Elvis Church

When children try to dress like their parents, it’s often cute. When teenagers try to emulate rock stars, it’s often bizarre. When adults try to imitate their folk heroes, it’s often embarrassing.

Ever since the mass media began enabling fame for ministry leaders, adoring church people have scurried to emulate their heroes. The result has been a wave of copycat terms and behaviors–repeated not because they make sense, but because they’re used by the cool and the famous.


Here’s a sampling of ministry me-too-isms:

1. When you preach, sit on a stool.
2. But don’t preach. Give a message.
3. Call yourself a “communicator.”
4. Name yourself the “lead pastor.”
5. Don’t love people. Love ON people.
6. “Press in.” (Don’t know why.)
7. Call the worship location a “campus.” (Even if it’s in a jail or on the web.)
8. Refer to teenagers as “students.” (But don’t use the “student” word for elementary school students or college students. They’re not “students.”)
9. Dispatch men in little orange vests to direct traffic in the parking lot.
10. Wear a golf shirt or hawaiian shirt when you preach.  Make sure it is untucked.

I guess it’s all scriptural. “Ye are . . . a peculiar people.” (1 Peter 2:9)

What would you add to the copycat list?

This post was written by Thom Schultz.  You can find the original post here:  http://holysoup.com/2013/05/15/9-ways-to-me-too-your-ministry-heroes/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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