Fishy Language

- If you must eat the pinks, don't wait very long after catching them to do so; or get them canned.
- Turn your nose up to dog.
- Dip for the reds, savor the silver, and don't forget your stamp for the kings.

Not long after my wife and I first moved to Alaska (20 years ago next month), I received such pointers.  Around the same time, I met the first person I knew who worked in Prudhoe Bay.  He told me that he worked "on the Slope" two weeks on and two weeks off.  As a cheechako (one "wet behind the ears" as to Alaskan life), I thought he worked on the ski slopes. 

Twenty years later, I know much more about this great state.  I do, however, still get confused on which salmon is which.

As a Christian who "grew up in church" and whose Ordinary Life has always included the church, I can forget that many people who enter our church (or any church, for that matter) do not know their way with the language and lingo of the church.  Some words are obviously less familiar to many ears. 
Think - propitiation, justification, sanctification, and amanuensis

Other words seem more easily grasped. 
Think - saved, redemption, grace, and sin

Nevertheless, the sourdoughs (old-time Alaskans) of faith need never assume (or expect) that their cheechako brothers and sisters hear what they mean when they speak in the language of "the churched."

Over the next several weeks, I will devote my Ordinary Life posts to the explanation of "church speak."  Log on and learn a bit.  Let me know if you have a request.

Growing with you,
Mark

#ordinarylives