The Blog

I am not a fan of the word extreme. I feel that it is a word that has been senselessly used in so many marketing ploys. Do Doritos really need to have extreme cheese flavor? I mean what makes the “extreme” version better then the regular version? A few weeks ago I walked around the supermarket I found the word extreme on so many things: Toilet paper, Sour Patch Kids, Mac and Cheese, Kool-Aid, Popsicles, Laundry Detergent, Orange Juice, Peanut Butter. All theses products were claiming that the extreme version was for people who wanted more then just the normal, for people that wanted great. The funny things is most of the products offering the extreme version were no different from the regular version of that brand. The difference was a word, EXTREME!!!


Another place I have seen the word extreme over used, has been in youth ministry. As I have been invited to speak to students around the world in all types of regions, communities, styles, and cultures the one thing that seems to blend across is that word. Fliers promote the extreme lock-in, the extreme worship night, or extreme school ministries. Again I start to wonder what pushes the lock-in from a regular lock-in category to a EXTREME!!! Lock-in, or is it just a word? Like the marketing ploy used in the grocery store, is their anything different about these events?
I start to wonder: am I living a life that is defined by a label? Do I claim to be extreme, but really I am just the normal version, or maybe I claim Jesus is my savior, but my life shows something different. There is a problem today in the American church, its that people claim Christian but there is no difference between Christian and Secular (authors note: that’s a stupid word). It’s just like claiming extreme peanut butter, but there is no difference from the regular. In the end it’s just peanut butter.
I know that God is not very happy about this. Jesus said that his followers will be known by their love, but today Christians are known as hypocrites, liars, two faced. We need a something to change. We need Sanctification. At Crossfire MC we have been talking about Sanctification in our devotion times. The Bible talks about sanctification and says: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 the message) We should look different from the world, and not fall into the traps of style, culture, or society. The word Sanctified means: Set apart for sacred use- make holy or purify. We need to live our lives sanctified. The difference in our life should not repulse people from Jesus, but intrigue them to him. Don’t just live with the label, change the inside to fit the label, otherwise your just Doritos with a lame marketing ploy.