{"id":22103,"date":"1996-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1996-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1996\/07\/01\/top-10-church-oxymorons\/"},"modified":"1996-07-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1996-07-01T00:00:00","slug":"top-10-church-oxymorons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/top-10-church-oxymorons\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Church Oxymorons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nThe word oxymoron comes from the Greek words for &#8220;sharp fool.&#8221; That&#8217;s the\nonly way to describe phrases like &#8220;jumbo shrimp,&#8221; &#8220;deafening silence,&#8221; and\n&#8220;freezer burn.&#8221; You may have heard these oxymorons at church:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>10.<\/strong> Work party\n<strong>9.<\/strong> Board consensus\n<strong>8.<\/strong> Brief treasurer&#8217;s report\n<strong>7.<\/strong> Creative worship\n<strong>6.<\/strong> Junior high leader\n<strong>5.<\/strong> Men&#8217;s fellowship\n<strong>4.<\/strong> Close-knit staff\n<strong>3.<\/strong> Simple request\n<strong>2.<\/strong> Bus ministry\n<strong>1.<\/strong> My final point\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Ronald T. Habermas and Gary Habermas<\/p>\n  \n<p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">1996 by Christianity Today\/LEADERSHIP journal<\/p>\n<p><em>Last Updated: September 17, 1996<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word oxymoron comes from the Greek words for &#8220;sharp fool.&#8221; That&#8217;s the only way to describe phrases like &#8220;jumbo shrimp,&#8221; &#8220;deafening silence,&#8221; and &#8220;freezer burn.&#8221; You may have heard these oxymorons at church: 10. Work party 9. Board consensus 8. Brief treasurer&#8217;s report 7. Creative worship 6. Junior high leader 5. Men&#8217;s fellowship 4. <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/top-10-church-oxymorons\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[2907],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[160],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[648,156,651],"tax_ctp_tags":[3609,3610,3646,4193,4688],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-22103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-ronald-t-habermas","tax_publications-1996-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-summer_1996-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-church-health","tax_ctp_tags-community-life","tax_ctp_tags-humor","tax_ctp_tags-preaching"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Top 10 Church Oxymorons - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The word oxymoron comes from the Greek words for &quot;sharp fool.&quot; That&#039;s the only way to describe phrases like &quot;jumbo shrimp,&quot; &quot;deafening silence,&quot; and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/top-10-church-oxymorons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top 10 Church Oxymorons - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The word oxymoron comes from the Greek words for &quot;sharp fool.&quot; That&#039;s the only way to describe phrases like &quot;jumbo shrimp,&quot; &quot;deafening silence,&quot; and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/top-10-church-oxymorons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1996-07-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ronald T. 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