This is a bit of a follow up to the "What if Starbucks Used Church Marketing" post from last week. Richard Reising, the church marketing author behind the video, had a post on his blog about a scene from the short where the two visitors were driving into the "Starbucks" and noticed all of the bizarre coffee bumper stickers on cars in the parking lot.
The couple were a little uncomfortable when they saw slogans like "Real Mean Love Java" and "Think This Coffee's Hot?" Another sticker had an image of the Starbucks logo eating the Juan Valdez logo. While the video is a parody of how churches market themselves, Reising says this scene is not meant to be a "cheap shot" at Christian bumper stickers. Instead, he's trying to show how the stickers some Christians intentionally pick have combative overtones.
He writes:While I fully believe that Christ portrayed the ultimate man, I’m wondering how many non-believers on the highway today fell to their knees seeking manhood after reading "Real Men Love Jesus" on the car in front of them. Jesus is awesome. He doesn’t need us telling non-believers they aren’t "real men." Knowing scripturally that only God knows our heart and that "man looks on the outside" (1 Sam 16:7), I just wonder what we are showing unspiritual people about what God is like. The chances are, my only reaction as a non-believer would be to close myself off even further. You might as well drive by and yell to someone at a stoplight, "You're not a real man!" and then drive off. If you have 10 seconds to say something to someone with your car, is that what you want to tell them?What are your thoughts?
"Think this Texas heat is hot? Wait till you get to hell." This is along the lines of "Get saved or get microwaved." It might sound cute when we say it among believers, but would you ever kick off an evangelistic effort with this door-to-door opening line? Oh yes, and we are not the biggest Darwin fans, but does our fish have to eat his fish? I'm not saying it doesn’t work—just that combative evangelism is not necessarily the best way to open hearts.
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Comments (14)
I think most people who engage in this sort of "witnessing" are sincerely motivated, but (just as our friends at churchmarketingsucks have repeatedly documented), we need to think about both what we are saying and how we are saying it.
Richard Reising makes a good, strong point about evangelism in your quote. Pointing out faults, weaknesses and sins of unbelievers is not how Jesus drew people to him. Instead he healed their diseases and spoke in parables. There is a veil over the gospel to those who are perishing... Unbelievers can't see truth from the same perspective so why condemn them for it or rub it in their faces? Only the truth spoken in love will open eyes. I would venture to say that many of us Christians are missing the honest to goodness love.
Regarding the concern of being a bad witness while speeding with a Christian bumper sticker, this is the least of our evangelistic problems. Our focus is too much on self and sin, rather than on the fact that Jesus already paid for sins, including our own.
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me a Sinner."
I'd also like to commend you for your take on some of these combative messages we put out there. I've seen the response on another bumper sticker, "I don't have a problem with Jesus, but his followers scare me." Just what kind of image are we giving of ourselves and would Jesus be pleased with it?
I have a bumper magnet on my vehicle that says, "Is there more to life than this" and below that Alpha.org. It is to advertise a Spiritual program that runs at the church I was attending. While I see your point, I do not find the magnet on my vehicle as offensive as the ones you are speaking of.
Anyone have anything to disprove my thoughts? Or, to help me see otherwise.
Open to your thoughts.
Always willing to see outside my own box...
As to the fish, first, the Darwin fish was foolish, and, the Christian reaction was stupid. Darwin was never a fish. The original Christian fish was not about evolution, it was a hieroglyph of an acronym (ICTHYS, more or less, but originally in Greek letters). Jesus has no need to eat Darwin, Jesus died for Darwin's sins, whatever they may have been -- stumbling onto the glorious pageant of how God "made the life that the waters brought forth" was not a sin in my understanding. Nor is Jesus a fish. Nor did fish, even in Darwin's theory, grow feet. So if Christians want a fish, just stick to the plain old fish, which actually means something. And those who want to push their belief in evolution in some sort of public display, need to study the theory rather than turning it into a burlesque joke.