Thursday Quote: Simply Strategic Growth

Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan published the book, ‘Simply Strategic Growth: Attracting a Crowd to Your Church‘. It’s a great book with a ton of simple ideas/principles you can use to stimulate strategic discussions about becoming a Guest Friendly and attractive church in your community. Each chapter is very short and to the point, which makes it a great bathroom book too (you know what that is, but I talk about it more right here).

This quote is from the chapter entitled: Thou Shalt Stop Using Christianese

“Several years ago when we moved into a new house, I met one of our neighbors. This guy didn’t know I was a pastor. He only knew that I was moving into the neighborhood. And yet his conversation dripped with Christianese. “Glory to God.” “Hallelujah.” “Praise the Lord.” It made me sick, and I’m a Christian! My heart sank because I thought, “This guy is going to be an obstacle for me in building relationships with my neighbors.” I’m sure he had no idea how he was coming across.

“Consider these examples of what we say, and how a ‘normal’ person in our culture would say the same thing:

• Christianese: “Share some blessings with us.” Normal: “Tell us what God is doing in your life.”

• Christianese: “Can someone share a testimony?” Normal: “Let’s hear some stories.”

• Christianese: “How long have you been saved?” Normal: “When did you begin following Christ?”

• Christianese: “Here I raise my Ebenezer.” Normal: “Say what?”

Add Simply Strategic Growth: Attracting a Crowd to Your Church to your library today!

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