Christianese /Ker ist yan neez/ noun
Definition: the terms used by Christians to describe the common people, places and things of Christian life.
Layman's terms: Christian slang
I like this word a lot. Sometimes the language christians use becomes so convoluted it is practically a dialect. Whether we are talking discipleship or fellowship, Christianese can seem like a different language. Luckily for you, it has the same grammatic structure of English!
Christianese takes a lot of its terms from the Bible, so even if you don't think you know Christianese, but you've read the Bible, chances are you know a bit. Now when I say I'm fluent in Christianese. It's only partly a joke. As a former MK, I've been juggled between different churches and denominations. I grew up in a Vineyard Church, with some brief sabbaticals into the Christian Alliance Church, Houses Churches, Bar Churches, Pentecostal Churches and one IHOP church plant. I spent grade 1-6 at a Lutheran School in Kitchener, and kindergarten and 6-12 in the Catholic Separate School Board (of Ontario). I had one summer at a Camp Shalom (affiliated with the Christian Reform church) and two summers at Camp Arnes in Manitoba, the province whose "cup runneth over" with mennos. As for myself, I've worn the labels MK, Vineyard kid, Protestant, Evangelical, Deacon’s daughter, Christ Follower and Christian. With this wide berth of Christian influences, I present this blog: The Christianese Dictionary. I've heard, a lot of phrases used by the old and the young, the Pentecostal, the Catholic, the fundamentalists and the emergent christians, and myself. I appreciate these differences and I hope to explore these in the upcoming weeks, months days. Here is the Christianese that I used in that paragraph that I will be exploring through the course of this blog:
MK
Vineyard
Fellowship
Discipleship
House Churches
Bar Churches
Pentecostal
IHOP
Lutheran
Catholic
"cup runneth over"
Mennos
Evangelical
Deacon
Fundamentalist
Christ follower
Emergent Christians/emergent church
and more!
If there are any christianese words you'd like me to explore, post them in the comments!
