Starbuckese
“I’ll have a grande Pike Place with a splash of cream in a
venti so there’s room.”
This is how I begin most days. That’s Starbuckese for, “I’ll
have a regular coffee with a bit of cream in a cup that’s big enough to keep it
from spilling over the lid while I drive like a maniac to work.”
It took me a while to learn Starbuckese. When I first
started buying my coffee there I would order a large with cream.
“Do you mean a tall, a grande or a venti?”
“Light or dark?”
“Do you want room?”
“Uh….” I often thought to myself, “How can a ‘tall’ be
‘small’? Light or dark?! I just want
coffee. Room where? For what?”
Over time I learned their language and figured out how to
order my coffee in exactly the right way. Today I am happy to report that my
former anxiety, nerves and naiveté have been replaced with fluent Starbuckese.
Last week I spent a few days at the Upstate New York Synod
Ministerium and it dawned on me halfway through the event that we were all
speaking Christianese. “What’s your
ecclesiology?” “What role does ecumenism play in your ministry?” “How do your
people feel about Luther’s third use of the law?” “What’s the interplay between
justification and sanctification in your pews?” “What’s your plan for missional
ministry in response to the nones?” (Today’s church gurus like to make up
words. Hence, “missional” and “nones.”)
These are real questions frequently asked by pastors leading
Lutheran congregations across our country. I can’t help but wonder, however,
why we speak in a language our parishioners, guests, visitors, and folks in the
mission field don’t understand? Even in church on Sunday AM I fear that at times
we start to speak Christianese in ways that confuse and complicate disciples simply
trying to worship their God.
Take a simple word like “grace” – a word rightfully repeated
in Lutheran congregations. What do we mean? Are we referring to the 10 year-old
in the pews? The thing we (ought to) say before dinner? The way our grandma
carries herself? Or God’s undeserved love and favor? When we add more
complicated words (confession, kyrie, intinction, etc.) I fear we end up
putting verbal barriers between those who are ‘in’ and those who are ‘out.’
If you’re a barista at Starbucks you just look pitifully
upon the naïve customer on the other side of the counter. But what if you’re a
person in the church? What do we do about our Christianese?
I do not propose that we make dramatic changes to our
worship or the language we use. However, I do suggest that we seek to be
sensitive to the fact that many people (actually, an increasing number of
people in this post-Christian world) don’t fully understand some of the
language we take for granted. On occasion I hope you’ll join me in offering
definition and assistance to those who are new. Ask a visitor if they have any
questions. Explain how communion works. Reiterate that when the pastor says, “Jesus
loves you,” he means, “Jesus loves YOU.”
Martin Luther advocated for translating scripture into the
language of the people. Jesus, a Jewish man in an Arabic world, spoke Koine
Greek (Koine = Common). In the same way, it will be important for us in this 21st
century world to be clear and concise about what we mean and what we’re doing.
It is time for our church to get back to “coffee with cream”
in a “I’ll have a grande Pike Place with a splash of cream in a venti so
there’s room,” sort of world.
In the Way,
PSDH
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