One for the road...: "Well I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak..."

Hope in 20 languages

I am noticing that there are some words that are getting really trendy - take meme for instance - I had no idea what it is but trust me drop it into your next conversation/blog post/comment and you'll be most memorable :).

This has got me thinking though how often I come across theological terms that leave me scratching my head and wondering why someone can't say church instead of ecclesiology for instance. Clearly it is a term used to communicate a specific idea but are we all on the same page with what we mean when we use such terms? I had a similar experience trying to explain what I meant by missional theology, what I thought was a short cut on the way to a conversation turned into the conversation. It all reminds me of the Coldplay lyric:

"Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle, you can't find your missing piece?
Tell me how do you feel?
Well I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak
And they're talking it to me"

This got me to thinking is there a handy glossary of theological terms that I can crib off - especially in the context of emerging church - this was the best I could find from searching google for the last half hour. Makes me wonder if every conversation needs a common language, a common understanding of words, a shared history then maybe this list needs to be updated and a live glossary is needed... maybe you are aware of one and could let me know? Maybe its something that you are already thinking of or doing? Maybe I/we need to create a new meme (see it is impressive isn't it :)...

However, my trawl through google was not a complete waste as I did come across an alternative glossary of emergent terms - if perception is reality this makes a most challenging as well as amusing read - I am a big fan of being able to laugh at myself and not taking this whole thing too seriously. Although on second thoughts I'm sure how tongue in cheek the author was being - so the challenge is as I see it not positioning emerging church as the new best model... but to paraphrase St Paul:

If I speak a dazzling generous orthodoxy or just a plain old fashioned traditional one, but I don't love then I am a pompous old windbag. If I am able to reference the meta-narrative in the face of mystery or explain mystery with a clear logical answers based on evidence and proofs but am not loving in doing so then it really does count for nothing. If I am a new kind of christian, an old kind of christian or kinda prefer the term follower of Jesus instead and am ready to die for the right to be right instead of for the right to be kind then I really have missed the point. No matter what I say, how I say it and more than that, how I live it out - if it is not infused and infected with love - then all I have become is an expert in talking about God rather than an extension/channel/ambassador of him...