Listen up pastors and church folk, “You need to watch your language!”
I am not talking about profanity, rather our Middle Class Christianese and its cousin Seminaryese. When working with people that have grown up in generational poverty I have heard them say, “I am not smart enough for that church” or at that church “They are talking down to me.” Once, a man in his 60s, face beet red with anger, sweat dripping from his brow, screamed at me from across the room, “I am not going back to my group!” He was talking about his small group, your church might call it a home group, life group, community group, Sunday school or Bible study. “We are doing that study by Dr. so and so,” he went on, “And I feel like I have to bring a dictionary just to know what he is saying. I didn’t go to college, but I am not stupid. I have worked my whole life and have overseen thousands of employees, but I don’t know what the hell he is saying!” Then he said something I will never forget, “I don’t need need a dictionary to read and understand my Bible, and I shouldn't need a fricken dictionary to talk to my group.”
Most of our churches are built around formal language, also called formal register. Formal language is the language of the Middle Class. Not only that, but often our Bible studies and materials are even built around a very specific seminary educated type of formal language. This is a problem when trying to engage someone in poverty because people that have grown up in generational poverty most often speak and use casual language, also called casual register. Casual language is the language of survival. The language you use with close friends. Typically casual language consists of a vocabulary of about 400 to 800 words, whereas formal language has 3 to 5 times that vocabulary. So this means that people in poverty may only catch 30% of what is being said from our pulpits or what we write. Imagine what it would be like watching a TV show and every third word was in a language you did not understand. Now imagine if those words were the most important words. The words that are necessary to understanding the story. How would that make you feel?
Formal vs Casual Language: Excerpt From Jodi's Stories - A Companion Piece to Bridges Out of Poverty
Now it is important here to note that vocabulary does not equal intelligence. Let me say that again. VOCABULARY DOES NOT EQUAL INTELLIGENCE! I have met dozens of brilliant people that speak in casual register, either because that is what they learned growing up or that is the language they learned when they immigrated to the United States. These people are amazing survivors and have the ability to create ingenious solutions to complex problems. However, they may not understand what you are saying and you may even be insulting them by saying it.
I have spoken with Pastors about this topic and they have defensively responded with, “Well they will just have to learn.”
Maybe. But isn’t the message important enough that we make it understandable to our hearers and readers?
So how do we watch our language and make what we are trying to communicate accessible for those in poverty?
1. Keep it Simple! Communicate the most important content in the most simple way
What would you say are the most important things that every church needs to communicate? Maybe things like: Who is God? Who is man? What is the Gospel? What is a Disciple? Now, wouldn't we want the answers to these questions presented in a form that almost everyone could easily understand? You would think we would, but we often allow our vocabulary to get in the way.
Once a group of missionaries were teaching about Christ taking the punishment for our sins to a group of Sudanese pastors when this question came from the audience. “In my village a woman pulled on a man’s penis and so she is supposed to give him a cow. She does not have a cow, so what should she do?” Baffled, the missionaries looked at each other in utter shock. They had no idea what the question meant or what prompted it. Then they realized that while they were teaching they had used the seminary term penal substitution, or taking the punishment for another, but their audience must have heard it as penile substitution, or the replacing of a penis. Oh man, had that not gotten cleared up there could have been a lot less male believers after that day. Could you imagine that false teaching getting out? Want to know Jesus? No, I am good, Thanks. One of the most important elements of our faith, that Christ died to take the punishment of our sins, could have been misunderstood in a profound way because of the language used. Lets work hard to keep our language simple, especially on the most important things.
Not only do we do this when speaking, but even worse we do it when writing. At least with speaking the hearer has non-verbals to go by, but when reading the reader is left on their own.
As an experiment, I took what one church published as their answer to the question, “What is the Gospel?” and I asked a woman that had grown up in generational poverty, but that is a high school graduate and has some college education, to read the answer and mark off the words or phrases that she did not understand. When she was done the page looked like a top secret document released by the government.
When asked if she could explain the gospel after reading the document she said, “No.”
When asked how she felt after reading the answer she said, “Angry and frustrated.”
I am pretty sure these are not the reactions the church was looking for when describing the good news.
So lets do everyone a favor and put away our special terms and make it simple.
2. Use drawings and diagrams!
You have heard the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well, a simple diagram is worth much more than that. I know that diagrams have gone out of style and the bridge diagram is a little hokey, but think about this. IKEA sells furniture that you have to put together yourself. Their instructions have no words, just diagrams, because they know that their products are being sold all over the world to people from thousands of language groups with differing education levels. However, their business model works and it works to the tune of $4.2 billion dollars of profit in 2013 alone. Do you know what other organization is teaching people to build products all over the world? The Church. That's right the Church! However our products are called disciples and rather than building them, scripture says that we are to make them.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
(Matthew 28:18-19 ESV)
This is the mission of every christian church and every believer. No matter if they have a different mission statement, scripture is clear that we have been commissioned to go and "make disciples" of every nation. So let's use the tools available to us for that. And more importantly use the tools available to people wherever you go. So use drawings and diagrams! If the people there have no paper or pens, draw them in the dirt. Diagrams help people understand and also provides them with the models and tools they need to go and do the same.
3. Tell Stories
Get good at making a point through telling a story. Jesus did this all the time. He would be asked a question and rather than answering directly he would tell a story or parable. Remember when he was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He could have said, “The person next store”, or “the one standing next to you”, but those are not correct answers to that question. He could have even said, “Anyone in need that crosses your path!” Which is the answer that he gives, but he does so by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. By doing so he is able to answer the question, while also addressing the heart issues of prejudice and piety, while simultaneously giving a memorable example. Stories are powerful and our minds are designed to take in and remember stories.
This is all we have time for today. If you like what you have read and want more, we have trainings coming up in Dallas and Denton Texas in the coming weeks. You can get tickets at UnderstandingPoverty.com under trainings.
Be on the look out for: Is my church equipped for the poor? Part 3 in the coming days.
In the mean time, “Watch your language, Christians!”