Close Your Church for Good. Chap 3, Part 5. How can the church spread the message of the Kingdom? The same way Jesus did.

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The church is commissioned to continue the Incarnation, the way of death, the way of humility, the way of self-sacrificing service. But it seems that, like Jonah fleeing to Tarshish, we have all too often gone in exactly the opposite direction. Rather than running headlong toward humility, suffering, self-sacrifice, service, and even death, we have raced toward power, prominence, self-gratification, and self-advancement. We have adopted the methods of imperial governments, military powers, and greedy corporations.

There are long explanations from history and psychology about why we have done this, but the real culprit is theological: we’re sinners with the best of intentions. We see the influence of imperial government, and we imagine all the good that could be done if such power could be harnessed for the church. We see the evils that military power can destroy (while ignoring all the evils it creates), and believe that similar tactics could be used to advance the cause of Christ. We watch the throngs flood through the doors of amusement parks and department stores and think that if we can get such crowds to buy our wares and attend our concerts, they might be unaware when we throw the Gospel into their cart as well, as if it were some blue-light special Christmas candy on December 26th.

The world notices these attempts to copy, and they are not impressed. They hear our message of incarnation, but our methods look more like a used-car salesman in “Car Nation.” Worldly methods do not help in spreading the Kingdom message. The two are incompatible. And the world sees right through it all. They hear a message of peace, love, and service, but see methods of greed, power, and glory. Understandably, they get confused. The methods and message don’t mix, and the world knows it!

The church needs to be incarnational in the same way that Jesus was. We need to represent God to the world, but in such a way that we are as close to human as possible without crossing into sin. This describes the incarnation of Jesus. He became so fully human that people had (and still have) trouble believing He was God. Similarly, the incarnational church must enter so fully into the world, and become so much like the world, that many may have trouble seeing how we are different.

Close Your Church for Good. Chapt. 3, Sec. 3. Some churches try public relations campaigns to improve their visibility in the community and attract people to church. Below is an example from one church I pastored, and the results we saw.

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In my first year as a pastor, our church was struggling to raise attendance, and decided part of our problem was that the community was not aware of our presence. To correct this, we went with a smorgasbord approach. Members went out and knocked on doors to invite people to church. We sent out mass mailings. We hung flyers on people’s doorknobs and left CDs of church music and sermons on their windshield wipers. At one point, we even dropped a packet of tracts and pamphlets on their lawn.

About a month into our community awareness campaign, I received a letter from a man who, as a result of our efforts, had now become aware of our church.  Though I no longer have the letter, here (with some of the language removed) is essentially what he wrote

Stop bothering me! Your people knock on my door when I’m trying to enjoy time with my family and they just want to talk about God and your Bible. After I tell them to leave, I find they’ve left trash about Jesus and attending your church on my doorstep. A week later, there’s more trash on my lawn. When I get the mail, I find junk mail from your church. At the park last week, you left crap on my windshield.

Aside from all the litter you’ve left lying around, and the trees you’ve destroyed getting all this printed, and the  money and time you’ve wasted distributing it, I feel like I’m being stalked. If this doesn’t stop, I’m reporting you and your church to the police. Leave me alone!

I remember feeling quite indignant about this letter. I thought, “If he doesn’t want the stuff, why doesn’t he just throw it out? Why take the time to write such a nasty letter? Does he write a letter like this to local businesses when they send him junk mail or telemarketers interrupt his dinner? I doubt it!” I took the letter to the church board and showed it to them. We all decided that one letter does not reflect the views of the entire community, and we should disregard it. That is what we did, and continued with our campaign. We never did hear from the police.

Looking back, however, I think the man was right. Though it’s true we were raising our “brand recognition” in the community, and our campaign was generating awareness, we were getting noticed for all the wrong reasons. In our attempt to reach the world, we had adopted methods of the world which contradicted our message.

It’s been a while since I made a post on the progress of my book, Close Your Church for Good. This is because several of the chapters I had written got pulled out for a future book, and others got rearranged. I guess this is why books don’t get written online like this…

So below is a section near the beginning of “Chapter 3.” The beginning of the chapter shows how most churches in most communities would not be missed if they were to close. I already made two posts (Part 1 and Part 2) on this back in July. We pick up there. 

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Many believe the primary problem is that of image and perception. We believe we are misunderstood. We know our hearts and our motives, and how we want to help people learn and live the truth of the Gospel, but for some reason, the average person on the street has a somewhat negative perception of the church. They read about church corruption and pastoral sex scandals in the newspapers, and they don’t trust us. Some have tried attending a church, but got burned. They are tired of being asked for money. As a result, the average person thinks the church is greedy, hypocritical, unforgiving, judgmental, harsh, and selfish.

Of course, the average churchgoer believes just the opposite. People who attend church believe their fellowship is warm, friendly, gracious, generous, and compassionate. The fact that non-churchgoers think differently shocks us. We are certain that people who distrust church would like it if they just visited ours. Maybe they had a bad experience in another church, or as a kid when they were growing up, but things are different now. Our church is not like those other churches.

But how can we get them to visit if they don’t trust churches in general? People won’t come to church when we invite them unless they first begin to change their perceptions about the church. How can this be done if we can’t them to attend?

Typically, a church faced with this dilemma embarks on a public relations campaign borrowed straight from the pages of Corporate America’s User Manual. When Toyota recalls millions of cars for sticky gas pedals, they simultaneously air commercials on television about all the safety awards they have won. When a BP oil rig spews oil in the Gulf, Florida rolls out advertisements about how their beaches are still safe and clean. When the antenna on the new iPhone doesn’t work properly, Apple sends all users a coupon for a free case.

So churches do the same thing. To counteract our negative image in the public arena, we develop slogans like “First Community Church: The Perfect Church for People Who Aren’t” or “Grace Church: A Hospital for the Hurting.” Then, once the image and slogan are developed, the campaign really begins in earnest. People are invited to come as they are, and reminded that we’re all sinners on the road to change. Signs and banners are displayed around the church so the members understand (and hopefully live) what is taught. Sermon series are preached on the themes of forgiveness and love. Air time is purchased on television and radio to run commercials about how great and loving our church is.

Then we sit back and wait for the people to arrive so we can really begin to show them how loving we are.

The problem, however, is that the public relations campaign doesn’t always work. If anything, the perspective of outsiders only gets worse. At least, that’s what happened in my church.