Choosing our words carefully

In a digital age it has become more and more important to choose our words carefully but increasingly more difficult to do so.  Social media is designed to illicit a quick response rather than a slow, considered, wise response.  I wonder if it's also having an affect on how much time we give to considering our words when off social media.

When I write a sermon for Sunday there are usual 5 stages I go through when I am carefully sifting, editing, weighing and changing words before I preach.  But when using social media there is just the one, or when I'm being more sensible, two as I write it, let it sit for a morning or afternoon and then come back to it.  I wonder how much this is creeping into the way we do other things.

A couple of things have triggered off this train of thought and my concerns.  One has been brewing for years the other is a more recent thing.

We need to be careful with the words we use full stop - just read Proverbs or James and you will see why.  But we need to be especially careful when we are talking about churches and church planting.  For example I have known of two occasions in different parts of the country when I have heard someone talk about the need to plant a church in a city/town because there is 'no bible teaching church there'.  When in each case I have known of 1 or 2 faithful Christ centred, bible teaching churches in that city/town.  Such claims worry me on two levels, firstly they just aren't true and secondly they can cause immense damage to the gospel.

I've been on the receiving end of some of this when I've heard third hand from people who have jobs in Doncaster but live in Sheffield that when they were moving they were advised not to live in Doncaster because there "are no bible teaching churches there."  Now that is a blatant lie, there are bible teaching churches, a number of them.  Some are medium size, some are small, some are traditional, some are less so, some are middle class, some are working class.  But there are Bible teaching, Christ centred, disciple calling churches in Doncaster.  Such comments discourage much needed potential workers from moving to an area of gospel need and they discourage existing Bible teaching churches, congregations and ministers.

So I can imagine how much more devastating it must be to hear of a church planted in your city/town because there is "no Bible teaching church".  I can't help wondering if using phrases like that owes more to our societies methods of marketing, PR, and spin to create a need or appetite or simple gather support rather than true gospel heartedness, honesty and unity.  Be careful with your words.

But we also need to be careful with the words we use to talk about other churches on social media.  I wonder if we ought to either be positive or be quiet.  If we can't recommend a church then don't but do not slander it or demean it.  Don't be quick to cry 'heresy' or accuse a church of 'losing the gospel' because I don't think the New Testament is.  There are New Testament letters that are firm on the need to root out false teaching and we need to do that, wolves are dangerous and must not be allowed to destroy churches.  But there are other churches - Galatia, Corinth - that I can't help thinking critics today would quickly decry as 'heretical' on twitter but with which the Apostles persevere because they see the gospel at work there.  We ought not to spread slander against churches on social media, by all means heartily recommend a church but don't denigrate another.

There are a couple of things that feed into this, sometimes we confuse tribalism with being gospel-centred or bible teaching.  A church simply being different doesn't make it unsound.  Consumerism also feeds into this - just because we don't like a church (it's worship style, it's community involvement, it's chairs, it's not using the KJV or ESV or NIV) doesn't make it not bible teaching.  We'd do better to be honest and say I'm really picky and didn't like________ (a separate issue for another post) rather than say there are no good churches.

All that just to say we (I as much as anyone) need to be careful in the words I use to speak about other churches both in person and especially on social media.  To weigh them before we speak them or type them.