“C’mon y’all

by Don Morris

C’mon y’all! If you live in the southern part of the U.S., as I do in Oklahoma, you’ve heard these words hundreds of times. For as long as I can remember I’ve also heard phrases like “I seen Jim go down to the store.” I grew up with the word “warsh,” which I believe is simply a southern way of saying the common word, “wash.” “Hey, y’all, ya gonna warsh them clothes?” Maybe we’re not quite that back-country, but I still hear the southern drawl a lot. And I’m sure that drawl is present in my own speech patterns. OK reader—just shush up. I’m fixin’ to use these words to my literary advantage!

“C’mon y’all” is a useful phrase for many occasions. It can be used to get people who won’t get in the car to leave the church—to get in the car to leave the church! My mom used to be the last person to leave the church every Sunday. So my dad would use a low voice to say to us kids, “C’mon y’all, let’s go to the car, maybe your mom will follow.” See how it works?

Or, it can also be used as a statement of great consternation. Something like, “Oh, c’mon y’all. You don’t really think that, do you?” With the right inflection, it can help people to respond, “No, definitely no—I don’t wanna do that.” I usually hear it said this way as kind of a command.

Or this phrase can emit a tremendous sense of excitement. If yelled just right, “C’mon y’all” describes an event that you don’t want to miss and must participate in. “C’mon y’all, let’s go bowling!” Well, maybe another activity would be more fun, but you get the drift. “C’mon y’all” is a truly diverse phrase.

Which brings me to how I want to use it in this piece. Being that we are downright struggling right now to find the funds to continue planting churches and have determined it necessary to defer future projects for a time, I simply want to use this phrase as a gentle reminder that we have a whole lot of work to do together, and we can’t let up.

We have several projects waiting in the wings. We have new cities in which we feel called to plant new Mennonite Brethren churches. These churches would target new communities to receive the gospel, likely resulting in more people who would experience life transformation. I’m not whining. I know God can supply. But, I think we all might need a renewed rallying cry!

So c’mon y’all, would you help us? Would you pray for our planters and pray that we can find the funds we need to continue planting MB churches that reach more people? C’mon y’all—we need you now more than ever.