"Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, 'You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.' And the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, 'Let me go over,' the men of Gilead said to him, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' When he said, 'No,' they said to him, 'Then say Shibboleth,' and he said, 'Sibboleth,' for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell" (Judges 12:4-6 ESV).
Yesterday I wrote a little about words and how the internal language of denominations and fellowships sets us apart from one another. As I discussed, while I was at Harding I learned to speak "a cappella Church of Christ" lingo in order to fly under the radar. Though I had no fear of being literally "slaughtered" as were those in the time of the judges that could not pronounce "Shibboleth," many of the good non-instrumental brethren are quite debate-prone and fearful in chapter-and-verse.
A less intimidating experience was when I moved to New Jersey and got to know some folks in the Community of Christ. This is the denomination that was formerly known as "The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" (I think the name change was a good move, by the way). This group has little in common with the Utah Mormons, and their language reflects it. The LDS church talks about "Sacrament Meetings" but the Community of Christ does not. One phrase that caught my ear was "bringing ministry." For instance, a couple of times I attended and volunteered to give a brief children's sermon during worship. One of the men later thanked me for "bringing ministry" in the form of a children's message. I also heard them speak about someone "bringing ministry of music" at one of their retreats.
So tell me, have you ever noticed any quirky terminology that only your church uses? How about something you've heard in other denominations that is expressed differently in your own? Tell me about it, whether you think the difference is serious, curious or just plain annoying.
Good Post. Recently my church (Community of Christ) published a book on hospitality. The book cautions about using language up front in a congregation that is particular to our denomination.
ReplyDeleteWe often throw out words like "Mission Center", "D&C", or "Samish Island" in my congregation. We have gotten better about realizing that these are unique to our church or jurisdiction of our church and that we need to be careful when using these words during worship especially if we have guests.
Sean,
ReplyDeleteI hope you didn't think I was picking on your fellowship's way of speaking. My point was actually that internal lingo isn't always bad. Personally, I believe that intelligible lingo gives members and friends a feeling of being "in," and outsiders a means to feel like they are becoming a part of the group. So long as the lingo isn't taken to and extreme or insisted upon, it actually can be a positive.
By the way, would you mind dropping me an e-mail? My address can be found in the profile
Nope, didn't think you were picking on us! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is funny because we do use the term "bringing ministry" a lot. I would have never guessed it to be out of the ordinary.