GC Terminology

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

You may read and post, but some features are restricted to registered members. Please consider registering to gain full access! Registration is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

[everythingchrist]

Can anyone give me a list of gc terminology besides what I can think of off the top of my head?  "seek wise counsel", "have a teachable spirit", "this isn't gossip", "we just want to encourage you",.......

[jaywalker]

Knit in - to make someone emotionally and spiritually dependent on your church for fellowship
Stiff knecked - the act of the flock trying to study the Bible independently of GC influence
Unteachable - see stiff necked
Hard of heart - see stiff necked
Know his heart - the positive state of unblemished holiness known to exist in all elders
Elders - pastors who have been raised up as GC elders (see know his heart)
Raised up - to be appointed an elder by other GC elders
The Church - GC associated congregations
Apostle - National Leader
National Leader - apostle
Breaking of bread - communion GC style
Winsome - to make oneself pretty and externally pleasing enough to entice strangers into the church
Church discipline - excommunicate troublemakers with the charge of faction or slander
Slander - to verbalize an error in GC doctrine
Faction - see slander, then wait for Church discipline
Brother - greeting that replaces names, actually knowing a person's real first name is optional
Sister - see brother
Core group - most trusted members of the church who are personal friends of the elders
Loyalty - binding commitment to never leave the local church (elders exempted)
Freedom  in Christ - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Christian liberty - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Free time - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Hermeneutics - what???

[Genevieve]

Knit in - to make someone emotionally and spiritually dependent on your church for fellowship
Stiff knecked - the act of the flock trying to study the Bible independently of GC influence
Unteachable - see stiff necked
Hard of heart - see stiff necked
Know his heart - the positive state of unblemished holiness known to exist in all elders
Elders - pastors who have been raised up as GC elders (see know his heart)
Raised up - to be appointed an elder by other GC elders
The Church - GC associated congregations
Apostle - National Leader
National Leader - apostle
Breaking of bread - communion GC style
Winsome - to make oneself pretty and externally pleasing enough to entice strangers into the church
Church discipline - excommunicate troublemakers with the charge of faction or slander
Slander - to verbalize an error in GC doctrine
Faction - see slander, then wait for Church discipline
Brother - greeting that replaces names, actually knowing a person's real first name is optional
Sister - see brother
Core group - most trusted members of the church who are personal friends of the elders
Loyalty - binding commitment to never leave the local church (elders exempted)
Freedom  in Christ - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Christian liberty - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Free time - no definition available, but see Church discipline
Hermeneutics - what???

I'm framing this! 

[AgathaL'Orange]

Great list.  I'd like to add...

cult:  a compliment.

[wastedyearsthere]

A few more I thought of....

Redeem the time -- All your time goes to the Church.
God's Will -- only known by the Elders of the church to be shared at any 
                    moment with the members if of course they try to do something
                    the Elders see as being outside of God's Will. (leaving the Church
                    that is....)
Saints -- (if this doesn't sound cultish what does?!!)
The Body --See the Saints

[AgathaL'Orange]

invest in so and so--  also know as "build in."  This is when you have a promising new person over for dinner, have them babysit your kids, and basically make them a part of your family.  They stay that way until you get moved to a different small group at which time you are then "invested in" by another spiritual person.  If  you do not show enough "fruit" or "commitment" they will drop you.  It's when one person thinks they have a friend and the other person thinks they have a project or promising protege.

I actually heard a highish up friend say, "My husband thinks I shouldn't invest any more time in so and so because she's just not really showing much fruit."  I replied, "But she thinks of you as a friend!!"  I still can't believe I didn't leave the church immediately after that. 

[wastedyearsthere]

I was told that I CAUSED bad fruit in peoples lives....... 
(as if I had that power???)

This crushed me at the time -- but now I think how ridiculously insane!

[wastedyearsthere]

I had a friend who was told  by a leader that she spent too much time with me and she should only spend as much time necessary "to maintain the relationship"

Talk about making people into PROJECTS!!!   

[MidnightRider]

"Reach the world" - that thing we are always supposed to be doing. Short for "reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ in our generation". See also "God's will for your life" and "every nation, this generation" and the song "Every Nation in Our Generation".

[Huldah]

The oddest term I remember was the use of the word "ones" instead of "people" or "individuals", as in, "If we're diligent to preach the gospel in season and out, then ones will be saved." I've never heard anyone outside of GC use "ones" that way. It's uniquely GC. It sounds a bit depersonalizing, to my way of thinking; rather like the alien in one of the Star Trek movies who referred to members of the ship's crew as "carbon units".

[Linda]

The oddest term I remember was the use of the word "ones" instead of "people" or "individuals", as in, "If we're diligent to preach the gospel in season and out, then ones will be saved.

I definitely noticed this. It seems to be old school.

[puff of purple smoke]

"Counsel" - Permission
"Dating" - Faction (a violation of Galatians 5:20)
"Courtship" - The three weeks leading up to the wedding
"Lifer" - Somebody fully committed to GC for life. Examples: Mark Darling, John Meyer, and Jim McCotter Dennis Clark
"Getting some ice cream" - Being rebuked

[theresearchpersona]

The oddest term I remember was the use of the word "ones" instead of "people" or "individuals", as in, "If we're diligent to preach the gospel in season and out, then ones will be saved.

I definitely noticed this. It seems to be old school.

Two thoughts. One, it's old grammar. As when  someone says "one ought to do this rather than that", vs. "you ought to do this rather than that". It's a non-specific pronoun, actually proper (I know English professors pulling their hair out that people are now using a "generic 'you'"; "you" is already doing double duty for the second person singular and plural in English, except in the south where the plural is "ya'll", and places like New York where the plural is "yous"; destroying another distinction by allowing it to take on another function is just almost too much to bear for those who like crisp and able language!).

The second thought: at least it emphasizes the individual's need for salvation. There are plenty today teaching that it is groups to be saved, "evangelized", etc.. Which is actually part of the milieu about "cultural evangelism/transformation": I wonder if GC, in imbibing those ideas, even understands where they're getting their ideas from: it doesn't appear like the leadership, besides the very obvious, and besides when influential and highly visible people (at least to some degree) say something, have any discernment.

If that grammar should survive in GC vernacular, where it does it ought help to hinder and hopefully undermine the influx/imbibing of more attempts/tactics premised upon and promotory of corporate rather than individual evangelism. The only problem is it seems GC evangelism and even gospel is often already heavily mixed-up and undermined.

[MidnightRider]

[...] "you" is already doing double duty for the second person singular and plural in English, except in the south where the plural is "ya'll", [...]

Except in the deep South, where "y'all" is singular, and "all o' y'all" is plural.
 

[MidnightRider]

The oddest term I remember was the use of the word "ones" instead of "people" or "individuals",

I heard this one, too. Our pastor would use it a lot, e.g., "Various ones have asked me this question."

It might be an interesting topic for some Ph.D. student in English to figure out where this came from.

[Huldah]

Two thoughts. One, it's old grammar. As when  someone says "one ought to do this rather than that", vs. "you ought to do this rather than that".

No, I really don't think that's what was going on. "One" in the singular is the traditional indefinite pronoun, even though its use often sounds overly formal nowadays. "Ones" as a plural indefinite has never been standard English. In fact, I've never encountered it outside of GC, not even in books written well before the 20th century. It's a very idiosyncratic use of the word, which strikes me as symbolic of GC's overall idiosyncratic approach to doctrine, as well as their underlying contempt for formal education. That's why I thought it was worth mentioning. The use of linguistic peculiarities to strengthen group membership is a fascinating subject. If they can get you to stop talking like yourself and start sounding like them, they've got you.

[jaywalker]

Huldah, I have been thinking hard about this.  I think you are right.  I did hear this expression in my GC days, "Ones have told me that..."  Yet, I cannot think of another example where it is used as a plural that way outside of GC.  And I am, or was, comfortable using "you's guys" having grown up around Philadelphia.  I look forward to hearing if anyone else can find a literary example to quote where "ones" is used outside of GC as you have described. 

Updated a few minutes later:

In my distant childhood memory, I recall we also used to say, "us'ns" around Lancaster.  It was short for "us ones," or "we."  For example, "Us'ns are going to go for icecream, you want to join us?" 

It was a derivative Pennsylvania Dutch slang expression at the time.  I do not know if it is still in use.  So whoever, in GC brought the phrase in, probably grew up in or near that culture.

[theresearchpersona]

[...] "you" is already doing double duty for the second person singular and plural in English, except in the south where the plural is "ya'll", [...]

Except in the deep South, where "y'all" is singular, and "all o' y'all" is plural.
 

SWEEEEEET!

Two thoughts. One, it's old grammar. As when  someone says "one ought to do this rather than that", vs. "you ought to do this rather than that".

No, I really don't think that's what was going on. "One" in the singular is the traditional indefinite pronoun, even though its use often sounds overly formal nowadays. "Ones" as a plural indefinite has never been standard English. In fact, I've never encountered it outside of GC, not even in books written well before the 20th century. It's a very idiosyncratic use of the word, which strikes me as symbolic of GC's overall idiosyncratic approach to doctrine, as well as their underlying contempt for formal education. That's why I thought it was worth mentioning. The use of linguistic peculiarities to strengthen group membership is a fascinating subject. If they can get you to stop talking like yourself and start sounding like them, they've got you.

Keen eye that you have there!

Personally I'm glad, however, to add this one to my linguistic toolchest: might come-in handy in writing (whether formally or in literature). For some reason, however, it echoes: I don't know if the usage is totally idiosyncratic: I think I've heard it before among others, though it might be something that pops-up independently. Sounds like a usage emphasizing individuals, but multiple individuals, it's highly interesting. Rather than say "some have told me" or "I've been told" or "people have told me" it's "ones have told me"! And it's certainly shorter than "individuals have told me" which occasionally sound demands "certain individuals have told me" or "some individuals have told me" (the first emphasizes independence, the latter a group-ness).

: )

[Linda]

"Ones" stuck out to me from the start. I noticed that the "old school" guys use it. McCotter, Hopler, Whitney. I don't believe I've heard it used outside of GC. Obviously, there is nothing wrong (in the sense that "You can't go to that church, they say ones"!) with saying "ones", it's just quirky.

The other quirky phrase that we found confusing was "breaking of bread". I remember the first time someone said it in the context of small group. He said, "Sometimes we get together for breaking of bread." We just smiled and pretended we knew what he was talking about. But, in the car, we said to each other, "Did he mean they do communion in the living room or have a "pot luck" (or a "pot blessing"!) meal?" We never did either, but assumed it meant communion.

[Huldah]

"You can't go to that church, they say ones"!

LOL! Thanks, Linda, that gave me a laugh.