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Shameless. That’s the best way I can think to describe some of the methods I’ve witnessed recently from churches in our area in their efforts to attract new members. I’m apparently not alone in being stunned by the sheer audacity of some of them, because many of you have handed me the advertisements of various local churches clipped from a newspaper or sent to your mailbox. (That, or you just get a kick out of seeing the look on my face when I read them!) 
Consider a few recent examples. In the ad to the right, choosing a manner of worship is as subject to your own personal whims and preferences as how you take your coffee: rich, smooth Traditional or fresh, robust Contemporary? (I guess by this reckoning we take ours black.) Another church recently chose to advertise with a self-parody Top Ten list (“#3. Members can now run for boycott-free tacos during long sermons.”). Or how about the “Beale Street Blast” that was being held at the camp on Rocky Point Road a month or so ago? Here was a religious event which promoted itself as comparable to a secular music festival by adopting the name of a city district renowned for drunkenness and carousing. And then there’s downright participation in worldliness. Last Saturday, driving down Germantown Road, I was shocked to see two young ladies in bikini tops waving signs advertising their “Supermodel Carwash” and bake sale … in front of the Advent Presbyterian Church! I can only hope the girls were trespassing. I fear they weren’t. How do we compete with such efforts? That’s simple. Don’t. Christ’s followers must strive to preserve the distinctive work that the church was designed to do: to make known the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10), “equipping the saints for the work of service” (4:12). The doctrine of Christ has been so de-emphasized in popular religion today that success is rated merely by greater numbers, and churches vie for those with social services and recreation patterned after the popular culture. Not wanting to push any particular doctrine, churches are left offering the best java bar, praise band, day care, or ball teams. (Some people, attracted by just such things, then seem offended when the collection trays come around. But, hey, someone’s got to foot the bill—and not everyone’s willing to make up the difference with bikini car washes.) Are all methods of appealing to current sensibilities anathema? Certainly not. Jesus advised, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Christ’s apostle Paul met his audiences within the sphere of their own understanding. “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). But there’s meeting people where they are and then there’s stooping down to join them. Paul provides us with a good example of his method immediately following the above statement. You like sports? Great! “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win” (v.24). He used a sports analogy to teach—but he didn’t encourage the folks to go host relay races for Jesus. In Ephesus, Paul reasoned in a school room for two years—he didn’t schedule pep rallies in the local amphitheatre. On another occasion he quoted a known philosopher of his time, taking note of a truth that was popularly celebrated (Acts 17:28)—but he didn’t proceed to offer a poetry reading and philosophy seminar on the works of Aratus, whom he had quoted. A
reading and reflection on John chapter 6 is very helpful in consideration
of these various social entanglements. After miraculously feeding 5,000,
Jesus was a very popular man. But when He challenged His audience’s motives,
emphasized the teaching He brought was what was truly valuable, and confronted
them with developing a deeper understanding, the Jews grumbled (v.41) and
He lost many of those who were already disciples (v.60). This chapter refutes
today’s evangelistic philosophy, which is “Bring them in with food, games,
and music, and they’ll stay for the deeper stuff.” On the contrary—those
who are attracted by such things likely won’t stick around when an attempt
is made to switch over to a deeper spiritual emphasis. If they were called
by shallow means, their membership will probably depend on feeding their
appetites and not their hearts (Philippians 3:19). On such a foundation,
can a solid structure ever truly be established, or are we left with churches
full of people hooked on a feeling, believing shallow calls of false security
that are foreign to Scripture but go unchallenged because the audience
is ignorant, superficially faithful, and blindly loyal to super-exalted
figures that dole out choice snippets of Scripture in their weekly self-esteem
rallies? There’s a reason why we have no authority for such evangelistic
methods. They’re not really evangelistic at all.
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