Bait and Switch?
Published by Korey Buchanek under on 2:41 PM
April 8, 2010
So I’ve been doing some writing for my own personal benefit, however I haven’t written much for the general public lately. But I return today with some questions that I can’t seem to move beyond in my personal journey as a pastor and follower of Christ. Recently I’ve been finding myself at a point in my spiritual journey that causes me to question the purpose and intent of many different things. Things like parenting, the church, community and my life purpose in Christ.
This past week my attention was captured by local church advertising that came in the mail or was placed on my lawn, (yes, eggs filled with church advertising that were hidden in my lawn). Each piece of information was to promote Easter. You know that time of year where Christians worldwide remember the body and blood that was broken and spilled out for the remission of sins. You know what moment I'm talking about right, that moment in history where Jesus Christ went to the cross to die an unimaginably cruel and brutal death as a sacrifice for all mankind? The moment where Jesus died so I might have new life. Yeah, that moment we call Easter. Well, typically the church planter in me quickly scans the publication to critique and determine how I would have done it differently. It’s a curse that I can’t seem to get beyond. However, over the past couple of weeks my attention was taken by their content more than layout or design. It was the subject matter that our churches were broadcasting about Easter that has me conflicted.
Five different times I saw ads by local churches that communicated to a predominantly unchurched community that Easter was a time to come and join their egg hunts, to jump in the bounce houses, experience the helicopter flying in for the egg drop, or take family pictures with the Easter bunny. Not one ad that I saw spoke the name of Jesus or invited someone to hear about his name. They didn’t mention worship or even hint at a corporate gathering. In my mind this spoke to the core of what our churches were advertising. Not life change, but acceptance. You see advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. These messages about our churches presented a mixed signal to me.
What struck me so deeply is the duplicity of what our churches are offering. As Christians we think through a Christian lens that is geared to filtering things inside a Christian arena: i.e. a church setting or outreach event. However, the unchurched population thinks much differently. I believe the unchurched population sees straight through our shallow advertising ploys and sees our attempts as a bait and switch or spiritual ploy to a deeper agenda. It communicates that the outsider of the local church is unintelligent. My point being… If our attempt to speak the Word of Christ into their lives has to be masked with a cultural icon like the Easter bunny or egg hunts why do we think the Word or testimony of Christ will make any difference at all? If we were to say that simply inviting people to worship with us is not attractive to the general public then how can we not say that a bait and switch mentality is not at play in our churches?
We are admittedly saying that people need some other reason to come and see what Christ is all about in order to find him. Well if that is true what are they really finding? Big events, social activities, day care? Is the church becoming another community organizer that simply promotes opportunities for anyone and all to come and join in? Are we on the same path as a YMCA? We would clamor at that thought and vehemently oppose that assumption, but what if we stopped advertising events like this? Would our churches die? Would we decline in numbers? Many would say yes. They would state that the church must have outreach events such as these to draw people that would otherwise never hear the gospel. My fear with that thinking is our attempt to remove the sovereignty of God. My fear is that we think our egg hunts and Easter pictures are more intrinsic to the gospel message than the gospel itself. (Side note: outreach in my opinion does not happen on our turf. It is the church going to culture to meet them where they are.)
The road we find ourselves on is one of cultural relevance. We debate it left and right. So who wins at the end of the day if our gospel message becomes culturally relevant? It never was and never will be in my opinion. Christ was not culturally relevant nor was he culturally accepted. Why then do we so desperately want our churches to be embraced by the unchurched world? I see an overtly different reality of churches embracing the hurting, bruised, broken, and dyeing world as something totally different than our churches being embraced by that same context. I hear it now that we the church need to be more active and involved in reaching the community! I whole heartedly agree. But by what means? Do we substitute truth with a social gospel? No. Do we shut the door and dwell in our holy huddles? No. Do we make people change before they can be accepted into our churches? No. Do we close out the outside world and simply exist in our own worlds? No. We live the gospel. We teach people what it means to love one another. We model to our people what it looks like to reach out to our hurting neighbors. We demonstrate to a hurting world how we speak into the dark places of life with words of hope. What are we saying by mixing the message of hope and Christ with messages that simply make the gospel of Christ comparative to the Easter bunny?
Teaching people how to share their spiritual journey in Christ is far more relevant and life changing than hosting community gatherings. You’re saying that it takes both, and maybe it does, but for some reason we focus on the latter cause it’s easier. It doesn’t require them to give anything other than time. It doesn’t cost them anything. Teaching our people to live outreach is hard. So at the end of the day we teach our people that the church needs another event in order for them to do outreach. We are deceiving our own people into thinking they can’t effect a lost world without the church. We are called to make disciples, plain and simple. What are we doing?
Next on the writing schedule… parenting and the journey it has shown me.
So I’ve been doing some writing for my own personal benefit, however I haven’t written much for the general public lately. But I return today with some questions that I can’t seem to move beyond in my personal journey as a pastor and follower of Christ. Recently I’ve been finding myself at a point in my spiritual journey that causes me to question the purpose and intent of many different things. Things like parenting, the church, community and my life purpose in Christ.
This past week my attention was captured by local church advertising that came in the mail or was placed on my lawn, (yes, eggs filled with church advertising that were hidden in my lawn). Each piece of information was to promote Easter. You know that time of year where Christians worldwide remember the body and blood that was broken and spilled out for the remission of sins. You know what moment I'm talking about right, that moment in history where Jesus Christ went to the cross to die an unimaginably cruel and brutal death as a sacrifice for all mankind? The moment where Jesus died so I might have new life. Yeah, that moment we call Easter. Well, typically the church planter in me quickly scans the publication to critique and determine how I would have done it differently. It’s a curse that I can’t seem to get beyond. However, over the past couple of weeks my attention was taken by their content more than layout or design. It was the subject matter that our churches were broadcasting about Easter that has me conflicted.
Five different times I saw ads by local churches that communicated to a predominantly unchurched community that Easter was a time to come and join their egg hunts, to jump in the bounce houses, experience the helicopter flying in for the egg drop, or take family pictures with the Easter bunny. Not one ad that I saw spoke the name of Jesus or invited someone to hear about his name. They didn’t mention worship or even hint at a corporate gathering. In my mind this spoke to the core of what our churches were advertising. Not life change, but acceptance. You see advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. These messages about our churches presented a mixed signal to me.
What struck me so deeply is the duplicity of what our churches are offering. As Christians we think through a Christian lens that is geared to filtering things inside a Christian arena: i.e. a church setting or outreach event. However, the unchurched population thinks much differently. I believe the unchurched population sees straight through our shallow advertising ploys and sees our attempts as a bait and switch or spiritual ploy to a deeper agenda. It communicates that the outsider of the local church is unintelligent. My point being… If our attempt to speak the Word of Christ into their lives has to be masked with a cultural icon like the Easter bunny or egg hunts why do we think the Word or testimony of Christ will make any difference at all? If we were to say that simply inviting people to worship with us is not attractive to the general public then how can we not say that a bait and switch mentality is not at play in our churches?
We are admittedly saying that people need some other reason to come and see what Christ is all about in order to find him. Well if that is true what are they really finding? Big events, social activities, day care? Is the church becoming another community organizer that simply promotes opportunities for anyone and all to come and join in? Are we on the same path as a YMCA? We would clamor at that thought and vehemently oppose that assumption, but what if we stopped advertising events like this? Would our churches die? Would we decline in numbers? Many would say yes. They would state that the church must have outreach events such as these to draw people that would otherwise never hear the gospel. My fear with that thinking is our attempt to remove the sovereignty of God. My fear is that we think our egg hunts and Easter pictures are more intrinsic to the gospel message than the gospel itself. (Side note: outreach in my opinion does not happen on our turf. It is the church going to culture to meet them where they are.)
The road we find ourselves on is one of cultural relevance. We debate it left and right. So who wins at the end of the day if our gospel message becomes culturally relevant? It never was and never will be in my opinion. Christ was not culturally relevant nor was he culturally accepted. Why then do we so desperately want our churches to be embraced by the unchurched world? I see an overtly different reality of churches embracing the hurting, bruised, broken, and dyeing world as something totally different than our churches being embraced by that same context. I hear it now that we the church need to be more active and involved in reaching the community! I whole heartedly agree. But by what means? Do we substitute truth with a social gospel? No. Do we shut the door and dwell in our holy huddles? No. Do we make people change before they can be accepted into our churches? No. Do we close out the outside world and simply exist in our own worlds? No. We live the gospel. We teach people what it means to love one another. We model to our people what it looks like to reach out to our hurting neighbors. We demonstrate to a hurting world how we speak into the dark places of life with words of hope. What are we saying by mixing the message of hope and Christ with messages that simply make the gospel of Christ comparative to the Easter bunny?
Teaching people how to share their spiritual journey in Christ is far more relevant and life changing than hosting community gatherings. You’re saying that it takes both, and maybe it does, but for some reason we focus on the latter cause it’s easier. It doesn’t require them to give anything other than time. It doesn’t cost them anything. Teaching our people to live outreach is hard. So at the end of the day we teach our people that the church needs another event in order for them to do outreach. We are deceiving our own people into thinking they can’t effect a lost world without the church. We are called to make disciples, plain and simple. What are we doing?
Next on the writing schedule… parenting and the journey it has shown me.
2 comments:
Korey,
I think events like Easter egg hunts are only detrimental when they become the focal point of the media/advertisements being sent out to the public. I think families already attending the church certainly appreciate a church that offers opportunities for their family to have activities like this. I also think people who are totally anti God/Jesus/church are not going to attend whether you bring in a helicopter AND free bunnies for each kid. I think who WILL come are:
1. People who were formerly church members somewhere at some point and are searching
2. People who have an interest in having more meaning in their life and feel like God might be the answer
3. People who have driven by a church many times and thought, "We should try that place."
It gives individuals and families a great opportunity to put their foot in the door and check it out when they otherwise might not.
I think the problem lies with organizations that "advertise" in ways that leave Jesus out of the equation. It sounds like this is mainly what you have a problem with as well. I have seen videos from a church in Texas (of course;) where the pastor literally "shot" the Easter Bunny and Santa during his sermon. He and many consider them a lie to your children and feel it should be 100% ended. He is one extreme and churches who have an Easter Bunny on site and whose advertisements only talk about egg hunts are the other extreme in my opinion.
I think the happy medium is to focus your advertising, and obviously the sermon, on God/Jesus but still offer events that meet the existing church body and the remaining community's wants/needs. For instance my son's preschool had a "Resurrection Egg Hunt" where they were given candy in the eggs but each egg also had a religious sticker, tattoo, a small cross or Bible verse in it. I would say it is more a question of BALANCE, as it is with really ALL things in life. So I hope you find that place where you feel balanced in what you are presenting to your church family and to the "unchurched" in your community. I believe there is a place where you can feel like you are reaching out, not with bait and switch tactics, but with an honest message of what God has put in your heart to share as a pastor and spiritual leader in your community and still appeal to and draw in those who would not necessarily come to hear the word of God otherwise.
Kimberlee, I appreciate the response. Would you say that you are more likely to attend a church that is hosting and Easter egg hunt verses one that has simply invited you to worship? That is not to negate great children's ministry, but I'm talking about the invitation itself?
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