Jem and I recently spent the morning together. We started, of course, with breakfast at City Café, where the waitresses call you “honey” and the old guys at the big table by the window always have a new joke to tell you. From there we rode our bikes all around downtown Northport. We talked to two guys fishing down by the river, passed one of our neighbors who was also out biking, waved to people sitting on their porches, and shot the breeze with the guy at the five and dime store who sold us our glass bottle cokes. As we were walking out, Jem remarked, “it seems like everybody knows everybody around here.”
In his book Practice Resurrection, Eugene Peterson points out that the New Testament often uses three different words to describe various categories of language among God’s people. The first is kerygmatic language, from which we get our word for preaching. The second is didactic language, which refers to all kinds of settings where biblical instruction is being provided, whether that be in Sunday School or a pastoral counseling session or group Bible study. The third, lesser-known category is paracletic language, which is often used to refer to informal relational communication.
We are all familiar with the importance of kerygmatic and didactic language, and we usually think about these forms of communication as the responsibility of “professional” Christians. And while these forms of communication are important, the reality is that we are all called to be engaging consistently in paracletic language. Interestingly, the Greek root word for paracletic is the not only the same word used in the idea of “calling” but it is also one of the words which is used to describe the Holy Spirit. In other words, one of the ways that we walk in our individual callings as followers of Christ and affirm others in their callings is to cultivate language between one another that is intimate and personal and Spirit-led.
In a sense, Jem got a taste of paracletic language that morning on our bike ride. He got to experience the joy and community that comes from regular folks interacting in regular ways. Though the church will always have a need for environments of kerygmatic and didactic language, it is also of utmost importance that we cultivate the presence of the Holy Spirit among us by pursuing one another relationally with Holy Spirit paracletic language, a style of language that is vitally important to help us not just be worshipers, but worshipers IN COMMUNITY.
Ben