Was Jesus a Good ‘Evangelist’?: More from Jay Lemke on the Ol’ Bait ‘n’ Switch
Here’s a follow-up to the previous post pointing up Jay Lemke’s fantastic Modern Reformation article, ‘Church: It’s Time to Stop the Spiritual “Bait and Switch”.’ Lemke urges the church to stop doing things even good secular communicators realize isn’t a good idea: drawing people in with one thing and then giving them something entirely different. Lemke ends the article by asking, What did Jesus do? Was Jesus good at evangelism, in this bait ‘n’ switch sense it’s often carried out today? The answer strikes to the very heart of the meaning of the Bible, of Christianity, of the gospel:
‘I love how Jesus handles such things. A huge crowd comes up to him after he has fed them with all of the fish and bread. He now has them in the palm of his hands. They will do anything he says. He can start a huge movement with all of these people. He can start a megachurch with a basketball court, a bookshop, and a café. And then he does something that many in today’s church would have advised against. He starts to tell people that he is the bread of life, that he came down from heaven, and that whoever believes in him has eternal life. In other words, he is dogmatic, black and white, and more than a little offensive. He tells them that only through him can they know God, and they begin to grumble and are frustrated by this hard reality. They begin to walk away. read more…
Here’s an excerpt from a fantastic (really) Modern Reformation article from this time last year, Jay Lemke’s ‘Church: It’s Time to Stop the Spiritual “Bait and Switch”.’ Lemke’s a public relations professional, so he knows a thing or two about coming across to people — so how does the church stack up? Are we on the right track?
‘Marketers on the cutting edge know that today’s consumers are savvy and easily see through cunning spin…. So why, in the church of all places, does such apparent dissimulation exist? Many in the American church seem intent to communicate under false pretenses, even as the secular world is learning its lessons. We’ll bring people in with music, food, fun, and games; and we’ll make them think being a Christian is about whatever interests them. We’ll play on their felt needs, and we’ll do research to determine what “seekers” want in a church. We’ll stick our collective fingers in the air and then we’ll become what people want us to be.
Finally, after all that work, once we have people in the church, we may eventually get around to telling them, “Oh, by the way, Jesus died for your sins.” In my public relations world, that’s called the old “bait and switch.” read more…
As a follow up to the previous post, here’s another example of the self-conflicted nature of humanity and human society ‘under the sun’ (Ecclesiastes — you might also want to check out this related post on Richard Dawkins and Francis Schaeffer).
According to Caplan, author of the article, ‘Cheating 2.0: New Mobile Apps Make Adultery Easier‘, several new online matchmaking sites tailor their services particularly for those already in a long-term committed relationship (usually marriage).
Caplan writes,
Even as public outrage boils up over the infidelity of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Senator John Ensign, millions of Americans are sneaking online to do some surreptitious cheating of their own.
On just one such site, ashleymadison.com, according to Caplan, ‘679,000 men and women have used the service’ in order to get in touch with someone to cheat with — and that’s just in the past month. read more…
Ian Dunt of politics.co.uk asks, “Why Does Britain Sexualise Its Young?” – a very interesting article on contemporary (Western) society’s obsession with the seemingly contradictory notions of absolute childhood innocence, and the deep-seated and growing sexualization of youth. Here’s an excerpt:
‘British primary school children are becoming increasingly sexualised, while our over-emotional response to paedophilia grows by the day. When did we get so confused?
Ofsted issued a warning today about the level of sexualisation among primary school children. It found recently suspended pupils as young as four were guilty of touching other children inappropriately and using sexually graphic language.
The watchdog’s concerns are entirely justified, but there is a certain irony to the fact they were reported on the same day Rebecca Wade was promoted to the head of News International from her former position as editor of the Sun. Wade’s career hit its first political storm in 2001, when, as editor of the News of the World, she named and shamed convicted paedophiles, resulting in mob attacks and the hospitalisation of a paediatrician. The chief constable of Gloucestershire called it “grossly irresponsible journalism” – which is exactly what it was – but she earned herself 95,000 new readers a week.
These twin stories highlight something malign and twisted in our relationship with children. Wade’s decision to publish the list of paedophiles is a product of something I have written about before – our cultural habit of treating childhood as an unrealistically innocent and angelic time. This sentiment leads us to adopt a borderline psychotic approach to the problem of paedophilia.
But on the flip side of the coin, we have also pushed the point of a child’s sexualisation ever downward. The evidence is all around us, even if much of it is anecdotal. Having coffee with a friend the other day, we were both horrified to see a pre-pubescent girl, walking with her mother, wearing a T-shirt saying ‘porn star in training’.
This is not just a UK problem. It’s a western problem….’
Read the rest here.
The article is available here. After a falling out with his son, Crystal Cathedral and “Hour of Power” icon Robert Schuller has decided to bequeath everything to his oldest daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. Unfortunately, I’m not expecting any change toward a scriptural and gospel-driven ministry of word and sacrament.
I’m not at all posting this to belittle or sneer, but simply to highlight an excerpt from Schuller Coleman’s interview that seems (worringly) all too common even among much more traditional Christians than the Schullers. Notice particularly the almost antithetical relationship between the Bible and evangelism, and between understanding and faith:
She’s looking forward to speaking from the pulpit (maybe
once every four to six weeks) but says her sermons won’t sound like those of a preacher. “My messages will be very light on Scripture. They’ll be stories, primarily, with lessons. They’ll be biblical concepts, but my platform on the ‘Hour of Power’ and the cathedral on Sunday mornings is as an outreach to the unchurched.”
Poised to become the public face of the ministry, Coleman laughs easily and acknowledges having had a bout with religious skepticism as a college student. The doubt is behind her, but she still says that faith is fraught with illogic.
“I tried to make it logical,” she said of that period. “When you’re a science major, everything is why, why, why? And every time I’d ask why, I could come up with a logical explanation but then I’d right away come up with another why. Finally, I realized I just needed to take a leap of faith. I know it sounds trite, but it’s just a leap of faith. I just said, ‘Lord, I don’t know that I can understand this, I can’t explain it all, but I’m choosing to believe in you.’ The minute I did that, everything fell into place.”
Wow. Now for some head-clearingly solid statements from the Heidelberg Catechism on the relationship between the Bible and evangelism:
Q. 18: But who now is that Mediator, who in one person is true God and also a true and righteous man?
A.: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given unto us for complete redemption and righteousness.
Q. 19: From where do you know this?
A.: From the Holy Gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise [Gen 3:15], afterwards proclaimed by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law, and finally fulfilled by his well-beloved Son.
And on the relationship between understanding and faith:
Q. 21: What is true faith?
A.: True faith is not only a sure knowledge whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in his Word, but also a hearty trust, which the Holy Spirit works in me by the Gospel, that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.
