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Since it's a new year, I thought you'd enjoy learning about some of the new euphemisms making their way around the workplace. You're likely to hear several of these in 2005: Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. Body Nazis: Hardcore exercise and weightlifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn't work out obsessively. Cube Farm: An office filled with cubicles. Prairie Dogging: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. Mouse Potato: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato. SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids and no property. Stress Puppy: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny. Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use. Tourists: People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in the class; the rest were just tourists." Xerox Subsidy: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace. Flight Risk: Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon. Irritainment: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example. Percussive Maintenance: The fine art of whacking an electronic device to get it to work again. Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired. Heard on the voicemail of a vice president at a downsizing computer firm: "You have reached the number of an uninstalled Vice President. Please dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance." See also Decruitment. Yuppie Food Stamps: The ubiquitous $20 bills spewed out of ATMs everywhere. Often used when trying to split the bill after a meal: "We all owe $8 each, but all anybody's got is yuppie food stamps." So
may your 2005 be a year in which you are not uninstalled, when
you need not deal with too many stress puppies, and you have plenty
of yuppie food stamps! Michael
Duduit, Editor Click here to visit "I Was Just Thinking" for insights and observations about faith and culture issues.
Help for tsunami victims The death toll from the South Asia tsunami disaster continues to rise — it now exceeds 100,000, and some project it could ultimately reach several hundred thousand people. If you and/or your church would like to be involved in helping victims of this natural disaster through the work of a Christian agency, one option is World Vision. This organization will be providing Family Survival Kits, containing items like blankets, tarps for temporary shelter, water purification tablets and cooking supplies. They will also provide other critically needed relief response, such as food or medicine, where needs arise. You can find them (and make individual donations via credit card) at For church projects, they also have bulletin inserts you can download (click here) and downloadable forms to use in sending church-wide gifts (click here). The linked downloadable inserts are in Acrobat PDF format.
Preaching is key to reaching unchurched In a recent Church Central article, church growth expert Thom Rainer cites research which demonstrates that once an unchurched person becomes interested in spiritual issues, preaching is a decisive factor in bringing them into a specific church. Rainer writes, "When my research team and I interviewed the formerly unchurched, we asked two questions that engendered significant responses about pastors. The first of the questions was a straightforward query directly about pastors that could be answered with a simple yes or no: "Did the pastor and his preaching play a part in your coming to the church?" Nearly all of the respondents (more than 97 percent) said yes. "The second question required a more subjective response: "What factors led you to choose this church?" The responses show that facts relating to the pastor and preaching were the most-often mentioned answers. Without any prompting from our interviewers, the formerly unchurched told us nine out of 10 times that the pastor was key in their entering the ranks of the churched. "The formerly unchurched were unequivocal in their beliefs that preaching was pivotal to bringing them to Christ . . . When the believer began to seek religious truth, the sermons had some meaning. By the time the nonbeliever was an active seeker, attending church on a regular basis, the nonbeliever tended to hang on every word of the sermon." (Click here to read the full article.) http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/21666
Missional leaders value purpose above propriety In his book Shaped by God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches (Josey-Bass), Milfred Minatrea describes a "missional church" as "a twenty-first century church committed to use every means available to accomplish God's missional purpose in the earth." He points out that, "Missional leaders can be nonconforming. They tend to be highly creative and do not readily adopt limitations imposed by others. Such outside-the-box thinking leads missional leaders to consider more relevant ways of communicating the redemptive message in contemporary culture. They value the past, embrace the present, and focus on the future. . . . "Missional leaders perceive purpose as more important than propriety. When faced with challenges, they develop new solutions rather than simply seeking solutions that have proven useful to others. They might, for example, start a new church in an urban club, meeting in a room that moments before was a dark, smoke-filled haven for alcohol and exotic dancers. They pick and choose elements of worship, missing elements from liturgical and nonliturgical traditions. More often than not, they know people from the communities they are seeking to affect. "By
caring more about accomplishing the mission than preserving the
past, the missional leader's creativity can seem threatening to
some church leaders. Outside-the-box thinkers may see the resources
of the past not as something to be preserved but as the most fertile
compost in which to grow something new." (Click
here to learn more about the book Shaped by God's Heart.)
Hand-made or heaven-made? Writing in September 1995, John Ed Mathison of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, AL, wrote: "When something is hand-made, it usually has more value. It indicates creativity and craftsmanship. Hand-made is an asset in temporal terms, but a liability in eternal terms. Paul said, "When this earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (II Corinthians 5:1) "On August 13, there were some notably different approaches to life and death. The Panama City paper carried the stories of three people who died that week. One was Mickey Mantle, of baseball fame. His body couldn't cope with the effects of alcoholism. In his last days he pleaded with young people, "don't be like me." The message on the scoreboard in Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon was a tribute to his "man-made records" in baseball. I understand he did accept Jesus as his personal Savior before he died. "Another death was Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist and singer for The Grateful Dead. Phil Lesh beat a drum in San Francisco's Golden Park for a large crowd of mourners. Garcia's body couldn't stand the effects of drugs and he died in his early 50s in a drug rehabilitation center. "The other story in the paper concerned my mother, Mary Mathison, who died at the age of 82. The doctors said she died from an "overworked heart" that just gave out beating. The First United Methodist Church of Panama City was packed with worshipers who celebrated her life and her resurrection. The celebration ended with the whole congregation's singing of "Victory in Jesus." "My mother was depicted as a person who always stayed in the background and offered encouragement and support to her husband and two sons. She had a huge heart that poured out love on us and to all people she met. People of all races and from all economic and social levels of life who had been recipients of the love from her big heart were present. After 82 years of giving, her heart just gave out! "Mickey Mantle and Jerry Garcia left behind a lot of wealth gained from those hand-made accomplishments, but it won't last very long. Mother left behind a long list of people she influenced for Jesus Christ. I guess Mickey and Jerry got some of their rewards here — Mother is enjoying her rewards forever and ever, and ever! "In
the long run the hand-made tents are not nearly as creative or
crafty or as valuable as the house that is not made with hands,
eternal in the Heavens! Heaven-made is a lot better than hand-made!"
(from Extra Effort by John Ed Mathison)
ILLUSTRATION: Service, Obedience In Paths to Power, A. W. Tozer writes, "There are two kinds of ground: fallow ground and ground that has been broken up by the plow. "The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow. Such a field, as it lies year after year, becomes a familiar landmark to the crow and the blue jay. . . . Safe and undisturbed, it sprawls lazily in the sunshine, the picture of sleepy contentment. . . . Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow. "In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like, and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field … has been upset, turned over, bruised, and broken, but its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight, its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. Nature's wonders follow the plow. "There are two kinds of lives also — the fallow and the plowed. "The man of fallow life is contented with himself and the fruit he once bore. He does not want to be disturbed. He smiles in silent superiority at revivals, fastings, self-searchings, and all the travail of fruit bearing and the anguish of advance. The spirit of adventure is dead within him . . . he has fenced himself in, and by the same act he has fenced out God and the miracle. "The
plowed life is the life that has . . . thrown down the protecting
fences and sent the plow of confession into the soul . . . Such
a life has put away defense and has forsaken the safety of death
for the peril of life. Discontent, yearning, contrition, courageous
obedience to the will of God these have bruised and broken the
soil till it is ready again for the seed. And as always fruit
follows the plow." (Click
here to learn more about the book Paths to Power.)
ILLUSTRATION: Details John L. McCaffrey, former President of International Harvester, once said, "The mechanics of running a business are really not very complicated when you get down to the essentials. You have to make some stuff and sell it to somebody for more than it cost you. That's about all there is to it. . .except for a few million details." So much of life is in the details — like a bed-time prayer with a child, or kissing one's spouse each day, or saying "Thank you," or remembering an anniversary. Maybe the little things aren't so small. Those vital, tiny details like being punctual or keeping a confidence. (Bill Bouknight, "Just a Thought")
ILLUSTRATION: Prayer Gordon MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, writes these words: "We live in a society that is reasonably organized. Put a letter in the box, and it usually ends up where you want it to go. Order an item from a catalog, and it usually comes to you in the right size, color, and model. Ask someone to provide you a service, and it is reasonable to expect that it will work out that way. In other words, we are used to results in response to our arrangements. That is why prayer can be discouraging for some of us. How can we predict the result? We are tempted to abandon prayer as a viable exercise and try getting the results ourselves. "But the fact is that my prayer life cannot be directly tied to the results I expect or demand. I have had many opportunities by now to see that the things I want God to do in response to my prayers can be unhealthy for me. I have begun to see that worship and intercession are far more the business of aligning myself with God's purposes than asking Him to align with mine. Henri
Nouwen says it best when he writes: "Prayer is a radical
conversion of all our mental processes because in prayer we move
away from ourselves, our worries, preoccupations, and self-gratification — and
direct all that we recognize as ours to God in the simple trust
that through His love all will be made new." (Click
here to learn more about the book Ordering Your Private
World.)
Be sure to hand out those Christian College Links If your church has received copies of Christian College Link (our publication to introduce students to Christian higher education), be sure to hand those out to your high school students (particularly 10th-12th graders), and encourage them to respond and request information about Christian colleges. Remember that if you return 10 or more completed cards as a group from your church, you'll receive a free copy of the book Conversations on Preaching. If
your church has not yet requested Christian College Link
for your students, click
here to submit your request. A limited number of copies is
still available, so let us hear from you soon.
ILLUSTRATION: Television and Religion According to a Dec. 17 Associated Press story, "Television entertainment programs mention God more often than they did in the mid-1990s but tend to depict organized religion negatively, a study released Thursday said. "The Parents Television Council watched every hour of prime-time on the broadcast networks during the 2003-04 season and logged 2,344 treatments of religion. They judged 22 percent of the mentions positive, 24 percent negative and the rest neutral. The conservative group's last study, released in 1997, found far fewer mentions of the topic — an average of once per hour compared to three times per hour last season. "But any mention of a religious institution or member of the clergy was at least twice as likely to be negative than positive, the council said." (Click here to read the full article.) | ||
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ILLUSTRATION: Lottery, Gambling "The wife of the lottery winner who took home the richest undivided jackpot in U.S. history says she regrets his purchase of the $314 million ticket that has thrust her family into the public spotlight," according to a Dec. 14 Associated Press article. "I wish all of this never would have happened," Jewel Whittaker told The Charleston Gazette. "I wish I would have torn the ticket up." "Since winning the lottery two years ago, her husband, Jack Whittaker, has been arrested twice for drunken driving and has been ordered into rehab. He also faces charges he attacked a bar manager, and is accused in two lawsuits of making trouble at a nightclub and a racetrack. . . . Whittaker took his winnings in a lump sum of $113 million after taxes." (Click here to read full article.) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6712081/
ILLUSTRATION: Bible The four-year-old had seen her mother reading from the Bible for a few minutes each morning. Finally one day she asked, "Aren't you ever going to get finished reading that book?" No,
we never get finished with God's Word. There's always something
new to encourage, to challenge, to change us.
People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first.
Leader
Links is a web-based publication for Christian leaders,
produced by the publisher of Preaching magazine. The January
issue is now available at www.leaderlinks.com,
and features helpful articles, featured leadership resources,
and more. Interested readers can also go to the site (or just
click
here) and subscribe to LeadingNow, a monthly e-mail
newsletter featuring ideas and resources for Christian leaders.
ILLUSTRATION: Optimism, Possibilities Business
leader Mary Kay Ash once said, "If you think you can,
you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."
Signs you are getting older As another year rolls around, you may want to check out these signs that you are getting older:
And finally . . . The United Nations has identified Norway as the best country in which to live, but a Norwegian official says that's only because they didn't factor in the cold weather. The U.N. Development Program's quality-of-life index has ranked Norway on top of a list of 173 countries, ahead of Sweden and Canada. The United States was sixth. "We're pleased we're at the top of this ranking for a second time," Deputy Foreign Minister Olav Kjoerven told reporters. "It shows that things here are probably not as bad as we sometimes seem to think." The U.N. rankings measured quality of life based on education, life expectancy and per capita income ($29,918). Kjoerven suggested the ranking would have been different if climate had been a factor. "Have you spent winter in Norway, with the cold and darkness?" he asked U.N. researchers. Oslo
in southern Norway is on the same latitude as Siberia, southern
Greenland or Anchorage, Alaska.
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| PreachingNow is a publication of American Ministry
Resources. Editor: Dr. Michael Duduit. |