We
must find ways to relate with people who need God’s love the
most. Here’s a few practical tips.

I have recently spent a great deal of time studying nearly every book about evangelism I could get
my hands on. I have come to the conclusion that many Christians are
in need of a “Jesus Renaissance” -a reawakening to the actual
message of Jesus -when it comes to reaching people outside the
church. We really need to take a serious look at how we share the
love of God with non-Christians.

One of the biggest barriers for sharing God’s love with outsiders seems to be our communication
style. In Colossians 4:2-6, the Apostle Paul wrote, “…pray for
us…in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of
the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as
it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to
each person.” NASU

Paul was very concerned with how he communicated with outsiders and gave a warning to the early
church about it as well.

In 1985 I had a radical encounter with Jesus while I was involved in the New Age Movement.
Through a series of events I got connected with a Christian church
and over time received emotional and spiritual healing that allowed
me to grow and mature in my new Christian life. I consider myself
one of the lucky ones who was able to stick with the process of
becoming a part of the Christian community.

After being involved with a Christian church for a number of years, I found myself cut off and
out of relationship with my pre-Christian friends. These were the
people who needed God the most. I also noticed that I had developed
a “church vocabulary” and I was using words that people outside the
church did not understand. I wanted to share this wonderful
life-changing message of Jesus but lacked the ability to communicate
it in language outsiders could understand.

God led me on a journey that helped me to reconnect with people outside the church. I spent three
years ministering at a homeless mission and began visiting inmates
on death row. By simply spending time with the outcasts of society I
began to realize how much God loves people. I also learned how to
communicate with them without sounding religious.

In my journey to share God’s love with people, I have tried nearly every evangelistic method I
could find. I used tracts. I asked people strategic questions. Heck,
I would have stood on my head and barked like a dog if it would help
them to know God. What I came to realize is that our society has
changed dramatically over the past few decades. Even though we live
in a country that has a lot of churches and claims to have Christian
values, a good number of people no longer have a memory of
Christianity passed down to them from the generation before them.

Some people have grown up never hearing about Jesus and never having been taught anything from the
Bible. People no longer value the Bible as a supreme authority. With
that in mind, it is no wonder that tracts and other methods of
evangelism are no longer effective.

When we try to talk with someone who has no religious background and we use words and phrases that
are religious lingo, we might as well be speaking in tongues to
them. Paul addresses this issue in 1 Corinthians 14:9-11:

“…Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?
You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all
sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without
meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is
saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to
me.” NIV

The Apostle Paul was very strategic in the way he spoke to those outside the church. As we are
doing evangelistic outreaches, we are finding that people are very
open to talking about God, particularly when we use language that
they can understand.

It is my opinion that we can attribute much of the Christian lingo to the fact that modern
translations of the Bible have only been available for a few
decades. The popular King James Version (KJV) of the Bible
translates the Greek of the New Testament word for word pretty much
as it was written. This may be useful for word studies but it does
not flow well in today’s conversational English. I am not putting
down the KJV. I am simply implying that it has influenced the way
many Christians speak. The KJV also has a poetic flair that was
popular several centuries ago but is not used in everyday
conversation.

Many KJV words and phrases have crept into the vocabulary of Christians. Here are a few examples:
“like unto”, “likened to”, “whereby”, “saith the Lord”, not to
mention thee, thou, and ye, and all the “iths”, “eths” and “ests”
added to the ends of words. I say unto thee, it would be better that
thou speakest not thusly when standing at the coffeepot at work!

In his book, Evangelism That Works, George Barna points out that many popular tracts used by
Christians have wording that is hard for people to understand who do
not have a religious background. I have listed below a few of these
phrases from tracts and next to each I have added my suggestions
on ways to say
the same thing in non-religious wording.

“Covered with the blood” or “washed in the blood” - your sins have been forgiven because of
Jesus’ dying on the cross

“Sanctify your soul” - you need to grow spiritually

“Saved by grace” - a new spiritual life that is not based on what we do but it is just
because God loves us

“Be fed by the word” - get spiritual insight from reading the Bible

“Pursue the Christian walk” - find out more about the message of Jesus

“Seek fellowship with the Holy Spirit” - find out more about God’s Holy Spirit

“Repent of thy transgressions” - receive forgiveness for things that you have done wrong

“Do not trust in your self” - learn to trust God more than your own feelings

“Possess a broken spirit or a contrite heart” - you need to be open and willing to learn

“Road to righteousness” - spiritual journey to God

Here are a few practical steps to get started learning how to communicate without sounding
religious:

Make a list of religious words that Christians say on a regular basis. Begin to notice how often
you say them and find new ways to say the same thing. This list
might include words like: blessing, anointing, praise, amen,
sanctified, glorify, call of God, mantle, covering, bondage, open
heaven, favor, etc, etc. There is nothing wrong with using these
words in Christian settings.

Occasionally read a modern translation of the Bible like the New Living Bible or The Good News
for Modern Man.

Use a Thesaurus and find better ways to say religious words. It may be that you will have to use
several words to describe a word’s meaning. For instance, “call of
God on your life” can be described to someone as “I bet you have
always felt like there is more to life. You are a person who wants
to make a difference in people’s lives.”

Get into relationships with people outside of your Christian circles. Whenever you have the
chance, go to a party with co-workers, invite a neighbor to coffee,
or go to lunch with a non-Christian. Hang out and just be friends
without feeling as though you have to lead them to Jesus. Remember,
the Holy Spirit is the convictor of sin, we are not. Jesus called us
to love people.

We can learn to be sensitive to people who may not know much about the Bible. God may then give us a
prophetic word of encouragement for someone and we can communicate
it in a way that they will understand and receive what it is we are
saying. I have yet to find a good book on speaking “non-religious”.
I will include a section on this subject in the book that I am
currently writing on Prophetic Evangelism.