Becoming more Relatable means Becoming less Pretentious

Many people from my generation (I was born in 68') are having trouble adjusting.  We live in a new era and for those of us in ministry, it is especially important to be relatable which equates now more than ever to being trustworthy.  I'll explain.  The new generation, which I recently heard referred to as the "selfie generation" is all about being real & authentic.  Of course I don't actually buy the alleged authenticity of the reality shows which now dominate much of TV and I also don't believe the majority of what I see portrayed on Facebook.  These things do show us that authenticity is more valued now than ever before, but I still think most people are wearing masks.  These masks are just allot more realistic than they used to be.

So how do we become more relatable?  There are many ways, but I think the place to start is in the way we talk.  There is much pretension in our speaking.

To be pretentious means to exaggerate our worth, value, standing, importance or stature.  You guessed it!  It is to try purposely to be impressive to people!  This can be done by over-dressing, embellishing our background and a multitude of other ways, but many people do this in speech, trying to elevate themselves by using humongous, oops, complex, oops, big words.

Here's how to break away from being pretentious:

Don't use a complicated word when there is a simple one which expresses our thought just as well. Now of course if one of those bigger more impressive words really does say something the more common word cannot say, then by all means use it... not to impress, but to be more clear.  To be a balanced person is the key.  Balance in speech means we learn to be specific and simple.  This is relatable and trustworthy.  And believe me, you will probably notice that people will want to hang around you more!  This is good for making friends. (Proverbs 18:24a NKJV: A man who has friends must himself be friendly)

Now for the funny observation in all this.  In the past generation, to be more accepted, we needed to learn how to speak in a more complicated way.  But now, the opposite is necessary.  In order to be more accepted, we should learn to be just as clear, but in a simpler way.  It's time to unlearn again..