Madison Avenue Missions?

I thought I had seen it all. The current craze to use all means possible to grab the attention of non-churchgoers has produced some truly wacky methods of outreach in addition to ‘campaigns’ designed to draw people into the church’s facility. Becoming all things to all men in order that one might win some has reached a point of incredulity: cooking contests, races, ‘whatever’ nights, professional wrestlers, concerts, and much more. But, today I may have seen the topper.

When addressing this crazy unbiblical penchant for extreme outreach from the pulpit I have stated the following:

If it is all about drawing unsaved people here in order that they might be able to hear a message of hope I could pack this place out next week. It would be filled with unsaved men and women; those that need to hear the gospel. Here’s how I would do it.

I would take out ads that state that next Sunday we will be serving all the beer on tap that you can drink, all the food that you can eat, and every hour we will have special guests-strippers.

Yep, that will pack them in. But is it right?

I know that sounds silly, but push the reasoning to the nth degree and that is what happens.

In our city there is a congregation that is, in my opinion, far beyond the limits of acceptability regarding outreach programs. I’m no prude. But, I find the following appalling. On the marquee for the past several weeks has been a sign proclaiming the upcoming series to be ‘Pure Sex’. Along with this is the following url yourlamesexlife.net. Okay, a little racy. This week past a banner, and now bulletin boards are up:





The suggestive nature of the ads is inappropriate. Again, I’m no prude. I think that the church addresses human sexuality too little, on the whole. But, it must be done in a proper manner. And, we have no biblical warrant to use it as a method of evangelism. Yes, I know the logic behind it: Appeal to a felt need and then slip in the gospel. The only problem is that is not the biblical pattern of evangelism. It creates self-centered church goers who may or may not be actual Christians.

What do you think?