No, this isn’t about clever Baptist lines like fried chicken being the “Baptist bird” and it certainly isn’t about the lamentable clichés that are the bane of SBC preaching but rather is appreciation for the brethren who go beyond the usual word useage.
Here are a few current examples:
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Franklin Kirksey, in a desperate search for that perfect alliterative sermon point, said that The fear of the Lord emancipates and embays life. While he may have secretly resorted to the thesaurus, he gets points for finding a moderately more interesting term for his sermon.
Louis was kind to note that he actually believe[d] that columbariums are good things. thereby introducing the SBCV hoi polloi to those new, old fanged burial structures.
Ronnie Rogers at SBC Today noted that no less than Calvin averred. Not only that, according to Rogers, in what Calvin averred, he erred. Rogers is always good for some notable vocabulary.
It seemed kind of superfluous to Jim Pemberton. That’s a reliable 45 cent word, four nice syllables that roll off the tongue with some grace.
Paige Patterson averrs that he is not adroit with technology. Depends on the technology, I suppose. He is known to be quite adroit with certain ballistic technology.
Will Hall do[esn’t] accept the juxtaposition of premises in your antepenultimate statement. He presumes a good bit here, that fellow Baptists can count to three on short notice and can navigate a paragraph and find the end of such. Good job.
Dave Miller is usually good for a few examples but may be in a slump.
Further examples would be appreciated.
“always avoid, awfully awkward alliteration”
Adrian Pierce Rogers
You can’t have enough Williams here I say…I do my best to include a last name to avoid confusion.
William:
Thanks for the attribution.
I always enjoy your writing – here and other places.
I am actually a stalker over at Baptist Life from time to time, and think you handle yourself well there, also.
Take care.
It seems like I have heard the phrase “pray tell” used a lot by prominent Southern Baptists.
Yeah. Points are deducted for that.
William, I think that most of us think of old time phrases that were common long ago, but the younger ones are getting into the act. The use of the word “Gospel” as an adjective is the rage. It drives me nuts! “Gospel preaching” is ok because one is preaching the gospel. Many times, the usage is really close to being ok, but that’s what makes it so bad. It’s so close, it’s a million miles away. Here are some modern usages. I don’t do this, but a lot of the youngsters do: A “Gospel issue”, as in “Race is… Read more »
I agree with you, although this particular article of mine focused on those writers who demonstrated something beyond the normal high school level vocabulary and word usage.
“The overuse of “Gospel”, almost ubiquitous actually, has effectively devalued the term as your list of examples shows. The same thing happened to “missionary”, witnessed by state convention employees being labeled “state missionaries” regard.ess of their function.
William:
You may recall that I have advocated for using a word other than “missionary.”
I like ‘evangelism’ and ‘discipleship’ because those are biblical words.
I don’t believe ‘missionary’ is.
And ‘missionary’ is often seen by host countries as a hostile thing. Destructive of culture rather that a person engaged in international evangelism and discipleship.
In the context of international missions, the term should not be used. There are several alternatives. Things have changed.
It is being employed domestically because, I think, it is one of our money words. It is thought to give weight and stature to denominational staff. I hate to see the trend.
I’m not too exercised over us using terminology that isn’t strictly biblical, after all the far more dominant term for me would be elder or overseer, not pastor. I’m happy with pastor.
Louis if we do not use the word missionary we would have to invent another word. Missionary or missions has a different meaning that evangelism or discipleship. Everyone has a call to evangelize or disciple others. The term missionary is referred to someone who crosses a barrier to take the gospel to others. The barrier could be distance, language, culture, or others. That is why we use the term missionary not only for those who go overseas but also for those in the US or in your home town who evangelize using a different language than their own or to… Read more »
The term is inappropriate, and unsafe to use in many areas.
Domestically, the application of it to various paid staff jobs merely devalues the term. It’s not trademarked. Some areas of SBC life struggle to remain valued and therefore funded by the churches. Better to change the task to one that has value to churches than to change titles.