Well I bet you didn’t know the word churchism existed, well it does, the definition is words used in church by church going people that most lost people in the world have no clue what it even means!?!?! On Sunday a young man probably in his late teens or early twenties tapped Rhonda on the shoulder, while church was going on and asked, “What does evangelism mean?”. Now if you have been going to church much at all you probably know the answer but this young man didn’t have a clue. Rhonda told him it meant when you go out into your community and share about Jesus, great answer I thought.

That got me started to thinking (look out, I might hurt myself!?!?), how many words do we say on an average Sunday that are only words that the churched would understand, now don’t become to sanctified on me, you know what I am talking about. Words like sanctified or evangelism are words only used in church. The average person, sitting at work or at home doesn’t look over at his co worker and state, you need to become sanctified or I think I will walk down the street and evangelize some neighboring businesses. (maybe burglarize but never evangelize)

No these are churchisms and I tell you what they do, they make outsiders feel like outsiders. They make people feel like they don’t belong, like they have just flown to another country and they don’t speak the language.

Is that a good thing, WELL NO, we should be trying to make people feel welcome, so that they can encounter God, (and then of course learn all the churchism words just like us, right!?!?!).

So I say let’s get radical, let’s keep things simple and speak the language of the lost. You say Todd you have lost your mind, you can’t do that. Well I say, that’s what Jesus did, when he was around fisherman he said, hey you guys follow me and I will make you fisher of men. He didn’t say hey follow me and we will go and evangelize the world and everyone will be sanctified, (well maybe in the King James version he did but you get my point?!?!?).

He spoke to people with words they could understand and relate to. The only people we are hurting are the lost and unchurched, the very ones who need Jesus the most, remember what Jesus said in Mark 2:17

 17Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”

That is what we need to be doing inviting the sin-sick people of the world with a message that they can understand. Can I get an AMEN!