I find it interesting that some terms that Christians have begun to lose — think the decline of Biblical literacy and the abuse of some evangelism practices — have recently been reconditioned and given new life in the secular world. From dictionary.com:

Bible – any book, reference work, periodical, etc., accepted as authoritative, informative, or reliable.

I’m not sure the same people who keep within easy reach The Baseball Coaching Bible, The Golf Geek’s Bible or Dog Breed Bible would ascribe the same “essential guidebook” characteristics to the Word of God.

Evangelist – a person marked by evangelical enthusiasm for or support of any cause.

Think Seth Godin. In his free ebook, he includes the following page on Evangelism:

The future belongs to people who can spread ideas.
Here are ten things to remember:
1. Create a cause. A cause seizes the moral high
ground and makes people’s lives better.
2. Love the cause. “Evangelist” isn’t a job title. It’s
a way of life. If you don’t love a cause, you can’t
evangelize it.
3. Look for agnostics, ignore atheists. It’s too
hard to convert people who deny your cause. Look
for people who are supportive or neutral instead.
4. Localize the pain. Never describe your cause by
using bull shiitake terms like “revolutionary” and
“paradigm shifting.” Instead, explain how it helps a
person.
5. Let people test drive the cause. Let people try
your cause, take it home, download it, and then
decide if it’s right for them.
6. Learn to give a demo. A person simply cannot
evangelize a product if she cannot demo it.
7. Provide a safe first step. Don’t put up any big
hurdles in the beginning of the process. The path
to adopting a cause needs a slippery slope.
8. Ignore pedigrees. Don’t focus on the people
with big titles and big reputations. Help anyone
who can help you.
9. Never tell a lie. Credibility is everything for an
evangelist. Tell the truth—even if it hurts.
Actually, especially if it hurts.
10. Remember your friends. Be nice to the people
on the way up because you might see them again
on the way down.
Guy Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence
at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also the co-founder
of Alltop.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple
Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books.

Perhaps it’s time for Christians to learn from today’s culture and reappropriate some of these terms for our own use. I bet Christians could be really good at evangelism.