new overused church words
I have the privilege of not only working at a youth club throughout the week, but also of getting to work with young adults who are studying youth ministry for a year or two. Part of their studies involve working with us at our youth club. I can honestly say that the club is as much theirs as it is ours and we absolutely love getting to work with them…even when they’re drama queens. : ) This year we welcome two new students.Anyway, we sort of have a running joke in our office of terms we’re sick of hearing among the new emergent church (woops) I mean among young Christian adults. Personally I get sick of hearing them for the following reasons:
(1) I often don’t think the person using the term actually knows what it means.
(2) I often think the term is simply used to cover up the fact that the person (or church) isn’t actually doing anything.
(3) I often think the term is being used in an attempt to make the person sound smart.
(4) I’m really judgemental
Anyway, the following are just some of the overused and abused terms on our list. Please feel free to add your own:
(1) Community (I know that this disqualifies us as young Christian adults, but this term is seriously overused)
(2) Holistic (kill me!)
(3) Organic (??? Did this replace “grass roots”?)
(4) Take risks (used as an excuse to take uncalculated risks that make no sense at all)
(5) Post Modern (only sick of this when it is used to describe anything other than an era or maybe art. What the heck is a “post-modern worship service???)
Please feel free to add your own “new overused church” words.
By the way, have these last two posts been seriously judgmental? I don’t know what’s up with that? I’m actually having a pretty decent week.
posted by Tim at 12:29 AM
Comments on "new overused church words"
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Unknown said ... (5:38 AM) :
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blogblogblog said ... (12:07 PM) :
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Tim said ... (5:28 PM) :
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Kathryn said ... (7:49 PM) :
post a commentAnd by drama queen you mean girls that are really charismatic about their lives. That live in the moment. That don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. By the way, I really enjoy dwelling in holistic community with you and Jamie. The work we are doing is both post-modern and culturally relevant. I am also learning so much because of the organic nature of it all.
How could you forget the mack daddy, context? Used especially when someone doesn't want to accept someone els's assertion of what to do in church, i.e. I'm sure that works in your context, but you have to appreciate the culture of my contextual community to understand that your suggestion simply will not work where I live.
In the interest of balance, I have to admit, though, that I like "organic." It's more than grass roots I think and I'd love to see the church actually be as organic as some say it could be. I see it as the opposite of puffed-up hypocrisy and bureaucracy. Plus, we could all wear really comfortable, dreadfully ugly sandals.
I’ll give you the fact that hymns are also “worship and praise”, but the sermon? I suppose it could be, but it certainly isn’t always “worship” or “praise”. It’s often an encouragement, a rebuke, a charge, etc.
Yes....can somebody explain to me when it was that "worship" became a synonym for a certain type of music...as in "I'm in charge of worship at X church"..which means that the guy in question leads the music group. Where does this leave the rest of us?
At vicar school I had to write an essay "what is worship" and concluded that it was basically putting God in his proper place in things...which doesn't per se have to involve Matt Redman, does it???