Friday, September 26, 2008
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Worst Christian Clichés -Are You an Offender?
by mr willow 
A discussion on TheWorshipCafe got me thinking about some of those special little phrases we Christians tend to use. I’m not opposed to Christians having their own special phrases with technical meanings; I’m opposed to Christians having their own special phrases with no meaning.
Clichés are those words and phrases that we say without thinking, quite literally. Thus it’s important to know what they are so we can start thinking again. Here’s a helpful guide to a few of the worst offenders, and what (as far as I can work out) they mean:
All truth is God’s truth (interj.) – means “I couldn’t be bothered to see if the Bible says anything on the subject; hope this trendy psychology book will suffice.”
Be real (v. trans.) – means “Ha, now not only do I get to exhort you but I can imply that other people are hypocrites!”
Community (n.) – means, well, pretty much nothing. (E.G. “We are building relationships in community.”) No coherent definition has ever been given for “community” in its Christianese sense. All we can say for certain is that it doesn’t mean “neighborhood.” And usually not “monastery,” at least among Protestants…
Culturally Relevant (adj.) – means “Who cares what the Biblical guidelines for this activity are; it looks like what’s being done in pop culture!”
God is growing me (negttgcto.*) – means “There’s a great work happening in my life but it hasn’t affected my grammatical skills yet.”
* - not even going to try grammatically classifying that oneJust (interj.) – means “Uh, um.” “Lord, just bless him and just make him just grow God,” while the sentiment may be sincere, becomes rather annoying. (See also God, name of, repeated every five words while praying.)
Passionate (adj) – means “Spirit-filled, but we don’t like to talk about the Spirit because we’re not Charismatic.”
Postmodern culture (n.) – means “I read a book and lookit me, I understand society now!” (Sorry, but it had to be said.)
Share with you (v.) – means “I can’t come up with an original verb!”
Super-spiritual saints (n.)– means “People who live out what they believe, thus pointing out the fact that I don’t and requiring me to insult them to make me feel better.”
The youth of today (n. phr.) – means “Some of the people at my high school.”
Traveling mercies (n.) – means “We’re too spiritual to pray something as mundane as ‘God, protect them as they travel.’”
Unspoken request (n.) – means “I’d be more embarrassed to actually tell you what’s on my heart than I would to use an oxymoron!”
We planted a seed (phr.) – means “Our efforts at evangelism totally bombed, but that certainly couldn’t mean that our approach needs to be improved!”
OK, now I’m getting cynical. I’ll stop. But I will accept more suggestions for entries!
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Comments (23)
I agree that all of these are rather silly cliches, except planting a seed, because that's a biblical concept (1 Corinthians 3:6). I think we need to move from the idea that we're not successful unless everyone we talk to gets saved right then. Planting seeds can be just as important, and God's word never returns void. If we are presenting God's word, then we really have planted a seed, and we've never totally bombed. I hope that people move toward this idea rather than away from it.
I particularly love "traveling mercies" and "share with you"
I agree with all but "unspoken", and special amen to "be real"! I could not agree more, it's when we tell others to stop being hypocritical that way, we ourselves are being hypocritical, because I doubt most of us care if that kid down the street is two faced or not. (Just my personal opinion). But I am definitely guilty of telling people to be real.
I love that list! lol :)
hahaha you know what one I love? "Love the sinner, hate the sin." It isn't even a Christian phrase. I think Gandhi coined it, for christ's sake.
I love the "postmodern culture" one. I can't tell you how much I totally love when someone comes to my site or talks to me quoting all this shit from books and philosophers that they probably don't even understand. Like, last week, someone came and told me the unexamined life wasn't worth living and went on as to how I should remedy my non-examination. I replied with something like "Quoting Socrates, nice. Too bad it doesn't actually make you look smart." =P people...
"God is growing me." thank you for that one. that sentence makes no sense. who decided we were allowed to use bad grammar in church? :D
haha, this post is funny.
beisde, i really like the 'be real' one lol
Dude, how could you forget about,
"I'll pray for you(phr.)" - I care for you, but not enough to actually do anything for you, so I'll just pray. Or maybe I'll forget to even do that much, but at least I tried.
You know, I'm a little afraid that all these posts being put up will make people afraid to express themselves for fear of judgement or criticism. Who cares what we call it? Who cares if someone says God's name every other word during a prayer? Why does it bother us so much?
Planting a seed is biblical
:)
:laughs:
I think you would really like this comedy bit byTim Hawkins, a christian comedian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o61_c0r5mEM
"Tim Hawkins talks about weird things people say in church."
Mr Willow wrote:
Just (interj.) – means “Uh, um.” “Lord, just bless him and
just make him just grow God,” while the sentiment may be sincere,
becomes rather annoying. (See also God, name of, repeated every five
words while praying.)
Once after I prayed, someone called me out for repeatedly using "just," and it made me feel quite small...even though the criticism was correct in many ways. And for some time after that I was hesitant to pray in that person's company.
I know this post was written in fun, but...
I do think as we poke fun at various phrases people may use, yes, they may be grammatically incorrect and may seem kind of dumb to some out or misused/abused, but let's not forget that God is not so much concerned about the particulars of the words we're using but about our hearts.
That is the problem Israel ran into. They had a form of worship that looked good on the outside, but it was phony, full of idolatry, greed and injustice toward others, e.g.-Isaiah 1:2-15; 29:13-14; 58:1-5.
God is always ready to hear His children even when we say something stupid or off the wall or even unscriptural! (For example, check out the Psalms when the Psalmists feel God has forsaken them. Of course, we know He hasn't forsaken them.) We need to beware of having a "holier than thou" attitude about how we pray as compared to others.
I certainly would pray this post that would not a stumbling block to some who might feel their prayers are being judged or rated by other believers and therefore, feeling they come up short, will be less likely to pray in the future, thinking they need to refine and perfect their prayers before coming to God.
I've heard most of these.
The multiple usage of "God" in prayers has always been a pet peeve of mine. I was once in a weekend role-playing exercise geared towards giving people an idea of what it's like to have contact with an unreached people group. There were missionaries and separate tribes.
The tribes made up their own languages (based in English, since this was only over the weekend). Each missionary group had to go through customs, find their assigned tribe and then establish communication and relationships with their tribe.
I was a tribes-person and ended up being the translator between my tribe and the missionaries. When I stopped in the middle of translating and explained to one of my missionaries that his constant Christianese (such as frequently repeating the phrase "God I pray") would confuse anyone who had not previously been exposed to a Christian-influenced culture and make them think that it was a requisite for communication with God. He got very angry with me and told me that he'd been on mission trips before and they'd never had a problem with it. I had a funny feeling that the translators would probably leave out half of what he said in order to avoid confusion.
@mo_chic_for_jesus@xanga - @naphtali_deer@xanga -
I wholeheartedly agree. The purpose of this post is definitely not to make anyone feel bad about their Christian walk for superficial reasons (God forbid!) but to poke a bit of playful fun at things we all have probably said, and hopefully to get people to think a bit deeper about some things (e.g. "Culturally relevant") we all often say without thinking. Kind of like the popular "Stuff Christians Like" blog (although I wrote this long before I heard of him!).
I'm sure I've said "just" many times myself while praying. I certainly prefer (and I'm sure God prefers) a heartfelt prayer full of "just"s and "Fathergods" to a spiritless prayer with great literary style. I do admit, though, to wondering how that custom got started in the first place!
By the way, where ever did you find that picture of my pet?
I like this one new cliche (at least it's sorta of new to me)... God- thing. I've read it somewhat in Melody Carlson's Diary of a Teenage Girl Series'.
Whenever something great or miraculous happens, one of the characters will say, "It's a God-thing." In my opinion, I think it's a pretty cool saying.
The "community" in the Christianese sense is the Body of Christ. That's pretty basic theology and has the greatest possible meaning.
The core of community is family. And the nature of God (the Trinity) is family.
If a Christian thinks that "community" is meaningless then they do not understand the basic, most fundamental doctrine of their faith.
"All truth is God's truth" was something I uncovered while reading Madeline L'Engle's "Walking on Water." While I have seen it used the way you imply a few times, usually when I say it I mean that someone who isn't a believer or something that normally wouldn't be considered "Christian" spoke a Christian or universal truth that I identified with.
Well, as with politics, art, and industries such as computers a communication or message will get lost in use of jargon. That is to say, big words will confuse people who just want the meaning.
These phrases may not mean something to you, because the arrangement was put together by and for people who do understand it a certain way. You may find the same meaning they intend by another combination of words.
Does "my people" or "community" become shorthand for "just my select set of people", or does it mean "all people that need inclusion and belonging"? Does "God's truth" equate to "God's truth as I interpret it among a group of people who agree with me"? Defining your own terminology will usually combat tired phrases that have lost, or never had meaning for you.
"Be Real"-Favorite words :P
Guilty as charged. I try not to but sometimes can't help it. At my church we overuse the word amazing. ALL THE TIME. I didn't realize it till someone else pointed it out and now I can't think of synonyms. Ooh...synonyms has 2 ys!
Oh, TheWoshipCafe...I was attacked on that site once. I was asked how I could call myself a Christian. I don't even remember what the issue was. I just remember that question hurt at lot. After seeing so many of those clichéd phrases thrown at me with no real thought behind them (God gave us a brain to use) and having doubt cast on my personal relationship with my Savior, I left the site. I do not want to be a part of that.
Here's a few more:
We covet your prayers. (They're much classier than our own.)
A hedge of protection
Body life
Compassion ministry (as opposed to Judgment ministry?)