I’ve never been to Erie, Pennsylvania because I don’t trust alligators.
I saw the movie “Lake Placid,” about a 30-foot alligator that was eating people and I made a decision in my heart at that moment that I would never go to Erie, Pennsylvania. (What’s that? Lake Placid isn’t in Erie? Lake Erie is? That makes sense, I guess, but regardless, without Bill Pullman to protect me, who is the poor man’s Bill Paxton by the way, I’m not getting within a thousand miles of Erie.)
But in addition to their alligator problem, a friend from Erie recently told me something else that is plaguing Erie – the use of the word “gospel” as a verb.
I doubted her at first, after all, people who live under the constant threat of alligator attack tend to be a little shifty, but the more she explained the situation, the more I believed her. Apparently, in churches near her, people are saying sentences like this:
“Are we gospelling our towns the way we should be?”
“I want to gospel my neighborhood.”
“I personally believe that when it comes to reaching teens, we need to gospel like a hurricane.”
OK, I made up that last one, but the other two are true. And although they feel a little weird at first, maybe “gospel” is the new “love on.” Maybe instead of saying, “I loved on my friends at school,” 2009 was the year of saying, “I gospelled my friends at school.” Fair enough, but the year is almost over, which begs the question, what’s next? What word will we verb in 2010? I have three suggestions.
3 words we’re going to verb …
1. Community
In addition to being a surprisingly funny show starring the Soup’s Joel McHale, “Community” is the perfect word to verb. Think about it, we already love that word. We’re constantly trying to grow it or build it or foster it or nurture it. It only makes sense that we’d also verb it. How fun would it be to say, “I communitied my community.” And you could do that awesome reverse logic riddle sentence that pastors love to do, “Are we communitying the people we live near or simply living near the people in our community?” Ohh, that is deep, Jon Acuff, you just put a wrinkle on my brain!
2. Sabbatical
It’s been years since I was a trendhunter for a company out of LA, but I think I’m ready to come out of retirement today and predict that 2010 will be the year of the sabbatical. As life gets busier and louder, we’ll eventually see a return to simplicity and an “unplug” movement that preaches the need for sabbaticals, be they weekly or seasonally. And even if that doesn’t happen, I want to promise you right now, that I’m going to use the word “sabbatical” as a verb. If you call my phone and I’m off in the desert (for the purposes of this sentence let’s pretend my home state of Georgia has deserts) my voice mail is going to say, “Hi, this is Jon. I’m sabaticalling right now. Please leave a message and when I am done sabaticalling I will call you back.” Doesn’t that sound nice?
3. Relevant
I’m not even sure if the word “Relevant” is “Relevant” anymore, though I still dig the magazine, but if we’re done with it as an adjective, maybe it’s time we rolled it out as a verb. Imagine, if you will, this conversation.
Guy 1: Hey, Mike, what are you doing?
Guy 2: I’m relevanting my wardrobe as a worship leader.
Guy 1: What does that mean?
Guy 2: I bought some v-neck t-shirts. I’m going to relevant my shoes next and maybe even relevant my belt.
You laugh, or maybe you don’t laugh, maybe you shake your head instead, but regardless, at some point if we meet, please know that if I’m not busy sabbaticalling, I’m going to try to community you with a message I’ve relevanted and before you know it, you’ll be gospelled like you’ve never been gospelled before.
What words would you verb from the Christian vernacular?
Comments
Mine is more of a phrase than it is a single word, but I'm gonna go with "Season of Lifing."* I hear this phrase used a lot not only at North Point, but it in more 'modern' churches, blogs, etc, as well.
Examples may be something like "In light of certain situations in my last job, I'm Season of Lifing my way for a new one," or "I'm Season of Lifing my way through a financial situation."
*Note that I /would/ say Seasoning of Life, but that sounds a little too close to the kitchen for me.
I was just talking about words we verb. I was talking about Google and hwo we now use it as a synonym for "search" when talking about the internet. I think the internet is quickly growing and adapting to this is where we'll see most of our growth in nouns to verbs.
One might even start using SCL as a verb to describe quirky things Christians do. Of course it will have to start as an adjective to make the transition, so maybe I'm looking into 2011 here.
"Dude, our worship leader has SCLed into a metro worship leader. What's next a worship eagle?"
bahahaha that is fantastic!
I think I actually used that at one point!
Jon will have to write a post about how reading SCL is stuff christians like!!
oddly enough, I believe Charles Stanley actually had a worship eagle in one of his services. taking it one step further…I would be worried about the eagle using me as target practice – would that make it "holy crap"
I think bible would work. You could even use it in the phrase "bible on," as in, "Wow, that new guy's eyes sure glazed over when I started talking about Habakkuk. I should go bible on him and make sure he understands all the finer points of the minor prophets."
I like that!
"Disciple." "We need to disciple the lukewarm so that they in turn will gospel their community and community their gospel. Go relevant before you sabbatical!"
ow. I need more coffee.
Disciple actually is a verb, though…
well you know Jon, according to some philosophers of the early 90's "love is a verb"
"Grace"… "Let's grace the hell out of religion"
I agree. Religon is dumb. I will use that soon.
Back in the 80s, "Gospel Like a Hurricane" was my favorite Scorpions song!
That…
was…
…wait for it…
If Jon keeps a list of best comments of all time, this one needs to be on that list.
I may have to actually create a "real" login so I can give a thumbs up on this one!
My friends and I are in the habit of making verbs out of words that are not normally verbs.
Movie – "Shall we movie after dinner? I hear 2012 is pretty awesome."
Pancake – "I pancake with friends every Saturday morning at Cracker Barrel."
As far as words specific to Christianese…
I vote for Job. "Yeah, Mike is Jobing it right now. Lost his job, the kids are sick, it's just looking bad but he's staying faithful."
I teach English to international students, and they HATE how every noun in English can also be turned into a verb and vice-versa. I think it's awesome, but I can't say I blame them because I'm sure it's confusing. If I showed them this post, I think their poor heads would explode.
Jon,
Yesterday while at church, my somewhat metrosexual worship leader went rogue – totally abandoning the powerpoint lyrics and made up his own words.
Ever consider posting about worship leaders gone rogue…Sarah Palin style?
"Worship leader goes rouge…" sounds like an awesome b-grade christian novel title
He called an audible
Your "awesome reverse logic riddle sentence" may indicate that the pastor is a secret apprentice to the Sphinx. "When you doubt your powers, you give power to your doubts."
I think "comfort zone" should be verbed, particularly by the ones who lead mission trips–
"You're so comfort-zoned that you're not listening anymore" or, better yet, "I had to go on this mission trip to get de-comfort-zoned."
The word's been so overused it needs some life breathed back into it, and verbing it could be the perfect solution.
I heart Hucklebuck…
Crowder (v) To produce worship music that has a rocking quality. Wow! The worship team is crowdering better than they ever have before tonight. SEE ALSO Tomlin
Tomlin (v) To worship in a musically pleasing manner. the band really tomlined tonight.SEE ALSO Crowder
Love it, minus the Tomlin verb. That just brings up bad thoughts to my mind like "that band really tomlined tonight" makes me think they sucked.
But I love the Crowder verb idea. His beard as well could be a verb.
Fee (v) To relevant one's wardrobe as a worship leader.
"mentoring" and "catalyzing" Espscially powerful when combined with any verb form of "gospel"…
"Amen"
as in, "I wish he would hurry up and amen already, there's going to be a line at Chili's!"
The best part might be how often your post and the resulting comments use "verb" as a verb, as in, "…it only makes sense that we'd also verb it."
Tabernacle (verb) to use righteous anger to twart or overthrow evil doers, as Jesus did in Matthew 21:12.
"I tabernacled the hell out of that farmers market when I learned they didn't have organic produce."
All of my non-christian friends in high school would talk about "bible-ing". They would ask if I had bibled yet that day, or if I was going to sit with them at lunch, or skip so that I could bible.
This post and the comments are hilarious. LOVED Hucklebuck's song. I don't have most of Zakk's accessories, but I am a worship leader and may have to rogue that one into an upcoming set.
If you're going to verb relevant you should also verb authentic. "Our cell group communitied for months before we finally authenticked (note: add a "k" for past tense, like "panic" or "frolic") with one another. Now we're ready to de-comfort-zone and gospel the neighborhood like a hurricane."
I think "authenticate" is the verb…
Here in St. Louis, we made 'worship leading' a verb. Which turned out to be rather awkward. Instead of saying that I will be leading worship somewhere next week, it was "I'm gonna be worship leading at so an so's church next week." Doesn't make sense but it happened for most of the year.
"church"
We are talking so much about "being the church" and Xhibit already popularized the adjective form. In fact, we talk about people being "churched" or "unchurched"… if we change the definition a bit, someone you "love on" could be someone you "church"… and when you're a "hater", you are "unchurching" someone.
Now that you mention it, I recall hearing someone using the word "unchurched". My pastor once had a sermon saying we can't go to church because we are the church.
I can hear it now: "We the church have been mandated to "church" the "unchurched". Maybe that will be the motto for the church Jon is planning on opening
I think
that in this emergent culture
we need to Rob Bell our messages.
Make them short
and sweet
and filled with powerful and emphatic pauses.
Because people need to know that
Jesus
loves them.
We Rob Bell our gospelling
like shotgun blasts,
not hurricanes.
Read Drops Like Stars.
Brilliant!
OMG! That's great I'm not really into evangelical literature, but I do know Rob Bell *somewhat* We're from the same town, I see him here and there, and I read one of his books because he's local (and nice). And wow, you nailed sure nailed his writing style
I see Rob at Gaia Cafe EVERY time I go there. It's like, "The only thing that could make this Grilled Cuban Tempe better would be seeing Rob Bell… and done."
Gaia! <3. When I lived in GR…OMG Gaia helped to make it not suck.
best comment! love the double spacing
I can't take credit for the idea…this was just me riffing on one of Jon's early posts: #28: Rob Bell.
I also heart Becky Miller, and I would give her a "thumbs up", but that would require me to sign in, and I'm lazy…
…As a linguistics major in college, I wrote a paper (that actually got published, and I got sent to a conference in Europe to present it) about how language change is sometimes deliberate rather than inadvertent, with people using language vividly to make a point, and their neologisms (= new words) catching on and becoming part of the language. One of my big examples was the verbalization (i.e., the "verbing") of nouns, which is actually pretty recent, dating back to about the late '70s/early '80s as a more-or-less widespread phenomenon; I made the claim that we were actually seeing language change in progress….
If I'd stayed a linguist, I could have written a whole follow-up "see, I was right!" paper based on the comments here alone!…Thanks for the trip down memory lane….!
Personally I've always thought of Bill Paxton as a poor man's Bill Pullman.
Anyway, I think the next time I'm doing some Mad Libs with my friends and I am asked for a verb ending in "-ed", I'm totally going with gospeled.
I know a verb that I might have to use soon. In the near future I will probably start going bald, my hair is starting to thin on top of my head. I figure that when I do start going bald I'm just gonna have it all shaved off, it's okay I have a nice shaped head. Anyway, when that day comes, I'm gonna go to the babershop and tell him I want to be Samsoned.
Referring to one of the Bill's as "the poor man's…" implies that the other is "the rich man's…". I am by no means rich, (though I did see a $100 bill once…) but I can't imagine that if I were rich I'd want to lay claim to either.
Please excuse my curmudgeonly old school outlook, but I for one am sick already of the proliferation of the "verbing" process. Stop, already! (I know you hate exclamation points.)
Nevertheless, let us keep the faith, share the gospel, and occupy until He comes.
I have to agree with Jake about how you also used "verb" as a verb since, ironically, it's normally a noun. I guess that's kinda like "abbreviation" being such a long word…except that's different.
In the past our pastor has told us we need to resource our ministries. Also, he has asked if anyone would like to scholarship a student at the school. I chalked it up to having a congregation full of engineers who have mastered the verbing of nouns long ago.
This is more of an adjective but my friends and I in youth group used to use the word "Jesusy." As in Jesus-y, like Jesus. So "wow that service project was Jesusy!"
Well, if we can get our schedules to line up, my friend and I are going to coffee some evening this week.
I did know someone who insisted on verbing "prayer." As far as I could tell, it was just a transitive form of "pray." E.g., "I prayered him all over." vs. "I prayed for him."
Would anybody mind if we de-verbed (unverbed?) "fellowship"? (As in "We fellowshipped for an hour after church"). Maybe it's too late now…can this kind of language change move in reverse?
I'm with you 100%. Why don't we just say "hang out" or "spend time together" like normal people? Is there a difference between me talking to a friend after church and me watching Project Runway at said friend's house on Thursday night? Because I'm really not particularly holier after church. I think I just hang out on both occasions, rather than fellowship.
We were using "fellowship" as a verb when I was in high school, back in the dark ages. And I learned that my mother paid far less attention to the friends I was "fellowshipping" with than the ones I wanted to "hang out with". Now that I'm in middle age, it's cool you want to de-verb fellowship, but it certainly is/was a handy word back in the day!
you know, I've heard of the noun "B'Jesus" being scared out of people, but what about verbing that? "B'Jesus" someone…kind of like B'Dazzle…so it might be, when you are kind in the face of accusation or you love your neighbor as your self, or turn over money tables in market places, you've "B`Jesused" them.
i would also like to hear about rogue worship leaders. i used to have a worship leader whos last name was Hinky. so whenever he went rogue my mom and i joked that the worship was hinkiyzed (sp?) ive never tried to spell that before.
A small group leader from the past used to say, "Don't make me Nehemiah you." He was referring to beating up someone for stupidity….all said in humor, of course
Maybe he was serious and you weren't relevantized enough to know it.
Now that you mention it……hmmm.
I'm going to reveal myself as a complete nerd now, but that's okay.
Lake Placid took place in Maine, and it was a crocodile, not an alligator.
a church near my home is using 'church'. They even had a banner up for a while that said something along the lines of Church is a verb .. .
Love this post !!
"outreach" or "outreached" is a word that can and is being used as a verb.
How about this word. Monsterred. It will be used to refer to super-skinny junior highers hyped up on caffiene. Such as:
"Look at that kid, he must have been monsterred at the rock concert." "Did the five-foot tall kid just dunk? He must be Monsterred"
Of course I'm referring to the energy drink, nothing else would make sense.
I grew up 20 minutes from Erie, PA and this post nothing short of made my day.
I want to go a gospeling, in Erie!!
This is just a funny…
My friend's child told her one time he wanted to be "bible-tized" (meaning baptized)!
So maybe the word "bible"??
)
Whoa! I'm from/in Erie, PA! And I definitely did a triple-take when I saw my hometown right there at the top of your blog. Oddly, though, I can't say I've ever encountered the use of "gospel" as a verb.
And you should come to Erie. It's not as eerie as it sounds…
P.S. You know what word I have been hearing excessively verbed? Kohl's. *gag* "The more you know, the more you Kohl's"? Just… no.
Mission. It's already adverbed and adjectivized. (Missional) We might as well finish parsing it. So, last week, we went missioning on skid row.
Missioning is the mission of a missional church.
jon, once again i stand in awe of your genius and skills. great post! im going to be so "relevanting" from here on out.
I'm an Erie, PA native. I've pastored in Erie for 13 years. I'm calling bull-pucky. I've never, ever heard the word "Gospel" used as a verb. You can blame acid rain in the '70s on Erie. You can hold the fact that American Gladiator is the brainchild of Erie-ites against us. But we are not the birthplace of "gospeling"
Here's a nice little piece o' trivia for you to file away in the back of your brain for another day:
If you read Ephesians 2:17 in the original Greek, Paul actually uses the word gospelled (εὐηγγελίσατο).
Guess those Erienites are not all that weird after all… except for the whole "living with 30' alligators" thing. That's still pretty weird… and dangerous.
I've heard mission used as a verb.
"I'm missioning it right now. It's awesome." (Actual facebook status of a friend on a mission trip.)
How about making "transparency" in a verb?
Oooo, and athentic…
Q: Helen, why did you just tell me all about your childhood nightmares?
A: I'm transparencing. Transparencying? Transparenting? And authenticking.
Erie's hijacking nouns and converting them into verbs through some twisted form of Stockholm Syndrome? I partly blame myself for not keeping my eye on them from across the border. >_>