Satire: Public Relations and the Church

Buddy Christ

Or, Which Jesus Saved Your Soul?

Christianity Today has a funny article, "How to Become a Successful Religion" by Mark Galli. It is a hoot.

It always use to crack me up when people would learn my last name, "Sell." If I had a buck for every time someone would then say, "You're a good salesman." The other comment was, "You've got a good product to sell."  Of course, the comments were always well meaning and said with good intentions. No offense taken.

To: James, President of the Jerusalem Council

Re: Initial Impressions

Shalom Marketing Ltd. was recently contacted by a member of your council, asking us to tell you about our services. He said to make it clear that he was footing the bill for this initial evaluation, with the hopes that our sound advice will encourage the council to hire us to guide your marketing efforts for the next strategic stage in your movement's life.

Oh that Peter. This one really cracked me up.

The other uncomfortable note was when Peter added insult to injury, blaming the crowd for killing your founder: "This Jesus … you crucified." And then he implies that the crowd is full of "lawless men." And if they didn't get the point, he drove home this indelicate point at the end of the sermon: "Let all the house of Israel [now equated with lawlessness] therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

We understand that Peter would have likely still been grieving over the death of the founder, but insulting your audience is not the way to win friends to the movement. :-)

What's great about being Lutheran is that we can take any gift of creation (reason) and use it to serve the Word of God, but not over rule it. Marketing and Public Relations are a great thing when they serve the Word of God. However, this article is making a point about when these tools tell us to change the message because of the "target audience."

To keep Law and Gospel distinct and to understand their purpose is the only way to unlock the meaning of God's Word. The church's primary use of the law of God is to condemn sin in our lives. Or as we all learned in confirmation - SOS - show us our sin. Only when we know our sin, then does the the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ do us any good. Christ took our place to pay for my sin on the cross. I guess Peter was right, you and I crucified Jesus.

When we don't do that, we only confuse people into thinking they are keeping God's law and only need forgiveness for the big mistakes in life. Or, we confuse people into thinking that everyone is forgiven so  "eat, drink, and be merry" and loving God and our neighbor is only if you have time.

God calls us to be faithful to Him and practice the Word and Sacramental Life faithfully, not try to "help" God's Word or the sacraments as if we know the target audience better.

Enjoy the article.

Pastor Sell