A few years ago I was asked to create a press release for a CEO of a company. My client wanted me to write something extolling how dedicated to being honest about sales results this particular CEO was. The only problem was that she wasn't.
She was known for being a bit blurry when it came to the reality of the sales the company was generating. The press, the stockholders, the employees, everyone that knew this lady was going to see right through my press release and instantly think, "No way am I listening to this lady. I know her past."
What I wanted to do, which was eventually rejected, was come out with the truth. I wanted to disarm the readers by opening up with a statement that said, "In the past, numbers have not been my greatest strength." If I said that, all the readers would have to pause before throwing a rock at us. In essence I would have removed the biggest objective they had to reading the rest of the press release.
The same thing happens with Christianity.
We do some things really well and we do some things less than really well. But when we pretend we're perfect, people see right through it and won't believe anything else we say. And that's the point of this project. I want to be honest and upfront and hopefully a little funny about the issues the church and Christians struggle with sometimes. I want to say, "Whoa, whoa, please don't judge me or God by Christian radio." I want to admit the times we've dropped the ball on issues or ideas that people called to love their neighbor should have knocked out of the park. I want to blow up misconceptions and preconceptions about what it means to be a Christian.
And I need your help. For the first time in my blogging experiment, I want to open up the posts to other people. Got an idea about "Stuff Christians Like?" Email me at theacuffs@yahoo.com or post a comment. If it fits the theme of the site I'll put it up and give you all the credit.
So check out the posts. Laugh a little. Get mad a little and if you finish here, don't forget to stop by ProdigalJon.com and 97secondswithgod.com .
p.s. this is a direct rip off from a really popular secular site and started on March 21. Instead of cramming the first 40 posts on one day that would never have been scrolled through, I went back and loaded all the content day by day starting with January 1st. That way the days are all evenly laid out and when you click on "March" you don't just see one thick day trying to carry 40 posts. See post 1 for more details.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
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7 comments:
Saying something will "hurt my witness". As if "witness" is a character quality. No where in the New Testament is this work used this way. It is either a verb to describe seeing something or a noun to describe someone who see something. In every case the emphasis is on what is witnessed, not the witness.
Asking are you "saved", "born again", etc. Saved and born are verbs, not nouns. Jesus said you must be born again. Peter said believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved. We should ask "have you been born again" or "have you been saved".
Note to Jon: Feel free to dress these up or ignore them if they seem too rant like.
thanks for the quick reply to my comment.
I've been thinking a lot about internet plagiarism lately.
If you actually wanted to give credit where credit is due, reference should be given to blog Stuff White People Like on the front page of your blog, it should be made obvious to the readers where you got your idea for the title.
Thanks for all your work, I'll forward this blog to a couple people who might appreciate it.
:-)
Describing a meaningful spiritual experience as "sweet." As in:
"That was a really sweet time of worship."
"The fellowship was just so sweet."
"And then we had a sweet time of prayer."
"It was just so sweet."
oooh ooh - Our generous use of the term 'seasons' as in: "I feel we are going through a season of..." or "I think we should just have a season of..." or "The season for ____ has ended and now...". Instead of just saying 'I've been thinking about some of the things I did when blah blah blah', we say "I've (just) been going through a season where God's been addressing these issues in my heart..." It's my favourite Christianese of the season. I mean moment.
Helpful post. I'm wondering if you might (or perhaps have already) consider(ed) putting a link to this post on the sidebar as an intro to people who are new.
Keep up the good work; love it.
I'm probably coming in on the tail of a conversation I wasn't a part of, but I have to say that I agree with batspit -- and in my case, I'll be kind of blunt and say I think I would enjoy what you have to say, but I'm pretty much turned off by your not attributing your starting point to the "stuff white people like" site. If that other site was something everyone knew about anyway, then it wouldn't matter, because people would know you were playing off it.
But I think it's a safe assumption that many (or more likely, most) of your readers assume you came up with the idea -- an idea that was frankly brilliant when Christian Lander came up with it for the white people site, and that is a big part of what makes your page different than all the other blogs about Christianity out there. In other words, however insightful your own ideas may or may not be, you're using Lander's idea to get people to read them.
You may or may not agree with me and batspit, but I have a feeling there are a lot of non-Christians out there who would gain respect for Christians if they came across this site and found a clear admission, on the banner (and not just on some link somewhere), that it's playing off someone else's idea. I also have a feeling a lot of them would lose respect for christians if they saw the site as it stands. Frankly, I kind of do, and I'm a Christian.
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