The cover of this month's edition of Christianity Today features a well-written article by Tyler Wigg-Stevenson entitled Marketing Jesus: How to evangelize without turning God into a brand. I've done quite a bit of reading on this topic over the years, so I was curious as to what the author had to say, especially since I was unfamiliar with him. Upon turning to the article itself, I saw that it bore a more direct and provocative caption - JESUS IS NOT A BRAND.
I couldn't help but smile. I knew where this guy was going before ever reading his article ... and I liked it.
The gist of Tyler's article (and that of his book, I'm sure) is that though we live in a market-driven culture, in which "organizations identify and shape the wants of target consumers and then try to satisfy those consumers better than competitors do," the truth is that "evangelism and sales are not the same." There is a categorical difference between the Truth of God and a "truth" you can sell. To substantiate his point, Tyler exposes four key conflicts between a consumerist mindset and the Christian life. I'll piece together several of Tyler's own statements so that you can understand the essence of what he's saying:
1. "I am what I buy" vs. the lordship of Christ.
In a consumerist society, my identity comes from what I consume. The main focus of a consumerist society is me. . . .
Spiritual consumers, therefore, will approach the church with the same narcissism they bring to other brands. What am I expressing about myself if I buy Brand Jesus? How will Christianity fulfill my vision for me?
The theological implication: I belong to myself. I am my own project, my own product to do with as I will. This is an enacted rejection of the honor due God as Creator. . . .
The danger is that the church will subtly contort the gospel into mere personal fulfillment. Preaching and evangelism that focus on the benefits of becoming a Christian present a message not fundamentally different from commercial advertising about the existential benefits of this car or that soap.
This attitude inhibits the disciple's growth into living a God-centered, neighbor-focused life. Yes, the Christian life brings fulfillment beyond imagination. But such fulfillment will be strangely elusive if it is your main priority as a Christian. Indeed, it comes only when we seek God instead of ourselves.
2. Discontent vs. the sufficiency of Christ.
Perversely, though consumerism promises personal fulfillment, the economic cycle depends entirely on continual discontent. . . . Consumer discontent also carries twin spiritual pitfalls. First, our perpetual quest for comfort and happiness-inducing products actually kills any chance of satisfying our wants. The pleasure of purchasing a new product will last a short while. then it wears off, and we hanker for something new.
Second - in a perverse corollary - we can't handle discomfort any better. We seek new products at the first hint of irritation. . . .
Of course, having all of our needs met at all times is the precise opposite of what a disciple should expect. Paul expresses an indifference to circumstance that is born of spiritual maturity: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:11b-13).
Consumerist habits drive us in an endless and endlessly dissatisfying quest for new and different things. But discipleship, pursued in Christian community, is about becoming satisfied with just one thing: the Lord who gives us strength.
3. Brand relativism vs. the supremacy of Christ.
A good marketer seeks to create the sorts of people who identify so strongly with a certain brand ... that another form of consumption is unimaginable.
One logo might do a better job of capturing hearts and minds; products might have competing technical merits. But to declare the inherent superiority of one brand over another is as ridiculous as saying that Bostonians are better than Chicagoans. By what standards?
The consumer who buys our marketing may well make Jesus his or her chosen brand, and the resulting zeal will look like passionate faith. Appearances deceive. Genuinely passionate faith is rooted in recognizing who Christ actually is. Brand zealotry, by contrast, is self-centered, because the supposed superiority of one brand over another depends on the brand devotee's enthusiasm. The zeal of the endorsement masks the inherent arbitrariness of the choice.
But the choice for Christ is not arbitrary. If a disgruntled Chevy man switches to Ford, Chevy loses and Ford gains; if we desert Christ in favor of another god, he is not diminished. Brand superiority is in the mind of the consumer, but Christ's divinity and worth are his own, regardless of what we think of him.
Spiritual shoppers have no reason to think that Christianity is anything but one option among many. But the life of a holy church is a powerful witness to the contrary - perhaps most evidently in our celebration of the Lord's Supper, when we remember that the one we consume has already consumed us. The church reveals the supremacy of Christ in a world that denies his power when - crediting it all to God - we love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable, reconcile seemingly intractable hatreds and rejoice even in sorrow, persevere in hardship and serve to the point of sacrifice, and baptize and teach instead of consume and discard.
4. Fragmentation vs. unity in Christ.
The key to successful marketing is niche segmentation: dividing a population into identifiable groups who behave in predictable ways based on consumer preferences. . . . Because niche segmentation enables marketers to target their messages to narrower audiences, it is reflected in advertising. Moreover, it has allowed us to live lives that are increasingly tailor-made to suit our personal preferences.
We must therefore be concerned about market segmentation infiltrating the church. It has resulted in two unacceptable outcomes: utterly homogenous churches representing consumer-based "clusters," and homogenous groupings within larger churches.
Both divide us along racial, socioeconomic, and age- and gender-based lines, each of which predicts consumer behavior. This is certainly a "pattern of this world" (Rom. 12:2). . . . If we treat the gospel like a commodity, can we fault nonbelievers for thinking that the cross is just another logo?
Spiritual consumers will come to Christianity as do window shoppers at a mall, wanting a spirituality tailor-made to their preferences. They will want this because consumption is the only salvation they have ever known. They will bring all of their riches and perversely be unable to conceive of grace because they cannot imagine a thing that cannot be bought.
The question for us in our time is whether seekers will find the world-transforming body of the Lord, formed by the Spirit - whether, expecting something new to buy, they will instead be surprised by God.
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson has raised some excellent points, from both an analytical and an applicational standpoint. His propositions resonate quite well with something pastor-teacher John MacArthur wrote several years ago in his book, Ashamed of the Gospel: "The Great Commission is not a marketing manifesto. Evangelism does not require salesmen, but prophets. It is the Word of God, not any earthly enticement, that plants the seed for the new birth (1 Peter 1:23). We gain nothing but God's displeasure if we seek to remove the offense of the cross (cf. Gal. 5:11)."
The problem with the market-driven approach to evangelism is that it is man-centered, not God-centered. It focuses on what people want, rather than what God demands. It views the church as something that exists to entertain and gratify the crowd rather than to exalt and glorify Christ.
My purpose in raising this issue is not to look down my long, self-righteous nose to those who don't do evangelism the way that I do. Quite frankly, I need to be a better witness than I am, and I thank God for my Christian brethren who are zealously seeking to win others to Christ. What concerns me isn't so much their motives but rather their methods. We don't need clever methods to win people to Christ (1 Cor. 1:21); all we need is the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). As we plant the seed of the gospel, watering it with our prayers, we can be sure that the soil that God has prepared will bear fruit for His glory and that our Lord will add to His church day by day those who are being saved (Acts 2:47).
While the world is becoming increasingly more anti-Christian, evangelicalism is running around aimlessly to find a remedy. Church leaders are carefully studying fads and fashions of the culture and making the necessary changes to the Gospel in order to keep it "relevant." Also, surveys have gone out to carnal worldly people to find out what kind of church they would like, and big surprise, the church has become like the world. This is not rocket science, this is nothing more than catering to a godless culture to fill seats in the pews. In the end, the Gospel is gone and hell's population increases. Churches now have coffee bars, gift shops, video game arcades, internet hook-ups, and I read recently some are applying for liquor licenses. The truth is all we need is men who will stand up and oppose the masses with nothing to help or defend them except the Gospel and the God who has promised to work through it. How cumbersome was Saul's armor to David? How ridiculous did David appear when he wore it? How much did its sheer weight zap David of his strength and agility? The church needs to throw off the props, the strategies, and the clever techniques of modern day evangelism and face the giants with nothing more than the smooth stones of the Gospel; the clear, uncompromising message of Christ crucified.
ReplyDeleteAny true presentation of the gospel involves confronting the audience with the reality of sin, and the inability apart from Christ to bridge the gap between the sinner and God. It calls for the sinners to repent, believe, and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.
ReplyDeleteWith the previous paragraph in mind, read this:
1 Corinthians 9:19-23:
"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
I think Paul is saying that labored hard, and was willing to adapt his message to his audience on non-essential points, but regardless of the audience, he always presented the uncompromising gospel message, which is God's power to save sinners.
Continuing to think about this, I spent some time visiting, for the first time, some websites that many may have heard of before, but perhaps have not visited. Unfortunately, it appears that in some cases, there is some watering down of the gospel going on. In others, it would appear that credit is being given to men rather than to God for successes in ministry. One could never imagine Paul watering down the gospel, nor taking credit for himself the work of the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDelete1 Cor. 9 is a popular passage that emerging church and seeker sensitive types run to trying to show that Paul embraced culture or was willing to adapt his message. But 1 Cor. 9 isn't saying that we are to compromise the Gospel in any way on any points. All he is saying is there are different starting points in how we evangelize to different folks. For example, when he evangelized to a Jew he started with the OT, when he evangelized to a Gentile, he started with creation. You simply must understand the starting point of your auidence. How do they think religiously? What controls their thoughts and their worldview? Paul would never brush up on what's happening on MTV, get a piercing, or waste his time fighting to be able to show the sin paraded during the Superbowl in church. These things represent the exact opposite of what the Apostle had in mind. If we back up to 1 Cor. 2:1-5, we will see that Paul deliberately refused to customize his message or adjust his delievery to suit the Corinthians' cultural tastes. We see how Paul explained his own approach to gospel ministry, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." As a matter of fact, this preaching of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18) was so dominant in the early church that believers were accused of worshiping a dead man. In 1 Cor. 9 Paul was describing how he made himself a servant to all (v.19) and to those he was trying to reach. He simply avoided making himself a stumbling block, but he was not saying he adapted the gospel message, which he clearly said is a stumbling block, "But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness..." (1 Cor. 1:23). This alone was the message Paul would preach because it alone has the power to save all who believe. I'm fearful to think if Paul were to walk into some our modern day churches in a few weeks (or today), sitting back with snacks in our stylish clothes, our new SUVs outside, all settled in to watch the Superbowl on our big screen TVs. Maybe Janet Jackson will do an encore, maybe the Bud commercial will be funnier than last year, and maybe they can push the sexual envelope farther than ever before. Paul's response would be the same as it was on Mars Hill (another severely misused portion of Scripture) he would be repulsed.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think Pastor Matt's point here is that: "The problem with the market-driven approach to evangelism is that it is man-centered, not God-centered. It focuses on what people want, rather than what God demands. It views the church as something that exists to entertain and gratify
ReplyDeletethe crowd rather than to exalt and glorify Christ." As he also wrote:
"Preaching and evangelism that focus on the benefits of becoming a Christian present a message not fundamentally different from commercial advertising about the existential benefits of this car or that soap."
In other words, if an activity in preaching or evangelism is not pointing people towards Jesus as Savior and Lord, it is a wrong approach.
In Acts 17, Paul shows an interesting application of pointing people to God, when he was in Athens. I think he asked himself: What is in the way of these people believing, and the answer was: "Idols". So, he talks to the people, and explains that he had walked around, and had carefully examined their objects of worship. One of them was a altar with this inscription: "To an Unknown God". By the end of his talk, he had called for repentence, and pointed people to Jesus's resurrection.
At the end of the day, Paul told the people what God needed them to hear, not what the people were expecting, or even wanted to hear, when they came to listen.
Agreed. Charles Spurgeon said, "The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view of winning them." Ernest Reisinger complements Spurgeon well when he said, "Whatever means you use to get people into the church is precisely what you must use to keep them. If you get them with a 'religious circus' then you must keep the circus going, keep up the entertainment. If you get them with biblical preaching and teaching, then that will keep them and you will not need the entertainment." A wrong approach in preaching and evangelism is not only wrong if it fails to point people to Jesus as Savior and Lord, it is also wrong if it is not within the limits of God's Word or if it compromises truth. For example, I recently read of an emerging church that shares the gospel on nude beaches (in the nude). So, "to the nude, I became nude?" We should all learn from the example of Paul who engaged the philosophers on Mars Hill. Far from embracing their culture, he was disgusted by it. Acts 17:16 says, "Now while Paul waited for (Silas and Timothy) at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols." When Paul spoke to that culture, he didn't try and show off how hip he could be. He simply declared the truth of God's Word to them in plain language. And not all of his pagan listerners were happy with that (v.18). We expect that. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18). In fact, whenever Jesus spoke of believers being in the world, He stated that if we are faithful, the world will be a place of hostility and persecution, not a comfort zone (to watch overpaid non-role-models trying to get a ball in the end zone). It's really hard to see how anyone who truly understands the Scriptures thinks that Christians should participate in our society's ever-growing love for vulgarity. Vulgarity and culture used to be polar opposites, now they are best friends. Any television show, movie, or song on the radio can confirm that in a matter of seconds. However, one thing is certain, the church that encourages such a familiarity with the world, a church that exists to entertain and gratify the crowd will practically guarantee a congregation that makes little progress toward authentic sanctification.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article and thoughts! Incidentally, this is one of the things we're teaching/discussing at next weekend's Winter Retreat.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a good book on this subject is "Rapture Ready" by Daniel Radosh. He is a secular Jew who traveled through America "submerging" himself in the Christian subculture. His stories are pretty funny and many of his critiques hit home.
Obviously though, Radosh is not a believer and he makes many unfair judgments. The "Christians" he does meet and like are usually liberal in their theology and practice and parts of the book are marred by unnecessary cuss words. But on the whole I found it very helpful and enjoyed it (despite his very undeserving critique of Piper!).
With all of this,however, our beliefs and theology have to match our practice. Amanda and I have been thinking through this a lot lately. It's one thing to think that consumerism is lie, marketing the pulpit is bad, turning the gospel into a brand is dangerous, but it's another thing to live that way. In thinking through our lives and ministries, we have tried to be more conscious of the ways consumerism creeps in and we have to be vigilant at stamping it out.
Steve Camp has new article out speaking on Rick Warren's new confusion titled, "Evangelical Co-Belligerence Run a Muck...when civility in the marketplace causes amnesia concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ" Steve begins with the question "Can't we all just get along?" and he instantly gives the correct answer, No. Why? Steve answers, "Because there is an offense in preaching the cross of Christ inherit in faithful gospel proclamation." We just need to look to the cross to confirm that answer, a dreadful, blood-soaked place of anguish. The place where Jesus dealt with something extremely horrible; the sins of mankind. This is something that Warren and others like him are missing, Jesus died so that we could be glorified, but not to keep us from being crucified, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily." John Piper said, speaking on the tragedy of much of what passes for contemporary
ReplyDeleteChristianity,"...what it means is that Jesus was soaked in blood so that I can soak in a Jacuzzi."
One of the first questions John Wesley asked of his lay preachers was, "Was anybody made mad by their preaching?" If the answer was in the negative, the preacher was removed. Imagine that today? Preachers used to declare with holy boldness "You are lost!" today its, "You are loved." Steve continued about Rick Warren saying, "If "Pastor" Warren was being faithful as a man of God preaching an uncompromised gospel, then those political and religious groups wouldn't be applauding him, they'd want to stone him...Rick's not a bad guy, he's just forgotten his purpose. Any good books on finding your purpose that anyone could recommend him? Here's a few that come to mind: Romans, 1&2 Cor., the pastoral epistles, etc..."
Many want to preach like George Whitefield but we forget he spent entire nights crying out to God for souls, or Jonathan Edwards who did the same right here in Massachusetts. The floor of their studies were wet with tears. What are our floors wet with? Going back to John Piper, still speaking about the Jacuzzi, "And the bigger the tub, the more we honor the cross-so goes the prosperity gospel." If Jesus preached the gospel that is being preached today, He would have never been crucified. I, for one, am very thankful He never watered it down.