In a word, “Christianeze!”
Christians have a habit of creating words for things that no one else understands. I don’t think it is intentionally designed to push others away, but that is the result.
Here are some examples you may have heard:
“Rapture” – the term given for the time when Christ returns and believers are caught up to join Him. The term does not exist in the Bible and the meaning is completely different outside of Christianity.
“Oh, that will be fun” – a phrase used when discussing doing something one feels they should be doing. Ironically, it rarely refers to something most would consider fun.
“Discipling” – the term created to mean the active process of developing other followers of Christ. If the word were to actually exist, it might also be understood to mean “being a disciple.” The Bible uses the phrase “making disciples” and a correct term for this could also be “mentoring,” but it seems that existing words just aren’t quite good enough.
“Relational vs. Missional” – Current buzz word for the dilemma of whether a church should focus on reaching out to others (missional) or create an inviting atmosphere to draw people in through relationships and small groups (relational). Three problems that I see here… First, “missional” is not a word and there already exist other words with this definition. Second, “relational” has a definition already. Third, and most importantly, Jesus asked us all to GO and teach people, AND to meet together often. He did not tell us to make a different church for each purpose.
“Blessings” – used to convey well-wishes to others, similar to “go with God” or “God be with you” but used among Christians more like “have a nice day.” When used in a mixed environment it just sounds weird and makes non-believers scatter.
There are others, but the point is that by creating our own vocabulary, we isolate ourselves and cause others to be wary (at best).
Truth be told, we push away non-believers, which, obviously, goes against His divine purpose for us all.
In my experience, I’ve found that the degree to which people dislike Christians is directly related to the amount of time that they (the Christians) spend talking about being Christians. I liken it to NASCAR. I’m not a NASCAR fan. However, I would have no problem with being friends with and respecting a NASCAR fan as long as he didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince me to be a NASCAR fan (you can use Grateful Dead fan for the metaphor if you like 🙂 )