| Five "Ministry Words" I'm Trying to Avoid
I believe that the words we choose are important to clear communication. Culturally, common phrases build up over time and we often don't understand their original meaning. We begin to use them without regard to whether or not they are really helping us say what we want to say. Here are a few words that I think have been overused or misused in recent years, and that I'm trying to avoid altogether in my own life and in the ministries in which I serve:
Relevant. Often we hear phrases like, "Making the church more relevant" or "the Bible more relevant" or "Christ more relevant" to people today. We ask about our message, means and methods being relevant. And we fear irrelevance. While it's true that the church really can focus on irrelevant issues, most of the time the conversation on relevance centers on the perception of our own importance within our culture.
The truth is that Christ is always relevant, the Word never changes and is always relevant and the relevance of our faith and beliefs is not dependent on the reactions of the non-Christian world. When we begin to pursue relevance, our focus in essence becomes the world instead of Christ.
Feel. We are a culture led by our feelings. When it comes to most issues, especially religious ones, we ask ourselves how we feel about this or that. How do you feel about Christ? About His Word? About obedience and surrender to Him? Don't agree with something in the Bible--well, how do you feel about that? How did the worship music or the sermon this Sunday make you feel? Many of us make many decisions based on our feelings.
Really, the word we should be using here is belief. Fundamentally, following Christ is a belief in Him--faith in someone we can't see physically, but trust implicitly. Feelings come and go, and put the focus on ourselves. Beliefs are foundational, and cause us to act in one way or another, even risk or sacrifice based on those understandings.
Blessing. The idea that a relationship with Christ and material blessings go hand-in-hand is pervasive in the North American church. We have largely equated the word "blessing" with the word "stuff", where we define what stuff we consider a blessing. God's promises to believers include many blessings--and these are all good things.
But we must realize the full breadth, depth and power of God extends to the blessings He gives--and that material blessings--stuff--is just an infinitesimal portion of the full blessings He pours out on those who "love Him and are called according to His purpose." Blessings, then, could take the shape of many things we might initially perceive as negative--losing a job, losing a loved one, getting into an argument, being forced to work with or be neighbors with someone we don't like, moving to someplace new, downsizing--there are negative aspects to all of these. But if over time we see God has placed us in circumstances not to our liking to accomplish His purpose in us, are these not indeed blessings?
Let's pray for and be ready for the blessings of God in our lives as His followers. But, let's not have an expectation that those look or are received in a certain way--or we'll likely be disappointed. And let's not preach or teaching "blessings" in a material sense at all--it will only confuse people and raise their expectations for something that goes far beyond what they could possibly imagine.
Commitment. This is a vague and lackluster word that we often use to define a relationship with Christ. Many people are commited to Christ. Then again, many are committed to their friends and families, football teams, jobs, dreams, desires and ambitions. The chief problems with the word commitment as applied to Christ is that man's definition has various levels or degrees, and a commitment can be broken.
Instead, I would use the word "covenant" or "surrender" in talking about a relationship to Christ. I think it's important to accurately portray life in Christ as irreversible--a total sell-out to Jesus that includes our families, resources, hopes, dreams, ambitions, desires--everything that makes us who we are. One of the greatest failures of the modern church is tolerance of halfhearted faith. I think those who are simply committed to Christ are those He talks about in Matthew 7:22-23. Our perception of commitment today is often one of convenience and self-interest. We need better language to describe the inseparable, sacrificial bond of a life devoted to Christ.
Growth. In the North American culture, this word in the church is nearly always associated with numerical increase. We have become growth oriented--there is an entire church growth culture with growth seminars, growth strategies and growth consultants. If we're not growing (enlarging), we are told, then we are dying.
Non-numerical growth--such as growing in the knowledge of and obedience to Christ--is a foundational element of church ministry. However, I would use words like maturity, disciple-making and obedience instead of "growth" to more accurately define these aspects of the Christian life. Numerical growth is really a byproduct of the true misson and purpose of the church (Act 2:42-27) and provided by God as an outgrowth of our submission to Him and the Word in our lives individually and collectively.
I believe strongly that these words are overused and misused in ministry. So I've taken the liberty of removing them from this website as much as possible. My recommendation with respect to our language in the church today is simple--watch what we say. Make sure that our church culture doesn't seep into our speech and writing in such a way as to confuse or mislead those we are trying to reach or disciple.
 For Further Reading On This Topic...
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About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...
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