We preach…marketing?

This may sound like a rant, or a reaction to something I saw recently. I want to assure you that it isn’t. You don’t have to believe me (I can’t prove it), but I’ve been on this journey of understanding for over ten years now, and I am just now to the point where I can talk about it intelligably.

A decade ago the Christian Church in America was at the apex of a movement to seek more relevant ways to engage our culture and put more keisters in our buildings every Sunday. That last part sounds cynical, but it’s the best way I can describe it. That was the point – to grow our attendance. And that was important, because most of us had some buildings to fill, and those gigantic mortgages don’t pay themselves. As a result, we engaged in market research and applied countless business methods to our ministries, all in the hopes of reversing what we had just then realized was a steady decline in attendance.

I won’t bore you with the details of everything that came from that, but I will oversimplify: The “seeker-sensitive” movement led to the founding of mega-churches, which led to the “emerging church” movement (define that however you like – I can’t anymore), all of which were centered around the relentless pursuit, as near as I can tell, of the answer to this question from the 90’s:

 

Q: How can we present the Gospel in a way that is acceptable to present-day Americans?

A: (If I may be so bold) You can’t.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that you can’t create a church that non-churchy people will like. I think it’s entirely possible to create a social organization that attracts people of all stripes. And it’s frankly not that hard. I have some good marketing books you can read. Build or rent a building. Make it like a community center or a mall or a performing arts center. Then put on lots of free or cheap events and start a lot of programs. Make sure you avoid anything that looks or feels remotely religious or Christian or “Churchy”. Adopt the culture’s fashion, media, catch-phrases, consumption habits, and political points of view. Loudly proclaim these as proof of your hipness. Get a few tattoos.

If you want to go all the way, you will also need to develop a keen sense of the stupidity of church culture (even that of your own church) and blog about it. A lot. Self-deprecating online humor is extremely important – you want to make sure the online culture knows that you know that they think you’re idiots, and you pretty much agree.

 

It’s all marketing. Viral marketing, direct marketing, plan ol’ marketing marketing. It’s all putting lipstick on a pig (to turn a phrase in hopes of getting unrelated Google click throughs). And it all may very well be a waste of time. Because the pig in this metaphor is the Gospel. And ain’t ever gonna look too purty to some folk.

 

After buying the program, participating in, propagating, preaching, and purveying the ridiculous notion that the Gospel can be made palatable through proper packaging, I have decided we have believed a lie. And we should have known it all along. The generation before us thought political action could make God’s laws into America’s policies (think Moral Majority, Religious Right). Our generation believed cultural relevance would draw the world to our edifices (think rock and roll worship and social justice). But Paul gave us the score two millennia ago. We just didn’t want to believe it. We still don’t.

 

“…Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

– I Corinthians 1

 

If you’ve read anything else I’ve ever written, you know I don’t think relevance in and of itself is a bad thing. Neither is alcohol. But they’re both pretty destructive when they become the center of your existence. It’s all about the focus – are you a culturally relevant individual who has surrendered to the message of Jesus and now is trying to love your community and preach the same message to your culture? Great. Are you a culturally irrelevant person trying to be hip so that people will think you are cool and (by extension) so is the gospel? Not great.

 

A Personal Story to Make the Point

I grew up poor. And nerdy. And socially inept. In the 80’s. As we all know from John Hughes films, the one thing that could propel you from geek to chic in that era was the right clothes. Name brand clothes. So when I started making money for myself (paper route in the 40 below zero winters of central Montana), I bought the right clothes. The right shoes. The stuff everyone else had. Didn’t help. Was still a geek (back when that was a bad thing). Still am (though we geeks now run the world, so it’s not all bad anymore :-)).  No amount of proper clothing could change the fact that I was a brainy, sheltered, non-athletic, poor kid from the trailer park, and therefore very uncool. I got beat up just as much in my Nikes as I did in my Kmart brand shoes.

Some of you are thinking “Aha!” He’s just bitter because of Junior High! Trust me – I’m over it. But I do really wish I had learned the lesson of so many years ago and applied it to church philosophy a lot sooner.

 

We Preach Christ…

“We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews (the religious) and foolishness to Gentiles (the intellectual).” Those words haunt me these days. As I look back over the years I realize we have preached Christ a lot of other ways.

 

We preach Christ the problem-solver. Christ the relevant. Christ the political activist. Christ the community organizer. Christ the Conservative. Christ the Liberal. Christ the weak. Christ the strong. Christ the best friend. Christ the personal choice. Christ the judge. Christ the path to success. Christ the rich. Christ the poor.

Christ the crucified is foolish to the intellectual. He doesn’t fit the Messiah image of the religious. He is too Liberal for the Conservatives. He is too Conservative for the Liberals. He is too demanding to the self-centered. He is too gracious to the self-righteous. He is too ambiguous to the fundamentalist. He is too specific to the libertine.

In a word, He is offensive.

 

This is the wonder and beauty of the Cross. That is God on that Cross. So powerful he can kill us all with a word. So gracious He allows His own death. If I believe that anything I have ever done, thought, said, or worn means anything in light of the Cross, then it’s time to go back and look again.

I am not arguing for an irrelevant church culture. I am arguing for the abolition of church culture. Let’s stop trying to be attractive. The Cross isn’t. And it is the single defining reality of our new existence – the beginning point of our journey.

I am convinced that true followers of Christ have all been captured by the Cross. We have all come to the understanding that our life, accomplishments, righteousness, possessions, and even our relevance are filthy rags in light of that sacrifice. We have found peace, grace, forgiveness , and hope at the Cross. And no one who has yet to be so captured, wrecked, and ruined will ever understand that. To explain our new life, all we can say is “Christ, crucified.” This is our only remaining credential. Our only word. Our only answer. Our only interest.

Here’s my thought. Let’s stop trying to be relevant. Let’s embrace the truth – the Cross will never be beautiful. Except to us.