Immigrants always have a problem learning the new language of their chosen place of abode. Like me and most of the other people in the immense boomer cohort. Speaking the current cultural dialect requires familiarity with the Urban Dictionary, GeekWise, and other primers and language tutorials of native speak.
For example, I'm trying to figure out the "no problem" thing, you know, the native response to the "thank you" that customarily follows good service. This happens all the time and I'm trying to fine-tune my own personal dictionary to accommodate "no problem" when a member of the younger millennial cohort tosses it my way. One epic occasion marks my memory. It was a turning point in language development, the cross-roads where the geezer in me came face to face with the missionary in my heart. Picture this. The check out line at a large retail store, an organization that used to dismiss employees if they didn't say TYFSAK. Anyway, I'm checking out with my Geritol, Depends, and soft foods. I rendered the cash and just stood there for a minute or two, waiting for some kind of response from the slacker taking my money. After about fifteen minutes (translation: 30 seconds), I finally said, "thank you", in a loud and obnoxious tone. He said, "no problem." I almost ripped his tongue out. After showing off, we finally got the the car and I said something like, "dumb, stupid kid. Immature all the way." Harriet said, "look at you. You're the one acting like a child." Ouch.
She was right. Here I was out in the native's world expecting him to know or learn immigrant talk. Of course, "no problem" isn't a smarty-pants, in-your-face, stick-it-in-you-ear retort. It's actually native language for "you're welcome". He was being nice. I was too busy being a ticked off geezer to notice. Anyway, if this particular language shift bothers you, check out the GeekWise explanation here.
This is just another layer in the communication onion that connects or dis-connects the church from the culture around us, especially the younger cohorts. My response to the young man was typical of the way we deal with that particular generation: critical, dismissive, and judgmental. Most often we have them profiled according to our own rigid biases, thereby writing them off as Kingdom partners. When I was a state convention employee I sat with many older church leaders trying to develop a strategy for reaching the younger people around them. At some point I would ask, "Have you asked them?" "No", they would usually reply, "they don't understand church and they're immature anyway." Yeah, right! They just may understand church more than you're willing to admit. And, the gatekeepers may be confusing the virtue of child-likeness with the kiddie game of childishness. Takes one to know one---
True. The Good News is timeless, always preaches, never returns void, and all the other biblical truth about the Word of God. Faithfulness in declaring the full counsel of God is the challenge always before God's people. Yet, even the Apostle Paul knew the value of being all things to all people for the sake of communicating truth. He wasn't two-faced or inauthentic or fake in his inner belief system. He was passionate enough about his faith to translate it to Romans, Greeks, Epicureans, Stoics, and the other people living in the Greco-Roman world. Hmmm? A lesson perhaps?
No problem.