I see it a lot on Twitter and Facebook: Churches using hyperbole in posts to drum excitement. Sometimes it’s in the form of multiple exclamation points!!!! Other times, it’s the excessive use of adjectives like “awesome, amazing, and powerful.”

“Come visit us this Sunday for a powerful time of worship!!!!”

What’s worse is when a worship leader is billed almost like an attraction.

“Come visit us this Sunday for a powerful time of worship with (insert name of worship leader)!!!”

Or a pastor is the spotlight of the communication.

“Pastor (insert name of pastor) is delivering a powerful message on deliverance!!! Come and be blessed!!!”

I thought Jesus Christ is the star of the service, and that we’re all just invited to be a part of what He’s doing?

What if we’re not able to deliver on our promise to be “awesome, amazing, and powerful?”

I always have to take off my “professional Christian” glasses when I write content for our communications channels because I try to remind myself that our audience is not just made up of pastors and missionaries. It’s easy for us who work in the ministry to use “Christianese,” or Christian speak, in our language because we’re surrounded every day by Christians. When we’re around each other, we use terms like “Praise!” or “Strong!” or “Believing for…”, words and phrases that only fellow Christians understand and relate to (or not.)

But what about John Smith who’s never heard about God? What makes us think that he’ll find our Sunday service “awesome, amazing, and powerful” when he’s probably never even been to church? Or that he’ll understand our Christianese?

What if we’re not able to deliver on our promise to be “awesome, amazing, and powerful?”

Wouldn’t it be better if we cut out the hyperbole and the esoteric lingo and stuck to sounding like humans inviting humans on a Sunday?

“We’d love to see you at one of our services at (insert time and/or location.) We’ll be learning about what God says about loving our neighbor.”

When people do show up on a Sunday, they’re not expecting anything beyond what they were told. What they draw from that experience is up to them. Hopefully, they will say they had an “awesome time, with amazing worship, and a powerful message.”