There are four words that I’d like to strike from our Christian conversations. There are probably more, but these four keep coming to my mind.
They’re kind of buzzwords these days. They are the following businessy terms: connect, tribe, sexy and brand.
Here’s how they get used.
Connect: “Hey bro, it was so nice to connect with you today.”
Tribe: “Yeah man, I’m part of that reformed tribe, if you know what I mean.”
Sexy: “Well, having Sunday school isn’t really a sexy way to do church.”
Brand: “I really am having a hard time developing my brand.”
It’s true these terms are most frequently used by pastors, and they love using them at conferences. In fact, I practically drown in this trendy lingo any time I interact at a conference.
Sadly, I am now seeing these terms trickle down into everyday Christian conversation about everyday Christianity with everyday Christian folk. Pastors have popularized this terminology through their Christian books, blogs, social media and word-of-mouth usage.
And I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve found myself, at times, caught up in the game. Mostly, I’ve done so through lack of discernment and overexposure to this language. I didn’t first hear it in a church context anyway. And it’s so easy to borrow from other contexts and import them into our own. This is the nature of multiculturalism.
These are terms I first heard all the time in business contexts from professors, textbooks and popularized books by guys like Drucker, Porter, Lencioni, et al. as I studied marketing in the business college at UTA. I understand that there is nothing wrong with retrieving business principles for ministry purposes.
I get that. I apply principles I learned from my undergraduate work all the time in my ministry context. But I don’t apply every principle or every term. I’m selective, and for good reason.
I’m distancing myself from these terms. Here’s why.
It’s not because I’m some codger and curmudgeon, though I imagine many perceive me so.
Rather, I prefer precision, propriety and purity.
This means I want to stick to language that follows a biblical trajectory, is socially considerate and demonstrates the kind of holiness that shows the business world that the church is still distinct from it.
I think my reaction against each of these words stems from different reasons.
