corporate American imitation, part I

Was browsing the blogosphere today when I came across one of the many things that make me roll my eyes about conventional Christiandom.

It is the proverbial "Purpose Statement, Vision Statement, Belief Statement, Goal Statement" menagerie that many (most?) Following groups put out about themselves.

I admittedly don't know the origins of this, but I first became largely aware of it in corporate America. My recollection of it blossoming was in the late 80's or early 90's.

Like I said, I don't remember exactly, and I don't care about fact-finding the origin.

Anyway, it seems to me that at some point a fad arose in corporate America for companies and corporations to explicitly (and boringly) define themselves to the world.

There was no big Enron scandal of that time that necessitated people to declare their company's ethics or integrity broadly in a "we're not like them" kind of way.

It seemed more to be the brainchild fad of whoever the "corporate coach" people of that era were (before they were called corporate coaches, heh heh).

There was (is), apparently, some magic fairy dust that energizes and/or catapults a company who pauses to define who they are and what they do in anal retentive form.

I remember being parts of groups who came up with these various Statements. I think I may have even been part of a committee who was to do that gunk for an entity. I wore the company hat while doing it, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "this is stupid".

And then it comes time for the subcommittee to declare its long, drawn out and overly verbose Statements to the organization. (Of course, these Statements have been approved by the wigs in the org before this unveiling.)

As the subcommittee chairperson reads these Statements aloud, there is supposed to be some kind of invisible aura transcend that makes every hair on every body in the room rise and quiver.

From what I recollect the intended effect is to fire some large group of warm-fuzzy synapses off. Everyone in the room looks at each other as the Statements are read, warm smiles should appear and if it's done right everyone will also become an affirmative-nodding bobblehead.

Oh, and anyone on the outside happens to read these statements about the organization, the outsider will instantly love and embrace the organization and want to do business with them.

I never understood this.

And I still don't.

And recently I have run across an onslaught of this same thing within Christiandom. Churches, organizations, etc who blab all these complex sentences about themselves.

I just don't see the point. I mean, things like Jim Jones and the Branch Davidians only happen every other decade or so.

But despite these religious anomalies, I've seen this more as a mimickry (sp?) of corporate America than a need for any Christian group to "define itself" to let the world know it's not a genocidal cult.

I've talked with several friends about various veins of this.

One of them is dead on, stating knowledge and information is not the key, yet it is what is largely pursued and glorified by many Followers. (That's why there is so much "X steps to Christian Y" drivel going around.)

Another friend talks about the simplicity of being a Follower, where we simply are the Body following Jesus. Following is not something we need to, must or should define. Following is simple. Not easy, but simple.

I see this as one facet of the pervading "God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a Box" mentality rampant in the American Body, where Christianity can be fully explained, understood and digested by reading a scrolling headline across the bottom of the screen.

Want to become "spiritual"? Read this article, this book, do this study, and brother/sister you are there! Hallelujah!

God is so much bigger and deeper than this. We make Him out to be so small and so easily and quickly explainable.

But then again, maybe this partially explains why much of churchdom lives in Superficial Land.

I mean, really, how often do we stop to ponder why our Christianese one-liners and our 10-second explanations of God and Jesus don't stir any hunger or "tell me more" responses.

We think we're sowing a great seed, and they're sitting there thinking "great, another feel-good Christian giving me a smile and a shallow line. They have no idea the sh*t I'm dealing with in life."

I'll stop here before I go off into Sarcastic Debunking Land. I do that enough anyway.