It is not difficult to understand why thoughtful Christians want to do a better job of messaging. All of us have had the experience of lamenting that too many Christians and churches of stating their cause in a way that puts the cause of Christ in a bad light. Why can't we put our best foot forward so that unbelievers don't associate the term "evangelical with Westboro Baptist, Pat Robertson, or Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Why don't outsiders even know that those three aren't even evangelicals?
There is nothing wrong with wising to gain a hearing for the gospel in the larger culture. However, church marketing efforts in recent decades have gone well beyond that, exposing a Christian tendency to trust in our own cleverness than in the power of the gospel.
To marketers, the customer is king, but in the church Christ is king. His ambassadors should be gracious and loving, but we don't have the authority as Christ's ambassadors to alter the message to soft sell it to an audience that is dead in their trespasses and sins, nor can we defer to the subjects that our neighbors deem relevant when our King has stated clearly the nature of His central message. And, why when we want to? When we recognize the direness of the human condition, we should see that only the power of the Spirit can bring the dead to life.
Table of Contents for the Reformation Project.
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