“Meet people where they are” is one of those phrases that, for some reason, makes me cringe. It seems too much like an overused sound bite to have any real value behind it.

Every sector has its own seemingly bizarre expressions that are particular to it. My sisters and I still laugh about the time when we overheard a sales assistant in a women’s clothing store sing out the phrase, “Carry on with the checks and if you need me, I’ll be in the fits”.

Quite why the words “fitting rooms” were unsuitable, I’m not sure, but it led me to thinking about the peculiarities of church language. When I hear the words “meet people where they are” my instinct is to turn off or to begin veering off on a thought tangent about the relative cringe factor. It seems too empty to be useful.

But this week, I spent some time pondering what it could mean to try to bring Christ’s message to people in a way that doesn’t force them out of a setting and context that they understand or enjoy being in.
In a recent lesson we were discussing how people may feel while worshipping. I saw a distant expression sneak across a few faces. It very quickly became clear that the vast majority of the children in front of me could not relate in any way to the notion of being moved by worship or feeling any personal connection with God.