So for those who don't know, here in Hobart we have just run (i think it technically goes until the end of this month) the Jesus All About Life advertising campaign (JAAL). The idea behind this as far as i could tell was that all the churches would work together to make sure the name of Jesus was got out into the community more and that we would be able to together be more engaged with out communities in evangelism and mission. The main thrust of this campaign was that it would be a media saturation. Where posters, banners, tv ads and radio ads would be placed over a month so that Christians might be able to more easily bring up Jesus in conversation or so that other people might get curious about why the word Jesus kept popping up all over the place and so might ask their Christian friend about it.
So in theory i think its a pretty good idea. However i think in practice it has fallen well short of achieving anything much at all. Why? Well i don't know but here are my suspicions.
- It relies way way too much on people being self motivated. That is, it relies on people seeing the ad and then thinking, "oh yes, Jesus is all about life, but i don't know much about him, i might call that number and get an information pack". In my view people aren't going to do that. When people see a product marketed they can buy into the marketed image or the fulfillment of a perceived need. Like, oh that lady is beautiful, i can be beautiful with that shampoo too, i'll buy some. The JAAL ad's don't seem to me to provide any kinda of lifestyle that people could buy into. Just ordinary people who happened to talk about Jesus. I assume this was the aim, to promote Christians as 'normal' however in doing that i think they failed to show people were missing something or had any need to 'buy in' to Jesus. Thus creating ad's which relied to a large extent on the self motivation of individuals but that offered them nothing to really 'buy in' to they lost out. This is one of the main problems I see with the campaign.
- Secondly, over the last month i have watched the following shows at least once, Neighbours, All Saints, Southern Cross News, The Simpsons, AFL finals, Criminal Intent, Today Tonight, Sea Patrol, City Homicide. All of these are fairly average tv shows, however reasonably well watched. I have also watched a variety of other shows that i can't remember right at the moment. But how many times have i seen the ads? 30 times? 20 times? 15 times? even 10 times? No... i have seen them TWICE!! TWICE!! And i'm certain the only reason that i can remember seeing them is because i was looking for them because we were told about them at church. Not because the ad has been played so many times i can remember it. In fact, it would still be easier to start a conversation about Jesus by walking up to someone in Hobart and saying "In the jungle one day in a land far away the King was collecting his rent" and seeing if together you and the person could reel off the rest of the ad together and then asking them what they thought about the meaning of that ad. Sure the ad was daggy. But i think it has been on TV so much that almost all the people i know in Hobart can recite the ad. I don't think half the people at BayWest could recognise the little JAAL ad tune if they heard it, let alone the ads. They were too infrequent. There were also no ads on buses that i saw, nor anywhere in the CBD. It would have to be the lamest attempt at market saturation i've ever seen.
- Finally, the whole JAAL campaign is entirely based on an attractional based model of evangelism based on Christendom thinking. That is people are interested in church and will come if we put enough events on. Fact is we put on hundreds of church services and youth groups and all manner of things every week in Hobart and the people aren't coming. Why would they come when on the off chance they might have seen an ad that was not on tv very much which may not have even interested them?? It just doesn't work for me. Mind you this doesn't mean i'm convinced that the whole completely incarnational approach is the answer either. (that is lets go be with people so they see Jesus in us). Rather i am more and more convinced that the only way for myself and anyone to see people come to know Jesus is to stop being so damn ashamed of him. I get so annoyed with myself when i know i have an opportunity to share something about me in a conversation with a non-believer and instead of boldly sharing, i feel shame rise and i kinda lamely bleat out something that half passes as talking about my faith. Likewise, i can't stand when someone say, i can't talk about Jesus because that might ruin the relationship. Leave that to God. I tell people i like footy and don't care if they hate me for it. Jesus is heaps more important to me than the Swans, so why shouldn't i tell people i met about him. In my view the problem is not whether or not your church does attractional mission or incarnational mission. It's actually whether each person will actually share their faith unashamedly and are living as sold out disciples rather than having Jesus as an added extra to their life.
Here endeth my sermon ;)
yeah i agree that it wasn't the best use of resources. not in tassie anyway.
ReplyDeletei think the ads are a hard thing to do as christians. yes there wasn't a need put forward to the audience, but the manipulative marketing tools used today probably SHOULDN'T be used by christians anyway.
i'd love to hear more of your thoughts on incarnational evangelism. it's stuff i'm in to but i'm crap at. i think *some* of the theology from that side of the fence is whacko.
i've looked at this stuff on my blog. come pay a visit (and double its readership!)
Good to see the campaign discussed, but intrigued as to how you can categorise JAAL as a 'failure'? We have run it in Adelaide and Canberra and experience shows that it's not until its over, that its impact can be measured. Plus, one is tempted to ask, "What have you done to make an impact for the Gospel in your community?" Interestingly, churches that get the most out of JAAL were those who put the most into it.
ReplyDeleteOur use of modern marketing techniques is to create awareness of and interest in Jesus. Its up to the Christians of Tasmania to use that interest to have conversations and ultimately, bring people into the Kingdom. Are you doing that?
Martin Johnson
Director - JAAL, Sydney
Martin... i think i might have meant more that it didn't live up to its promises, not that i could even state what they are, in my opinion (it promised i think to be a kinda media saturation campaign though i thought??).
ReplyDeleteWe did put a fair bit into the JAAL campaign at BayWest. We ran 4 talks at the University (which we are situated a block away from and where we have a fair number of our members from) and which we then repeated during the evening. We had some seriously good quality speakers come along too, Dr Chris Forbes (Macquarie) to speak on the accuracy of the bible, Prof Alan Richardson (UTAS) to talk about how a biological scientist can be a Christian, and the dean of medicine to talk about how an intelligent doctor can believe in the resurrection, plus our minister David Rietveld on what did Jesus actually say. The titles were themed along the line of Australia's tourism advertising (where the bloody hell are you, so that become Jesus, what the bloody hell did you say etc.)
I would think probably 200 people came to these talks perhaps. I was unable to get any of my non-christian friends along, but it was an impetuous for trying. And i do have follow up questions planned for those who asked. I'm not sure if you're perhaps suggesting that the only way i, or anyone, could be critical of the JAAL campaign is if i wasn't actively involved in evangelism myself... surely you want us to be thinking about everything we do?
However, i think part of my original post, and perhaps this wasn't reflected, was an exasperation at myself and what i see in a large number of others that we do find it hard to talk about Jesus. I'm hoping and praying to become more bold in sharing my faith each day.
I think the other thing i was saying was that there were just not that many ads either. That is, it seems to me that unless you were looking for the JAAL ads (which i take it non-christians weren't) then you probably wouldn't have noticed them. Thus making a conversation topic relating to the ads nearly impossible... hey 'friend' have you seen those Jesus all about life ads? No?.. oh... ok...
Which is why it seems as though it has failed to live up to its promises.
However, i guess if we redefine success (and for me the campaign should probably be judged by its effectiveness as an advertising campaign) to something different, then the campaign has got me thinking about how myself and those involved at our church in in our youth ministry go about reaching youth and our friends. Which is not a bad outcome.
I'm not completely aware as to how long the campaign runs for, but it seems that our 4 week burst at our church is over, so I had assumed it was over. I certainly am not seeing ads anywhere for it.
Chris, I don't know anything about this situation but I would submit that even people pissing and moaning about all the advertisements would start some good conversations.
ReplyDeletehey joey. that's the thing though. In my view the ads weren't/aren't on enough for anyone to even notice them unless they are looking for them.
ReplyDeleteGo to www.jesusallaboutlife.com.au and you can see the ads. I've only seen them twice.
Fair enough. I'll email you soon since I haven't in a while.
ReplyDeleteOh and I forgot I'm drinking my first Australian beer right now. Sheaf Stout. It's the only Australian beer I've been able to find that isn't Fosters. I like it. Woodsy.
ReplyDeleteChris, thankyou for your comments and honesty, strong and careful evaluation of everything we do in the context of evangelism is important! I'm all for that.
ReplyDeleteThere has been varied response and impact with the campaign, patircularly as to its saturation. This was always to be expected.
In some case saying that they have barely seen the adversts or media of any kind and those who have been saying that everywhere they go they are confronted with the name of Jesus.
One of a number have quoted,
"they cannot get away from the message".
I think from a Tassie perspective we were always going to have this given the geographical spread and vayring communities that make up Tasmania as a state, it was alway an unknown element.
The issue of the "christian" community needing to get out there, be bold, and , using bay west terms, be "bloody real" is a crucial issue for us all to deal with. We NEED TO BE OUT THERE and we are not.
We need to be making a difference in our communities and in this process helping people to meet Jesus.
My personal conviction is that the Jesus. All about life campaign has created an environment where peoples "intrigue" or "interest" in the person of Jesus has be signifcantly increased. This has be the reality all accross Tasmania!
Consequently, and I speak from personal exprience it has given opportunity for "many" to share the gospel. This has happened in many ways, at a personal level, around church services, in community events and the list goes on.
Regardless of what methods we may use to create awareness, it ultimately rests with you and I to build relationship and communicate.
Also, it is important for the christian church of tasmania to reflect on the positive impact that this campaign has had, whilst understanding where we can "always" do better.
Andrew Hillier
CEO
Jesus. All about life - Tasmania
chris,
ReplyDeletei think your post is thoughtful and knowledgeable and you have every right to critique the campaign on your personal blog. i would be interested to hear specific responses to your 3 main criticisms.
as someone not closely involved with the JAAL stuff, here's the positives i have seen:
1. "stagnant" churches have become more motivated and have been urged to think outside their walls.
2. there is now a sense of shared purpose and message between churches of hobart.
i'm glad to hear that the campaign was a success in adelaide and sydney. i just don't think it was the same in hobart. well, not from the demographic i come from anyway.
i'd hope that JAAL campaigners from the mainland could look at the critiques coming from the south and take them on board, rather than dismissing them - 'oh, those tasmanians just aren't doing enough'.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteFirstly I'd like to thank you for this post, and apologise for my long comment. :-)
I feel it is easy from a Christian perspective to undervalue the effect of the advertising campaign, and its effectiveness in the lives of those being exposed to it. But I also feel you have a point, in light of Katherine's comment, that the advertisement didn't act as a 'traditional' advertisement, that is, didn't push a material/worldly product. In making my comment, also note that i have never seen the Ads, which is unfortunate for this discussion.
The strength in not marketing Jesus as a product is also the Ads weakness. As well as offering somewhat of a different and refreshing advertisement to viewers, it lacked that which usually draws them in, as you suggested.
So one could suggest it achieved its best, and that as Christians tackling such medium, they offered truthfully what we had to offer, in a way that didn't exclude people, eg. making it denominationally specific.
In regards to the media saturation, it certainly COULD have been much more saturated, but it is legitimate to ask the question: how much more effective could the ad have been if shown more frequently?
This once again has a strength which is its weakness.
More frequency could bring more interest, but also could cause more frustration. It is most definitely a balancing act.
Another thought that could be considered, mainly inspired by reading Mark Driscoll's book 'Confessions of a Reformission Rev.', is that in having somewhat of a requirement of selfmotivation to get something out of the TV ads, we can bring people into the church who ARE self motivated. Andrew Hillier makes the point: "We NEED TO BE OUT THERE", and he has a very obvious point. Merely bringing people into the church to be consumers holds the risk that the state of the Tasmanian Christian Church will remain as it is, a (generally speaking) big group of Christians not willing to get on board and support somethign like JAAL to its FULL potential.
This was not a personal criticism, but a fact about the Tasmanian Church. I feel for such an ad to be effective, some things inside the church need to be addressed. We do need to GET REAL about evangelism.
In light of Martin Johnson's comment, I am perfectly happy to attest to the fact that you have a positive impact in evangelising the community (especially the youth), and that during the JAAL campaign you plugged in more effort than normal.
And also in my opinion, i feel it was fair to state your feelings about the JAAL campaign from your perspective, and how you felt it worked/didn't work.
It's importannt to embrace new ideas on how to evangelise the community, but also to recognise (and I feel this is your strength) that if for you it didn't serve as effective, to consequently continue to seek to be more effective in spreading the Gospel in other ways, or in ways that currently within your ability, you may be succeeding.
I appreciated your honest opinion on the JAAL campaign, one that in parts I share. I am also encouraged by the efforts being made all around the country to embrace the campaign as another way to spread the Gospel.
It is important to make these evaluations on a personal and broader level, and I am glad that you can be an example to me in identifying areas where Christian evangelism isn't being effective in my life, and tools that are available are not always required/effective.
I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts in other areas of evangelism.
Your Brother in Christ,
Alan
well i'm currently a little bit stunned that gathering my thoughts on my blog has drawn comment from the National Director and Tasmanian CEO of the JAAL campaigns.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Andrew re the number of people who have said "they cannot get away from the message". I can't argue with those peoples experience who are saying this but that still doesn't pass the fact that i have been into the CBD several times, being to the Sandy Bay University campus, being to Kingston, Claremont, New Town, Lennah Valley, listened to commercial radio, watched too much tv and i have only seen the ads TWICE. I would like to think that i'm like the average person in the shows i watch on TV and the places i go. But i see nothing except banners on most churches.
I'm not exactly sure, but i think that running some sort of being bold in your faith campaign would have been more productive and encouraging accountability for people to share their faith and having loads of prayer meetings.
We do need to get bloody real (a worldly term rather than a BayWest term). Jesus needs to be our number one reality and he needs to be spoken of freely and unashamedly! Really that was all i was saying in the post, that the JAAL campaign highlights that this is our biggest hurdle in mission and evangelism.
I'm happy to come to some sort of post JAAL focus group or something.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhile you have every right to put your thoughts out there on about the JAAL campiagn on your own blog , I feel pretty disappointed that you have chosen to do this in such a public place. It is fine that you have questions about JAAL , we live in a democratic society and by questioning things we can all learn from one another. I just don't see the point of questioning a campiagn that has united over 200 churchse in Tasmanina in an unpredented way in a public forum.
I know that the creators of JAAL and those running the campaign would be more than happy to listen to how it could be done better anohter time or your concerns.
The JAAL campaign aims to give non Christians a picture of the church of Christ as united and working together.
By critising the campaign in forum that anyone can see, how is that uniting the church in Tas. It just gives those who are non Christians more ground to say , look at those Christians , they cant; agree on anything , why are there so many demomninations.
My two girls aged 6 and 3 are quick to point out the adds and the signage in our city. In fact my youngest has quiet a little song that she has made up from viewing the adds and we mainly watch ABC.
Have your concerns , but post them to the creators and those in charge of the campaign, disscuss them amongst your Christian friends but just be careful in all that you do.
We need to work together to glorify Christ , not pull Christian things apart publically.
Alison
Hi Alison,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is important to be gentle with our comment on the church, for the benefit of non-believers, but it is important to have that kind of transparency, to recognise that the church is not a smooth ride, but something to be worked for, and that living for Christ's name isn't deserved, but a sacrifice.
Chris' original post is somewhat of an encouragement (in, yes admittedly, his unique way). He doesn't seek to destroy the idea of JAAL, but just presents his opinion of its success in a constructive way. Unfortunately Chris also found some lines that were less than encouraging, but in this instance it is important to, just like Chris did in regard to JAAL, recognise 'failure' as a building block. I am convinced that Chris has the ability to pray through such matters/manners of expression.
We can well grumble behind closed doors, or grumble privately, but it can also serve the community of Christians (especially those in contact with Chris' blog) to express our thoughts out loud, and allow others to learn from that. Similarly we can sit inside and talk about evangelism, or we can get out there like JAAL has, and we can all learn from the experience.
It is possibly a bit wild to say that Chris is undermining the unity of the church under JAAL by writing this post, from what I can see we are all learning a lot about where we stand in our walk with God, and how we are proclaiming Jesus' name, and hearing and discussing publicly where the church (generally) can improve.
To publicly and openly question the JAAL campaign is making it accountable, which is an acceptable thing. Where our pastors may not be so successful, it is helpful for them to learn from their congregation (where appropriate). Similarly, where a campaign may not have been so successful (in areas) its good to hear from the participants.
'In our weakness He is strong' and I believe ultimately, this whole experience, JAAL and subsequently Chris' blog, is able to glorify Christ, because it has been a time of growth, if not for you, but very much so for me.
I would appeal to people to support Chris in his boldness, and to encourage him in his weaknesses, so that we can all act in a way that does reflect our faith in Jesus, and continue to build up our fellow Brothers and Sisters.
Continue to discuss but do it without pride, instead with the Love of Christ that he shows us in his good mercy.
I hope I personally haven't caused offence in participating in this blog discussion. If you feel I have been out of line, please contact me through my own blog or on this discussion board.
Be encouraged Chris! :-)
God Bless,
Alan
Chris, there are a few things that need to be considered when looking at JAAL... 1. this was the first Jesus all about life event, most events need to be ran on a yearly basis to become any thing prominent. As programs take time to build unless you get a lot of media support, unfortunately they like to blame us rather then help us.
ReplyDelete2. How do you judge success? Through the worldly eyes? Ie.. how many people come along? Or how many people gave their hearts to god? Or should we wait longer and see what god has done with the program as some one who may bring thousands of people to Christ may have began their journey with Christ through this program. We just do not know only god knows.
This is not to say the program was a huge success, to bring people in you need attractions, a guest lecture / speaker will not draw people in to hear God’s word unless God has all ready planted a seed. Bringing in key speakers regardless of the effects on the non-believers it is good to build up our fellow Christians and prepare us to answer questions our friends bring up.
I come across a few people who have seen the adds, and the adds made way for some interesting discussions even if people did not go to the events. If every member of a church managed to talk to 1 person about the campaign that would sow quiet afew seeds its up to good if or when they grow. Again meaning the campaign may have been a great success only god will see the amount of fruits from the campaign. However television advertising is not the best way of advertising events, if you want to get the message out their posters and face book act… For instance the small black and white ones we put up did not really show up.
Another factor was the time was not the best at all as a lot of people are busy around this time of year……
However I do have a criticism of the program and that is….
If our aim is to speak to the mass population we also need to bring in other attractions to draw people to the event, unfortunately a lot of people from our generation will not go out to listen to a speaker however good they are or however much the need to hear the message. The only time they will consider going to a event is if some one they trust has already been and said it is worth while. Their attitude is so many times speakers are just boring. As such the lecture / sermon / talk need to be given more times and perhaps other 1 or 2 more days as well. Though we no this is not the case because god’s works through them try telling them this. Or you need some thing to draw them in like a big music act if you are going for this approach with the aim to get large amounts of people along. Unfortunately this is the way it is… We could get into a theological discussion on if this is a wise or biblical thing to do.. but that’s not the point I am making,
In the end I believe God used JAAL to his glory and for his purpose and in the end that is what is important.
We also need to consider their was alot of churches taking part in the Jesus all about life campain and if every church that ran a event got 50 people or so along that would be alot of people hearing gods word... most churchs that took part ran more then 1 event meaning thousands of people may have heard about god other this time. This could also mean the impact is fare bigger then we actually think
ReplyDeletePerhaps if we want really big events, the sort of size that could really change our state and create the attentions of the media, we need less events and to work more as a body, not as various churchs all running our own campains.
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ReplyDeleteI forgot to add some of people that I talked at Uni about the TV add actually thought it was a anti christian add. Some where along the way the message may have got mixed up... If we where being bold with indivdual adds about various programs why not show the same boldness with the telvision adds, atleast to create some thing conterversual and memeralable..
ReplyDeleteAllison their is nothing to wrong to say that we are not perfect, and that things could be done better, rather we serve a perfect god, however we our selfs are not perfect.
I am not saying I agree with or disagree with what Alan & Chris has said, but their is no harm in talking about it. Just like their is no harm in you stating you believe the the event was a success. If the people who helped organize the event, are reading this blog I hope they see it for what it is, a christian careing about the Kindom of god, and looking at how various campains, or missions can serve god.
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ReplyDeletea brief day of fireworks..
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the all the "comment's deleted" - someone must have got firey!
ReplyDeleteHere's my $0.02. I don't think you can talk about JAAL in terms of success. JAAL is/was (meant to be) a catalyst for (frankly) the churches to do what they are/were meant to be doing anyway! So the question is "has JAAL worked" isn't the question - "has the church done their job?" is the question.
Chris - I think you're touching on that real question by describing your frustration with sharing the gospel. In general, (irrespective of JAAL), we feel ineffective. That's good - a church that thinks it's got it together usually has only one way to head - down.
There were two parts to JAAL - I'll call them the "quiet" side and the "big event " side.
The quiet side was about encouraging people to think outside the box and to bring Christ into ordinary quiet conversation. I think that has happened - but it'll never really be proveable one way or another. In that sense I don't care what sort of event JAAL was (it could have been a "red nose day" or "great australian morning tea" and still have the sort of effect I'm talking about here). The JAAL "brand" is useful for this "quiet"/"catalyst" side of things. The training for church members about how to share their faith was fantastic. Far and away, for me, this is the most valuable part of JAAL.
The other part of JAAL is the "public" side - the ads themselves, people calling the number etc. And I here I have to echo some of your disappointment. I have seen the ads three times on TV (about 10% of the number of Mormon ads I've seen), once in a paper. We have had no responses come our way via the number/website and no requests to join in the follow-up course we've been running. No blame game etc. - in the end it's up to us to provide the resources for carpet-bomb marketing if that's what we want.
All in all, I think your analysis in the original post is spot on, if a little polemic :-)
Will Briggs
Connections Church, Somerset
Wow oh so many deleted comments that must be something of a record.
ReplyDeletei promise i didn't delete them!
ReplyDeleteChris I just have to interrupt and congratulate you on your birthday speech. Inspirational son. Martin Luther King has nothing on you.
ReplyDeleteyou're right my speech was my finest finest hour! ;)
ReplyDeleteNo I deleted the comments, 1 because they where writen late at night and did not neciseraly make sense. 2. Because A m8 pointed out a different angle meaning I did not neciseraly suppot the view I presented any more. Where I did support the view I put forward I did not explain in enough detail so best if posts where no-longer avaible in the public domain.
ReplyDeleteI've joined this discussion very late, but just a comment.. This whole discussion has, I think, been a good thing. I think there's danger in guarding ourselves too much in terms of honest expression of our failures. One of the comments mentioned something along the lines of being careful that non-Christians didn't read this sort of thing and think "the Christians can't even agree". Well the truth is, we often can't! If we're going to be interacting with non-Christians at a truly honest level (and it's a bit hard to share your faith if you're not being truly honest!) then there's no point covering our weaknesses. We should defend the gospel and stand up for God, who is without weakness, but it's futile to try to hide our OWN failures or disagreements.
ReplyDeleteI think the result of the JAAL campaign was overall quite good - it may not have achieved its original aims (to provoke interest in the gospel, facilitate discussion?) but I'm almost certain that God has used it for his glory in a big way, just as he always intended. He knew its success or failure before it even began or was conceived as an idea. Without diverting any responsibility from ourselves, I think we need to trust that God used that campaign, and that he's using this and other similar discussions! I know that from Chris's post and from all of these comments, I've been led to think and pray about the campaign, about sharing our faith and about God's will in all of this.
Just for the record, I've been watching TDT for about 1.5 hours tonight. I don't ever pay much attention to ads and I have noticed the JAAL ads 4 times already tonight. And the last time I noticed it because I recognised the tune. I know it is only one evening, but a good sign at least
ReplyDeleteJT
Is TDT where it's at? I've gotta get up with the technology...
ReplyDeleteGotta say, I was stoked to see Baywest working with FOCUS on it.
I was also stoked to see someone like Prof Alastair Richardson come in and not have all the answers. It was heartening to see someone come who was grappling with various issues, yet was still able to hold on to his faith.
That particular talk, in terms of personal learning, was most useful - having been in many a conversation with people who cannot consider Christianity because of dinosaur excavations, evolution and various other observations.
What's more, I was able to bring a friend along. That's something that's pretty cool.
Who we are has a massive impact on people's percepions of Christianity. JAAL campaigns can be useful to present more formally who/what/why we are.
Our church made an effort to pray for the campaign, but was not so much actually a "part" of it.
I know some people have critised your critiism but I think its good to be discerning and to see what works what doesn't - using the minds and wisdom that God gave us.
ReplyDeleteI feel frustrated by evaglism events alot of work seems to go into organising them and only christians turn up. It makes me think what can be done differently to make it work. but of course you can't forget to look to God the one who has the power to open peoples hearts
On ya Chris, for putting evangelism up for critique and observation, so we can think seriously about it and do it better.
ReplyDeleteI know from personal experiences that evangelistic "advertising" can often be 'Christendom's best friend and worst enemy.
I noticed someone's comment about 'incarnational' evangelism.
And if could throw my two cents worth in on this topic, I will.
Firstly, I think it's a phrase that gets thrown around alot these days without anyone really explaining what they mean when they say it.
It's a 'buzz word' now and too often I've heard Christians tell me that they don't "preach Jesus", but prefer to be "incarnational", or that churches need to be more "incarnational" if they wanna reach unsaved unchurched aussies in the 21st century. And they tell me something like "you know, Jesus "incarnated"- he came to us in the flesh, like thats how we need to be, you know- living it out in the flesh- we need to be "incarnational"... or so their logic goes.
Problem I have with this thinking is as follows: Jesus incarnated in a way that none of us ever can, or will, or are supposed to.
1) He is uncreated, God the Son, eternally co- equal with the Father, sharing the same divine status and nature and essence as the Father, He is the Creator. We humans are fundamentally created, finite, mortal beings and will never share the unique status and relationship to the Father that Jesus does. Ever. Any "incarnation" we do, will never be the same as His, because of who He is.
2) He came to be the substitutionary sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world. We are not Saviours. We are only messengers. We proclaim the salvation that He won, inviting sinners to trust and recieve Him- but we ourselves never take any one's sins away. Sure, we can suffer greatly, and put ourselves on the line sacrificially- looking to Christ as our example, for how much we should love people and how far we'll go to win them for Christ, even willing to lose our own lives... But fundamentally His mission was to save sinners by dying in their place, our mission is to save by telling. We can never do what He did- we're not supposed to- Christ did it once for all, we just get to tell about it.
For these reasons, we need to be careful about saying we have to be (or should be) "incarnational"..to do evangelism, because the incarnation was a one off event. God became man. We are humans, always human beings, except we're commissined to tell people about he God who became a man who died for the sins of the world.
Also, the very same Bible that tells us of the "incarnation" e:g (the once only event) John 1 Word became flesh, also tells us that Jesus engaged in front- line, outspoken, public preaching of the gospel (euangelion- good news- where we get the word "evangelism" from)
Mark 1:14-15 says Jesus went through the streets and towns, publicly yelling "The kingdom of God is near (in the death of Jesus), Repent and believe the good news!" He may not have stood on a soapbox with a megaphone, but he certainly did tell it out publicly, he certinaly did confront people to their face about it- the Incarnated One did public old- school preaching. So did the apostles, Peter, John and Paul after Jesus rose from the dead. (Acts 3-4, 9, 17, etc..)
You can't say "my model of evangelism is incarnational because Jesus incarnated- because the same Incarnated Jesus- was a Preacher!!!! If you wanna be like him- then you must have to Preach!!!! Maybe you won't get to preach to crowds like He did, or like apostle Peter, or Billy Graham- but Biblical evangelism MUST MUST MUST involve the use of a Christian speakers lips conveying the scriptural information of the gospel towards an unbeliever's ears. Even if it's just in a one- to- one conversation. The activity is still the same. It's a two way communicative process, inescapably. The very definition of evangelism NECESSARILY involves verbal communication, because it is "news" a message.
How do these thoughts apply to us?
1) It means we can't shirk off the responsibility to preach the gospel. Don't be disobedient to the Lord Jesus who commanded in Matt 28 that we "teach" people. Don't ignore the example of the Lord Jesus who publicly "preached" (e.g Mark 1:14-15) even though he also did miracles, healed people and showed compassion to demonstrate the Father's love. He also verbally proclaimed His rule. That activity also applies to us. He didn't say "Go, incarnate and make disciples", he said "go make disciples, TEACH"..
2) Proclamational evangelism (eg: in a church, on a street, in an auditorium, one- to- one over coffee, etc) is not popular. Telling people God is holy and hates sin, telling them of only One Saviour and Lord- WILL be hated. I think we run all teary- eyed to the "incarnational" hobby-horse, to console ourselves from the fact that reality is people hate the message of the cross. And they will hate us.
The cross exposes their evil sin- and they will want to flee from it and reject it. I think most of us in the West want to shirk off the proclamation aspect of evangelism- so that we don't have to deal with people getting angry at us, laughing at us, rejecting us... We shouldn't neglect obedience, even if our audience doesn't like us.
And finally doing good works in the name of evangelism is hard to distinguish between good works done by unbelievers.
Plenty of pagan aussies adopt kids from Worldvision, do the 40 hour famine, give tins of food to homeless collections, give to the Red Shield Appeal, give blood, etc... what's evangelistic about that? By all means, we're to do good works- but works unaccompanied by the message, doesn't convert anyone. They're just works. Just deeds, not the powerful God- breathed message that saves people.
We need to tread carefully to ever say and think and demand that churches/ Christians be "incarnational". What we want to affirm is that: Jesus is Lord, he saves people who respond to the gospel, the gospel needs to be preached in our churches, in our homes and cities and every place humans dwell, and let us live godly and Christ centred, obedient lives of love and good deeds- so that the gospel we preach looks attractive and winsome to those who don't believe.
Phew! That's my sermon"ette"... any thoughts???
Hey Matt, thanks for your comment! This post certainly prompted lots of discussion when I originally posted it last year!
ReplyDeleteEvangelism, or if that word is too uncool these days Mission, is unavoidably biblically connected to proclamation of the Gospel, that we are sinners who need to be saved and that our salvation comes through Jesus and his life, death and resurrection.
We have to be get over our desire to please people and start taking some risks to get the Gospel out there. Taking every chance we are given to proclaim the Gospel.
I've heard too many times people say things like it's really unhelpful to tell my not-yet Christian friend he's going to hell and must repent. Sure there are ways and means of passing that reality on to someone, but I'm often left to wonder... do we really believe that our non-believe friends and relatives are going to hell... if we were more focussed on that reality, then we might actually be motivated to do evangelism.