Marketing Christ – Are You a Buyer or a Seller?

Courtesy of Brady

Lately, through the convicting and revelatory power of the holy spirit my heart has become increasingly and overwhelmingly concerned with what I now call “Church Theatrics and the Jesus Marketing Campaign”. This thing which has now become a thorn in my side and which is now the force which compels me to write this blog is the very detrimental effect that the practice of Marketing Jesus as a product has imposed upon the simple and pure; notwithstanding powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

We, this generation and many before us, have been socialized into adopting the belief that “church recreation/entertainment” is a necessary part or main component of spreading the gospel message as if without which there would be no worldwide repentance. This gross misrepresentation of the scriptures and Christ’s teachings has been put under the guise of what we now call being “seeker friendly/sensitive churches”. Now I know I’m going to probably get “heat” for saying this but I’m only speaking of what the holy spirit has convicted me of and it is my prayer that as you humble yourself before Him, he will convict you of the same. If you (the reader) have any doubts of the validity of this message ask yourself if what i have to say compels you to deny yourself and take a closer step to christ and upholding his precepts. Use that as your measuring rod, NOT your own righteousness for as the word says there is a way that seems right unto a man but its roads lead to destruction. Yes! That scripture was put there for us too, us “self-proclaimed” christians!

 

I ask you to just take a minute and walk with me in the hopes that we may agree….

 

The prevailing wisdom of the day for getting more people to come to church is the idea that we need to be more “creative”. We have to sell the gospel. So the solution that we’ve adopted is to “market” Jesus  as the world would market a product or event. Now I get the point of view that some hold, namely, that the church should use the same tactics that the devil uses for luring into people into his kingdom, to lure people into the kingdom of heaven. But there are numerous problems which arise from this.

 

The first being that to market the gospel or Christ in this manner is not only spitting in the face of the Holy One but also producing a self-centered gospel whereby we are no longer preaching to sinners to forsake the world and live a life that is “sold-out” to Christ but rather we are preaching to come to Christ so that he may solve their life woes. A product is something that you use and take from. You don’t ever have to give anything back to a product. Those of us who are guilty of this vile thing are in the practice of diminishing the worth of our Crucified yet now risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

The other danger of this approach is we run the risk of being guilty of attempting to take the gift of salvation into our own hands. We have become so concerned with tailor-making our church services to accommodate non-believers and so-called self-professed Christ followers that we’ve further corrupted the gospel message. Look at the day of Pentecost. The word was preached and people were saved. Period. It didn’t say that the apostles had to put on a concert and entice the people by other means. By encouraging and engaging in this kind of fallacy, people end up coming to church to be entertained and end up leaving when the entertainment no longer suits them. We see this manifested in some churches where its likened to the practice of “the pulling of teeth” to get people to worship God, the begging and coaxing of people to get involved in ongoing “uninterrupted” outreach (not like “feel good” food drives at Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter).  Seeking out the lost should be an ongoing practice, not something that we do once in a while. As a matter of fact, how about making that apart of our weekly church services? But no, we can’t have that! We would loose our members and Gor forbid, tithe money. Money to futher fatten our pockets and increase our waist lines. Sons of Eli! That’s what the church has become.  After all, we can’t ask people to come out of their comfort zone. I mean they would have to speak to STRANGERS! or run the risk of getting their Saturday or Sunday best wrinkled or smeared by hugging a homeless person. The horror! The horror of it all! I’m being deliberate so we may get the point.

 

The problem you see is we have tried to entice them by carnal means under the guise of being seeker friendly by saying to them that if they come to Christ, their financial, marital and whatever woes will be solved. Christ didn’t say that though. It is true that when we are Christ’s we enjoy a certain level of protection and perks that the world cannot partake of, but we must be careful to look at this in context. Christ said that we will suffer tribulation because we are His.

 

Through various carnal means such as this introduction of the entertainment factor whereby we “farm” preachers and ministers (of various kinds) of the gospel by sending them to school to teach them how to speak and sing and dance to get a rise out of people, we ultimately neglect the very fundamental fact that it is not us who does the work but it’s the holy spirit. The word of God is very clear in John 6:53-64 in that many so-called disciples of Christ left Him because they considered his teachings too harsh. The fact is that people will depart from the truth because they like 2 Timothy 2:2-4 with their itching ears will turn aside to fables. Funny thing is the word says that he knew those who would leave.

 

In response to my comments some may argue that the means justifies the end in that as long as people come to christ that’s all the matters. But are we sure they will reach that desired end if we’ve corrupted it from the jump? What kind of christians are we “producing” here? Why are we confused when there is a great falling away or “backsliding” or false conversion? Why? Because we presented a false gospel to people by telling them that their problems were going to be solved once they came to Jesus and 3 years later they’re still suffering from same situation or strongholds and are even worse of than even before they came to the faith. But hey! We gave them GREAT entertainment in the process. What are we doing here? Why is it that the church congregates every single week and put on this elaborate entertainment of hooting and hollering and “catching the spirit” (no offence) and go home in our fancy cars and heated houses and neglect the people on the streets. The very people that God says we should be bringing the message of the gospel to?  I say that we should be in the business of seeking out the lost everyday, but especially on those days. Forget inviting people to church in the hopes that through entertainment that “this or that” particular church offers they become saved. It’s not about accomodating the sinner but bringing the sinner to his face by preaching Christ and Him crucified. It is the greatest evil of all of which Archibauld Brown speaks from his paper on “The Devils Mission of Amusement, written over 100 years ago where he says: “From “speaking out,” as the Puritans did the Church has gradually toned down her testimony; then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she has tolerated them in her borders, and now she has adopted them and provided a home for them under the plea of “reaching the masses and getting the ear of the people.” The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church of Christ that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them into her ranks. The human nature that lies in every heart has risen to the bait. Here, now, is an opportunity of gratifying the flesh and yet retaining a comfortable conscience. We can now please ourselves in order to do good to others. The rough old cross can be exchanged for a “costume,” and the exchange can be made with the benevolent purpose of elevating the people…They forget that a seemingly beautiful angel may be the devil himself, ” . . . for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).

 

God forgive us. What happened to the church in the streets. That’s what the apostles did. Why aren’t we? No we are too concerned with warming pews with our oversized bottoms while we are entertained by must see “dynamic preachers”, sound good praise teams and electrifying gospel artists and oh I hear they say we might even experience the phenomenon of “catching the holy spirit” (again no offence). Hence, the Sons of Eli Syndrome. I pray that we won’t suffer their fate.

 

Let’s stop turning the garden of the Lord into a public recreation ground. So I ask you, Are you in the business of Marketing Jesus as a product? And if so, are you a buyer or a seller?