The First Parish Blog

How We Talk: an Innovation Workshop

The Innovation Team invites you to one of two upcoming workshops on language at First Parish. On Tuesday evening October 29th and Sunday November 10th before the service, together we’ll explore how the words and phrases we use impact ourselves, each of other and prospective members. Both workshops are in person at First Parish. Details below.

One of the five top-level recommendations from last year’s Strategic Task Force report was to “Review How We Communicate Our Identity.” From the task force report:

“Our public persona is embodied in part in the language we use to describe ourselves, our building, and our services. Terms such as church, religion, sanctuary, faith, or worship may no longer resonate with – or may even be repugnant to – some people we may wish to attract.”

“To appeal to a broader constituency in the 2020’s and beyond, we need to ensure that the language we use to describe our church and its activities not only reflects the perspectives of existing community members, but also resonates with the needs and interests of people we seek to attract.“

The purpose of this recommendation is to help us become more aware of how our language is received and interpreted by people within the congregation, as well as potential newcomers. To attract new members to our open-minded and welcoming congregation, and retain existing members, we want to use language that is descriptive, accurate, accessible and appealing.

This attempt is notably difficult, especially when describing deeply felt values and experiences, with sources that may precede the words used to imperfectly describe them. Because religious words and phrases are merely tokens representing a deeper sensibility, they can be misinterpreted and lose meaning over time.

Furthermore, since everyone develops their own subjective interpretations, every linguistic representation of any abstract quality can obviously be received as having either a positive or negative valence.

So it would be a completely quixotic endeavor to seek uniform descriptive language about First Parish, our beliefs and our practices!

But the simple focus in these workshops is to get clarity on the variety of interpretations of the language we use. The same word or phrase could be consoling to some while being controversial to others. If we become more conscious of the valence and impact of our language, we can gain a more profound understanding of each other and build a stronger sense of community.

Please join us at one of the following workshops, both will be held in person at First Parish: