I saw an advertisement sign on the back of a bus this morning. Typically when I get stuck behind a bus during the early morning rush hour, I mutter curse words and focus impatiently on the scene being reflected in my drivers’ side mirror. This way I can leave the stink and the slow driving behind the second there’s an opening in on coming traffic. I got distracted from the usual by the ad today. On the left side of the placard there was a picture of two shiny, happy Ken-and-Barbie-look-alike types. They were polished and professional, and definitely gave off the aura that they would never be the kind to mutter curse words behind a bus. Their smug smiles annoyed me.
On the right side of the ad there was a picture of some sort of large musical production: stage, singers, instrumentalists, dancers, spot lights… like a concert at its highest energy point. In distinct white letters over black, the list boasted: *Live Music * Espresso Bar * Free Valet Parking * Hm. I scanned over the ad with the slightest tinge of half-hearted interest now. Where was all this going on? I was sitting there not going anywhere for a while anyway.
Oh no. It was for a church. I shook my head and might possibly have muttered a few more curse words in disgust. But I said a bit of a prayer for forgiveness for our collective idiocy sometimes too. Jesus isn’t enough? (He didn’t make the cut for the billboard apparently. I couldn’t find his name or His Swedish face anywhere.) We’re trying to draw people to Him by emphasizing the Espresso Bar and Free Valet Parking?! I could just see Jesus standing there in church with His arms outstretched and all of us hanging little coupons on Him till He looked like one of those Christmas Angel Tree Giving projects. “Sorry, Jesus, you’re just not enough anymore. Here’s a coupon for a free latte after worship. We’ll just pin it on you right here so people will be drawn to come and meet you when they see it.”
What are we doing here my dear Christian friends? Our churches are competing with one another over people like we’re on some kind of wild Easter egg hunt. Is our outreach driven by our North American desire to constantly have more, do more, be more? Drive a better car. Upgrade to a larger house. Make a bigger salary. Build a stronger church machine? Does the power that raised Jesus from the tomb need a latte now?
I guess regardless of what we’re doing, it’s good to pull out of the fast lane every now and then for a bit and notice some of the signs around us. Jesus talked about signs quite a lot. And they weren’t the kind we put up trying to point people toward our churches.
9 Comments
February 17, 2007 at 1:48 pm
gross ad. have you seen the new documentary ‘jesus camp’? so, so, so good.
February 17, 2007 at 2:51 pm
no, where do i find it?
February 17, 2007 at 8:24 pm
“What are we thinking?” Things seem to be getting so ridiculous. I shudder to think of how accountable we are going to be someday for this kind of foolishness.
February 18, 2007 at 6:17 pm
it’s so hard to share Christ with people who have no clue about Him b/c they get such mixed messages from stuff like that sign. i’m always thinking we’ve got to do something to change that, but what?
February 20, 2007 at 9:24 pm
i don’t have any brilliant answers and i’m not sure we can do much to change what other people are doing. what immediately comes to mind after reading your thought though is “be a good sign.”
March 19, 2007 at 7:48 am
Once again, you hit the ball out of the park. What took me so long to find this blog? You need some ads on the back of buses!
I hear from folks who pounce on me for saying the same thing, and they aren’t happy. They seem to think that “anything goes” just so long as you get a bunch of folks in the doors. My way of thinking is this: if they’re coming to the building and staying for something other than Jesus, then we’re not really done what we set out to do.
My analogy: if you’re trying to sell pizza and notice that people like hamburgers more, you might get more folks by serving hamburgers, but you’ve failed at your initial goal.
March 19, 2007 at 7:49 am
[...] here’s another great article on the same [...]
March 19, 2007 at 7:07 pm
To continue your food analogy, “old school” musical artist Keith Green said something like this: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.” Do people meet Jesus when we get them in the door of our churches or do they just hope to win the door prizes?
March 19, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Great, now I’m craving a hamburger…