Could changing your vocabulary help revitalize your church?

Words have real meaning because they also have corresponding actions. In that case, perhaps we could strengthen and revitalize the church to some degree by cleaning up some of our vocabulary.

Here are just a couple of examples of how we’ve twisted our terms to the detriment of the church …

Church leaders should abandon the use of the term “volunteer.” That is, if you really believe in the “ministry of all believers.”

“Volunteer” does not simply denote one who serves without pay; it can create a connotation of separation between “leaders” and those being led. The concept of having volunteers assist “professional staff” or those “ordained for ministry” is to create a clergy class responsible for ministry, and those who assist them with more “menial” ministry tasks.

Noting could be further from the biblical concept for the church.

With a view of leadership created by, and recruited from, the world, we’ve turned upside down a biblical role of leadership from equipping to directing. Scripture says:

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ,” Ephesians 4:11-12.

The work of ministry is both an expectation and responsibility of every follower of Christ. Just because most are not paid a salary for the work they provide within God’s kingdom does not make them any less essential to the cause of Christ. But the term “volunteer” gives the impression of temporarily offering service in a limited way for a limited time. Yet, every believer is called to give every ounce of their lives in service to the King.

Along with deleting “volunteer” from our church vocabulary, it would be a good idea for church leaders to dump the term “staff” for referring to fellow servants in the church.

“Staff” are people who work for you. Could you imagine the Apostle Paul referring to any of the men who traveled with him as “staff”? Of course not! Because Paul was aware he was serving with brothers and sisters in Christ, his spiritual family. He did not consider himself superior to them; in fact, he referred to himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

Some churches use the term “team” instead of staff. That’s a little closer to the idea of working together, but every member of a team looks forward to going home to their family. Why? Because family is a deeper bond than a team.

A key contributing factor to strife among church leaders is the hierarchy they create for themselves. Instead of wrestling for position and influence, how could it impact your local church if your leaders genuinely viewed themselves as brothers and sisters in the same family? You likely would be a bit more passionate about the “success” and well-being of your own brother than you might be a person who works for you or a teammate. If you have a family of servants devoted to equipping and serving the larger family, you likely will have greater ministry cohesion.

Much more could be said for the words we use regarding the people in, and purpose of, the church. From the “corporate speak” to cultural preferences commonplace in today’s church, we haven’t given much attention to the words we choose. But words build vision and concepts, which create value and drive actions. In that case, perhaps we should give a little more consideration to the words we select.

But these are just words …

Scotty