Churches love to talk to themselves. We create internal groups, names, and acronyms that try to sound clever but no one outside of our church would ever know their meanings. This isn’t a good way to communicate!
Recognize any of these Internal Acronyms?
FROG = Forever Relying On God
DIVAS = Divine Inspired Victory Against Satan
DOG = Depending on God
AWANA = A Workmen And Not Ashamed
GLUE = God Loves Us Eternally
GAP = God Answers Prayers
Do I need to continue? We love to create committees to create outcomes that make us look like we’ve worked hard and developed cool stuff. There’s probably a good reason that there’s never a statue of a committee in a park. We defeat ourselves by becoming overly complicated. And internal.
Two problems arise:
- Creates multiple brands in the church. You need one solid simple brand name. It should be your overall church brand and then a descriptor that accompanies it. For example: Crossroads Presbyterian Youth rather than some made-up name.
- Omits people who don’t have an understanding. We have a problem in the church today. Communities are growing but our churches aren’t. This is a sign that the community doesn’t connect with our churches. Is it any wonder why? We build internal barriers that keeps the average unchurched person from feeling included. They hear our “internal speak” and they say, “that’s not for me, it’s a private club of Christians”.
Here’s what we should do:
- Eliminate all internal Acronyms that don’t have a generally-accepted meaning. If it needs an explanation, it’s not good communications.
- Simplify. Say it like it is. Clever is rarely better.
Tear down this barrier to communications and your community will start to understand who you are and what your church is doing!
