Hymns with words of war and battle images counter concepts of nonviolence. My children, both daughters, one in her twenties and the other in her late teens, will not enter a church for worship because they cannot see the relevance of the liturgical language to their everyday lives. New vocabularies are used to convey meaning in a world where invention is common. And they have given new meanings to some old words. New understandings of our world require modern words to convey those understandings.
Stagnant language is dead because it describes something which no one sees anymore.
It is no longer used. The word describes a reality which no longer exists in the modern world. I believe that an institution which articulates the basis of its life with dead language is an institution without vitality. By sticking to outmoded language and ancient images, the Church becomes a club for those who speak the language. It doesn't work for large numbers of marginalized people in the so called 'developing' countries, nor for the homeless in the 'developed' countries, nor for the environment, nor for the earth itself.