Alas, you asked for a "simple definition" and I was trying to explain what we meant in a simple way. But it is just not to be. Jesus is the Christ = Jesus is my Savior. Explaining that to a non-Christian in a simple way is just not possible. And explaining what a mormon means by it to an orthodox Christian is also very difficult due to different meanings assigned to words.
You are right, though, about the formula nature of its use. There seems to be a few key phrases that we use without really thinking about what it sounds like. "Jesus is the Christ" or "the church is true" or "the BoM is the word of God" or whatever. Someone brought up in the culture understands what is being meant, but to an outsider it must be very strange and confusing.
It's the LACK of Christ in the worship that is the point, and I don't find it confusing....thus my original question of Easter sunrise services. What to Christians is probably the most important day of the year, is, as this year, just another business-meeting general conference. In doing a little research, I found that the general conference schedule WAS changed for the SLC Olympics though.
We find that in so many ways the actual mormon object of "worship" manifests itself as putting Joseph Smith first, the capital "C" church second and Jesus Christ running a poor third....and those of us who WERE mormon remember it in that order also. Not really anything confusing about it.
In all fairness, I hate when Christians use terms by rote as well. It happens less often but it does happen.
And you are right, I think the biggest hurdle in LDS/Christian dialogue is the differences in means for the same terms.
That is also why I try to explain parenthetically what I mean in LDS terms whenever possible while conversing with someone who is LDS.
It took me over a year to ‘relearn’ my faith vocabulary after leaving the LDS, and that may be why the term thing stands out so much for me.