Word Confusion

Maybe it is part of starting a new job in a new location but the past few days it has struck me how often people use the same word but meaning different things. I have also seen people use different words and be convinced they are talking about something unique but in reality they mean something very similar. Christianease has many words that have multiple meanings, for example, the word service: it can mean a specific event on Sunday morning; it can be related with doing good works; or it could be related to evangelism and outreach. When we use the words we assume that the listener(s) hear the word with the same message we have in our mind when we speak it.

At Hope, our new church home, we are wrestling through the second scenario. People talk about Mini Congregations and small groups as different events with different purposes but when people define the goal of each, they are almost the exact same things. For insiders, people that have been around for a while, the differences are clear because they may have experienced both or they have just been around long enough to know what is different. For someone new, it can be quite confusing. My solution, I am going to try hard to not use either set of words. I hope we can come up with a new vocabulary that has the same meaning for everyone and that a new person can quickly understand. In reality the vocabulary is not as important as the leaders understanding how their role fits into what God is doing in and through Hope Church. I am excited to see how God works through something as simple as words.