As consumers living in the 21st century we are bombarded with advertisements, jingles, and billboards all jockeying for our attention. Those peddling products use these tactics in the hopes that they will "hook" us and then "lure us in" until we purchase their product; one that most certainly will "revolutionize" our way of life.Enter: The Gigantic Inflatable Gorilla.
Promising "Huge" savings at a "Monster" discount, the gigantic inflatable gorilla is one monkey that is tough to beat. You can find the gigantic inflatable gorilla perched atop most car dealerships hoping to create just enough of a spectacle and attraction that you are compelled to stop in. I'm not sure what gigantic inflatable gorillas have to do with automobiles, but some would say, "It doesn't matter, as long as it helps sell cars."
This is "attractional" marketing.
As church communities I think we should be attractional as well. Yet I think our attractional nature should not come from the gigantic inflatable gorillas of great music, quality programs, slick marketing campaigns, or caring for the poor (yup, even caring for the poor can be a "hook" to get people to buy our "Jesus product").
In his book, A New Vision For Israel: The Teachings of Jesus in National Context, Scot McKnight writes: "(Jesus) did not perform miracles to get attention or to coerce others to follow him, but to reveal a kingdom that would eventually embrace the world in a universal display of God's salvation."
I am all for inspiring musicianship and creative worship gatherings. I believe the church should do works of both compassion and justice. I think these elements (and other things like it) are good not because they can be useful "bait" for a "spiritual seeker", but because through those elements (and others) the living hope of the gospel can be realized and experienced. The Church should be attractional not because of what it does to grab people's attention for the kingdom, but because (through all of its expression) it embodies the very kingdom itself.
Have you ever felt like the church was trying to "sell" something? What are the true attractional elements of the Church?
2 comments:
My grandfather used to have "The Sunoco Giant" - a 30' tall fiberglass man dressed in a Sunoco gasoline attendant's uniform that was used to promote gas station special events or deposited on the edge of town when it was time for the county fair, etc. Inflatable Gorillas are in my blood!
We are often guilty of selling within the church, "back in the day" the methodology was as obvious (and sometimes corny) as musical saw players, black light chalk artists and Drive-In church services. Today, we have our own aforementioned (and potentially less corny) sales tools of choice. One issue with selling Jesus is that you can get people to say "Yes" to lots of products they don't truly want, understand or won't really use - selling is often followed by Buyer's Remorse.
We are called to follow Jesus, not to "buy into Jesus" like you bought a ShamWow - only to find that the decision you made in a moment of sleeplessness at 3:00 AM wasn't really based on reality...
The world can keep its Inflatable Gorillas
I find it difficult to define your "gorillas". What is a "gorilla" for one person is a genuine element for another. That speaks to the unique role of each church meeting the unique needs of each group of believers.
When we are no longer trying to share the freedom and forgiveness that we find in Jesus and start playing numbers games (people, money, etc), the genuine elements of a church become its gorillas. I find it difficult to characterize gorillas on a macro level. It is something that really must be done on the micro level.
The thing that I really don't like about your question is that I feel like it backs me into a corner of my proverbial pot calling your kettle black. On a real level, it is a difficult conversation to have without looking disingenuous.
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