The Phrases That all Christian Writers Should Avoid

Using storytelling to reach everyone

When I dedicated myself to writing again, I asked the Lord for one thing: His help in making my writing as clear as possible and avoiding Christianese so that my writing would be accessible to all.

As I interacted with other Christian writers phrases jumped out at me. I then tried to eliminate that Christian jargon from my articles as well. If it was a turn off for me and I understood those terms, what must others think who are “new to the faith” or just peeking under the hood to see if they are interested? (You see I just used a Christianese term there too: “new to the faith”). It’s not easy to recognize them — especially if you’ve been “in the faith” for a while or your entire life.

This prayer — to avoid Christianese in my writing — seemed to be paying off when a writer friend and coach said, “I am the most secular friend you will ever have but your writing speaks to me. Your inclusivity is your biggest asset.”

This pleased me. But, of course, the enemy quickly tried to deter me by whispering, “Inclusivity? Maybe that just means you’ve watered down the gospel message.”

But, that’s condemnation and it’s not from God, so I quickly dismissed it.

Each Christian writer has to determine who their audience is, although we often write for a variety of audiences. Still, we should remember that each believer, seeker, follower, or disciple is not at the same place we are, spiritually speaking. Our salvation is to be walked out and worked out as Paul says in Philippians 2:12, and it’s personal, ever-growing, and evolving.

And, of course, depending on our culture, country of origin, denomination, and age, we may be prone to using terms we’ve grown accustomed to, phrases that may be foreign to a 21st Century churchgoer or someone who is just beginning to read the Bible and seek God.

We, as Christian writers, are all guilty of using Christianese, and sometimes the phrases that I want to use to describe an encounter with the Spirit or a miracle in my life just seem to fit. My challenge is to not get lazy in my writing by filling it with trite terms and the jargon of the church.

I began my “walk with God” in the ’80s. We talked about “getting saved”, “turning to God”, and being “born again.” We “surrendered all” and “gave our hearts to the Lord” to enter into a “personal relationship” with Jesus.

Now, those terms seem to confuse Christians that I talk to. They see their faith as something they have grown into not something they walked to an altar to “get.” It’s a conversation killer.

While I still remember the rainy day in November of 1986 that I marked as the day I “got saved”, I also can look back on my life as a child and see seeds that were planted along the way, and how I always had a sense of God’s nearness even if I didn’t know the right words to use to describe it.

The other day I was dusting off some old files of magazine clippings I had saved in the days before the internet and Google and I found an article called, Make it Flow by Barbara Robidoux. The page was torn from The Christian Communicator (now online, of course) and was dated February 1998.

Her article is an encouragement to avoid Christianese cliches in our writing in order to “elevate your writing above the norm.” Below are some of the phrases she lists that we should strive to avoid. (Cliches, in general, should be avoided, like the plague.)

• get into the Word
• God revealed to me
• laid upon my heart
• lift up the Lord
• moved by the Spirit
• storms of life
• prepare our hearts
• good Christian

Some of the Christian cliches that I often see and try to avoid:

• beloved (does anyone really talk like this in real life?)
• I beseech you
• pour out your heart
• sought the Lord
• backslider

I acknowledge that one person’s cliche is another person’s sincere chosen word, but, in general, Christian writers will do well to edit their work and make it fresh and accessible to all readers.

What are your pet peeve cliches? I’ll add them to my list so I can avoid them too!

This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.

We are a Smedian Publication. Find out about us and how to write for us.