn't connect with church (and more importantly with Jesus).

I think, as Christians we ought to learn the language of those we are trying to reach with the life saving message of Jesus Christ. That way, we can communicate in a way that they understand, that they connect with, that they get. And once they get what we're saying they can get what we're offering - life change through Jesus Christ.

So let's bridge the language barrier and bring about life change!