A church, new to our town within the past year, held an evangelistic crusade last month. They brought in several christian music groups and speakers. The crusade was held at a community facility with seating capacity for a large crowd. Posters were hung around town and in surrounding towns. There were several billboards and television ads. Radio ads played on both the local rock station and the christian station. A lot of money was spent on creating and marketing this event (rumored between $50,000-100,000).
From the posters…
3 days of special gospel speakers,
praise & worship,
personal testimonies,
& concerts.
The turnout was under 50 people, Christians.
The lost did not attend.
What went wrong?
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I would say that most of the folks in the community, including a lot of the Christians, evidently, had no interest in what that church was offering. They knew that it would not have an impact on their lives in a positive way. Sounds like a case of a church answering questions that no one was asking.
I’m afraid, or perhaps glad that the local ‘sinners’ see through the prosletyzing event.
This roller-coaster event is so common within evangelicalism and usually ends in a downer for the Christians involved. Good old Satan is blamed or alternatively the local sinners themselves. if God was in the thing then surely He would give ‘success’.So the reason for such a lack of ‘breakthrough’ has to be with the level of resistence met!
Nobody ever asks if God turns His back on such a show!
I am turned off by this kind of stuff. I wonder what kind of people are not?
The christendom paradigm has collapsed. For some it is akin to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, and have the band play a new set…it only serves as a distraction. The reality…the ship is sinking. Man the life boats and row into the uncharted waters of a new kind of faith.
“If we are to seize the opportunities of post-christendom, we need to disavow those aspects of christendom that have distorted the gospel, alienated the world and society, and continue to disable us.”
This is a thought I would like to explore. I’m interested in reading more in your next post.
We had a Harvest Crusade (Greg Laurie) event in 2007 that my church participated in because it was literally down the street (college campus). It was heavily promoted/supported by the large Calvary Chapel church in the neighboring town. According to the crusade website, about 3,800 ‘decisions’ were made out of 48,000 attendees. My pastor called the crusade staff after the event & questioned them on the manner which such stats were recorded. On the response card were 4 or 5 options with only one indicating a first time decision to dedicate one’s life to Jesus, or what would be categorized as a new believer. All the other options simply different versions of rededications or having a church background already. That 3,800 number? It was the total of all such response cards returned. Since our church did not experience the addition of any new ‘NEW-souls-for-the-kingdom’ it was largely regarded as a waste of volunteer time & limited finances better spent thru the local ministries already in place by those churches that did lend support.
Thirty or fourty years ago more people would have turned up. But even in those days the large majority came from the local churches. I’m not saying God can’t work through this outreach model. He can and he has. But if we totally neglect the actual needs and questions of people and take into account the huge (and justified) distrust towards religious advertisement and attempts of proselytization, it should come as no surprise that people will look for answers elsewhere. When will we finally learn to pursue genuine relationships without the conditionality of an agenda of conversion? We speak about “love” but seem to be more interested in “decisions” than the actual people. Interesting that even Christians themselves have become tired and didillusioned by this approach and won’t show up anymore either. If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.
True Josh, but I think the lack of Christian attendance may reveal what’s been true all along, we were mostly talking amongst ourselves, not to those outside of our circle.
What went wrong? The money could have been spent 1)researching the practical needs of the community (daycares? job training? cultural community events to combat social isolation?) and 2) investing in meeting those needs.
It is my view that the church is confused about the great commission. Jesus commissioned, “Go and teach them all I’ve commanded you.” And the main thrust of ‘all I’ve commanded you’ is the new command: “Love one another as I have loved you.” I really think the gospel of personal salvation is completely irrelevant. It’s not the gospel Jesus preached. He preached the gospel of the kingdom – and that has as much to do with the here-and-now-material-world as it does anything transcendental.
I also think we first have to discover what it means to love a community before we can have any right to talk about the kingdom of God with them.
I wouldn’t go quite that far, Sarah, to say that the gospel of personal salvation is completely irrelevant. It may be misunderstood and falsely framed as a rescue from going to a bad place after we die, but salvation properly understood always involves BOTH dimensions, the vertical just as much as the horizontal. I agree with you that the love command is central to the kingdom message. But remember that Jesus taught abought the love of God and towards God just as much as he did about our love for the neighbor. The problem is: we don’t love God that much in our broken existence. And we can’t love God or our neighbor the way we are meant to love without seeing God in a true light. Or would you seriously argue that even the early apostolic preaching in Acts was a misunderstanding of Jesus’ commission or actual disobedience towards what He had taught them?
Apart of showing that love to other people, what does it really mean to love God, though? How does one go about loving God? What comes to my mind is “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me” and “if you love me, then keep my commandments” — which, if memory serves, comes shortly before Jesus goes on to say “a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Jarred, it’s in Jesus’ statement itself: “… AS I have loved you!” That’s a loaded statement and goes far beyond an attempt to imitate Christ. I would even argue that we end up in legalism, diappointment and disillusionment if the “AS” would be framed that way. All I had to do is ask: “Jarred, how often are you loving others exactly the same way Jesus did?” – or better yet, ask myself the same question. I personally end up in shame and self-condemnation if I do that.
Loving God, IMO, involves a change of mind regarding Him that is possible because of the recognition of the unchanging and unconditional love He has for me. This is my true identity and my dignity. It also defines the true identity and dignity of all those around me. If you want to know more about my perspective of the gospel message, I invite you to read this post of mine:
http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/2010/08/towards-better-understanding-of-gospel.html
Let me ask you a different question, Jarred. If it’s all “just” about loving each other, why do we need the cross? Or did Paul get it completely wrong, in your opinion?
Well, I grant you that I’m not a Christian. So no, I don’t actually think we need a cross. But I was simply tackling the question of “what does it mean to love God outside of loving others? How does one love God separately?”
Fair enough. I assume you’re familiar with the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. If I was trying to illustrate it to a Christian, I would say loving God (in the story) is the joyous return and consciously enjoying now the ability to be with such an incredible Father instead of seeking love and validation elsewhere. If you personally don’t feel that this is something lacking in your life, I actually have nothing to offer that would present a compelling rationale why this should be of any significance or relevance. I’m curious though. Why is Jesus important to you or is that another one of my misconceptions?
For the most part, I’d say that it’s another misconception on your part. I suppose you could say that Jesus has some importance in my life as I have several loved ones who do find him important.
Plus, you know, I’m hanging out on a Christian’s blog. ;)
One last question: According to your own blog, in your coven, you chanted: “May the gods be praised. And may the gods be served. And may those around us prosper as a result.”
How is that different from a transcendent aspect in Christian love towards God? Couldn’t Christian praise and appreciation of our God be part of our lives and in that way express love towards God? Wouldn’t it also link the two dimensions in the same way, i.e. one RESULTING from the other?
Well, in my tradition, the relationship and interactions with my gods is much more direct and intimate than I’ve seen amongst most Christians. (The only ones who come close to it would be certain Pentecostal churches.)
Can Christians have a similar direct love experience with God? I suppose it’s theoretically possible. I just don’t think it’s likely based on how indirect, vague, and abstract that relationship I’ve perceived that relationship to be.
But we’re probably straying way too far afield on Linda’s blog. :)
Agreed, and apologies to Linda. Let me just say I’m a bit surprised that you have seen that aspect of intimacy only in Pentecostalism.
Nice conversation Josh and Jarred. In my opinion, loving God directly and experientially is the essence of Christianity. Loving God begins with being loved, receiving the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, learning to trust that love and enjoy the peace and acceptance of being included in their love. It is only because of the love of Jesus that we are able to truly love others. This is what makes the kingdom a reality for us and allows us to demonstrate that reality to others. That’s my two cents.
Thanks, Josh. I suppose I wasn’t very clear in my communication. By “the gospel of personal salvation,” I meant the typical ‘save your soul’ message from the majority of the Western church with its Augustian perspective. The destination of one’s soul is not on the mind of unchurched people. They could care less and don’t buy into that paradigm anyway.
I believe the gospel of the kingdom is only possible through a relational experience of God. And that the grace and empowerment to love others comes from Him as a result of this relational experience. But I was emphasizing what might be important to people (and therefore received as love) who are part of a post-Christendom culture. If we love them according to what we think they need (our message) without even asking and hearing them about their lives, and felt needs – I find that a bit arrogant and self-centered (it’s more about *our* message than it is about them). And therefore, it doesn’t look like love nor service from where I’m standing.
This is an important emphasis Sarah. When selling a message or event without listening, understanding, or knowing the targets, the targets are simply the means to achieving our goals.
For starters, the information screams “church.” If people aren’t already coming to your church, what makes you think they’re going to be interested on “more church, just on a larger scale”?
How about because we also have balloon twisting and a bounce castle?
Well, the balloon twisting might just interest me, but only if your balloon twister can twist me a tommy gun. ;)
Um, for the record, that’s a reference to the movie “The Mask,” not a threat of imminent violence. Just suddenly felt the need to clarify.
Linda,
You say, “The lost did not attend.” Are you sure? Perhaps there is a new category (or not so new) of “lost” people – those who have been so inculturated with church that THEY have now lost their way. Perhaps.
Dan, I agree that there are many in the church who have lost their way in regard to relating to those outside of the church. They have no idea how bizarre and unappealing the christian culture is to those who don’t participate in it. Sadly it is often Christian culture that is being sold and promoted rather than the good news of the kingdom of God.
church organizations, like the government, not the best stewards of monies given to it to support whatever benevolent services it promotes. the larger the scale of the high-profile event, the less bang-for-the-buck. it is the law of diminishing returns. Jesus did not institute such a methodology although well meaning Christians have adopted bigger-means-better marketing strategies as a means of bringing in the crowds. so to make it attractive enough to bring in the ‘unchurched/unsaved’, the options are limited if the real focus is to ‘share the gospel’. now that in itself is a topic of discussion as to what really is the good news & how it has been distorted by doctrinal/theological cherry picking of whatever stipe is holding the ‘crusade’. what a bad term BTW…
My two cents….Christians are so concerned about wrapping Christianity up in a nice pretty package with a shiny bow on it in order to “attract” the lost. While doing things that show the world ant as a Christian you can indeed have fun, we shouldn’t try to use things like that to recruit people. How did Paul go about God’s work on his missionary journeys? He went out and talked to people, reasoning with them to show them the truth. Most importantly, he LIVED in a way to reflect God’s love for the world. THAT is the most powerful tool we have to reach others, our lives. Why spend thousands of dollars on an event when that money can be used elsewhere? What says more; a rock concert and speakers, or giving food and support to those that have none?