#653. Using the word “gospel” as a verb.

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?