Is it just me, or is this phrase getting old?

I know. I’m being heretical here. Especially for people in the emerging church genre. It’s just… well, maybe I’m just getting old and jaded.

But it seems to me that "Doing life together" is the new hip thing to say/do, like it’s cousin, the Hollywood "doing lunch" thing. Doing lunch wasn’t always empty of real relationship, but often it was. People said, "Let’s do lunch!" and that usually meant a nice meal and lots of conversation – ranging from "doing a deal" to finessing a relationship for a future opportunity to "do a deal".

I get the same feeling from ‘let’s do life together’. It’s the new church-speak. And it feels as churchy to me as "I’ll pray for you". Not that either of those things is bad, they just don’t feel sincere. I realize there are some who truly are sincere when they say these things. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about the rest of us who started using it as a short-hand and now it’s just a "bless-you"-after-someone-sneezes kind of reaction-phrase. We say it, but it’s lost its meaning.

Do a Google search on "doing life together" and you’ll come up with pages and pages — I quit after about 50. And still I don’t have a good idea what it means.

Life Groups I know. Community I know. Our oikos’ (our sphere of influence) I know. Challenging each other to walk along side of people, to enter their world and leave an imprint on them in the name of Jesus, simply by being who God created us to be; Encouraging one another to make disciples — to invite people to join us on our journey with Jesus and then teach them what Jesus has taught us — and to be disciples of Jesus ourselves, and to be mentors and mentorees; developing friendships, not just the casual kind, but the deep, rich, healthy relationships that last many years and are marked by conflict, forgiveness, humility and grace — these things I know. These things I want to do.

But "doing life together"…What is that? What does it mean, really? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Can you tell me?