Language

Never forget who you are writing for. Your audience probably has very little knowledge of Christianity, Christian terms or ideas, or the Bible. The language you use to present the information on the site will go a long way to determining whether or not your site gets read and who reads it. Be careful not to end up with an evangelistic site that all the Christians you know love. This site is not geared for them, it’s geared for non-Christians. Make sure your choice of language doesn’t get in the way of what you are trying to say.
It is difficult for Christians to learn to communicate in non-Christian terms. The language of the church is part of who we are, often we don’t even notice the church-y words that we use on a day to day basis. Writing evangelistically requires that we start to notice and be willing to make changes in the way we communicate.

Take a look at the page on Christian cliches (Step 2B) it is full of words that should not be on your site. All together in a list they can look pretty silly, but these are all words that a Crusade staffer found people using in their testimonies. These are words and phrases that have no point of reference for a non-Christian audience and so we cannot afford to use them.

Remember that you have to earn the right to be heard. Give your audience quality information on a quality site, convince them that you know what you are talking about and really do care about them and they are much more likely to listen to you when you want to talk to them about God.

Choose your words wisely:

• Edit carefully to remove Christian jargon.
• Find out which terms are acceptable in your cultural environment and use them.
• Educate all writers on words and phrases to avoid.
• Have brainstorming sessions on inclusive ways to talk about spiritual ideas.

Written by Senior Editor Claire Colvin