A language we can all speak
Some days I feel like I have officially gotten old. I mean, 41 is not old by many standards, but some days I feel it. Luckily, not in my physical self as I am fortunate to be in good health, and putting my feet on the ground every morning is neither a physical nor mental struggle for me.
However, when I hear the language that a younger generation uses, I get confused and feel like I’m a thousand years old. I sometimes wonder what language my kids and their friends are speaking. They don’t use the obvious slang of my youth; words like gnarly (thanks, Ninja Turtles), or bodacious (which means good). Instead, I’m trying to figure out what words like Sigma mean (good, I think) or skibidi (pronounced skippety; also good, but sometimes bad) let alone trying to decipher what skibidi toilet means (don’t ask me, I can’t help you).
Translating what one person says into a language that others can understand has been a challenge for humanity since the dawn of time and it has also been a challenge for the church for as long as people have gathered.
I recently had an opportunity to gather with colleagues from across the country for continuing education. All of us are pastors at medium to large congregations within this branch of Christianity called the ELCA and all of us continue to wrestle with how to keep our congregations healthy, growing, and relevant in a society that grows more and more apathetic to religion with each passing day.
We had a delightful gathering wrestling with more out-there things like social media analytics and evaluation, staffing and organizational structures that keep the church nimble, new expressions of the church in post-Christian landscapes. All of it was wonderful and my heart was full as I left.
Our discussions not only led us to deeper discernment for our own churches, but we also established some common language, language that we have used to push, challenge, and encourage each other as we put into practice what we learned.
At St. Paul, we have some shared language that guides who we are, and I am very grateful for these things as someone new to the system. We talk about them as Core Values. Five points of emphasis that guide everything that happens here.
Together we share the values of Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Formation, Courageous Service, and Extravagant Generosity. Those five things are our common language, our focus for how we express our faith in Jesus as our Lord.
More than just five wonderful things this church values, I think all of us can get behind these values in our lives that we live between Sundays. I wonder then, how each of our individual lives and hearts would change or evolve if we focused on them in our own living for the next week. I encourage you to give it a try.
These five questions may be helpful:
Did you do your best to see the God-loved humanity behind each person you encountered today?
Was your heart open to how God might have been moving around you today?
Were you curious today?
Did you consider how your lives and gifts might be used for the betterment of someone else today?
Were you grateful today?
Considering these questions may not fundamentally change your day. I hope they don’t! But I do wonder if our hearts could be somehow opened to God in new ways if we focused our daily movement around these shared values.
These values may not be very sigma or bodacious or groovy. But they can unite us, no matter how old (or not old) we are around what we do share rather than letting confusions of language separate us.
Sounds pretty skibidi to me. I think.
Gina Bielski
This message is “lit.”
“No cap.”
Thanks,
Gina Bielski 😉
Val Waring
I had to look up skibidi toilet. Thanks google: “an animated series that follows a war between toilets with human heads popping out of them and human-like characters with cameras, speakers, and TVs for heads”
Judi Berkley
Watching some new shows on TV and streaming services sometimes leaves my head spinning!
Suzy Schindler
What a groovy message Pastor Mark. You’re one cool dude!! And we’re a pretty hot congregation…🙃
Marcia Willi
Suzy… love this response!!