Does Jesus Need PR?: Episode 89

Does Jesus Need PR? -- 00:00
Last Sunday Brian and I stopped to chat with our neighbor. He asked what we'd been up to and we answered that we'd been to church. He said that he used to go to church but doesn't anymore. I casually invited him to come with us sometime. He's an artist, so I also mentioned that he would probably like our church because they're starting to incorporate more of the arts.

As soon as I said it I knew that I was doing it again. I was trying to make church and therefore Jesus look cool and somehow better. Why on earth would I need to make Jesus look better? He's the sinless Son of Almighty God. Does it get any better?

So for this week's roundtable segment, Steve, Candice, Motte, Lisa and I are exploring the question, "Does Jesus need PR?"

Biblical Divorce and Remarriage Part 2 -- 19:21
As Lisa would say, I was blazed away by the listener feedback on part 1 of Biblical Divorce and Remarriage. I never get that many comments on my posts, so I know it was Dr. Aqulia and not my well-constructed prose that solicited your response. Get your comments ready because part 2 is here!

Too Self-Sufficient? -- 32:00
"I recognize how important it is for a man to feel needed by the significant woman in his life," began her question, "and that it is important for a girl not to be so self-sufficient that he feels he has nothing to offer." She continued, "I would really appreciate some practical advice about how this should look. I desire to get married and don't want to scare any good man away by being perceived as an 'ice queen.'"

In this week's inbox Candice and Lisa give this listener the practical how-to advice she's looking for to avoid "ice queen" status.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

1. obewan said the following at 11:14 AM on Oct 1:

I think as of late, the Jesus PR stuff can backfire. Many non-Christians are quite put off by it and they see it as nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell more stuff to people or to get their money.

One Jewish skeptic on another blog said that all organized religion has one goal - to get their hands on your money. Sometimes I see that as being true with all the custom T-shirts, cool CD's and videos, yada yada... I mean, I even see a Christian version of MTV on my TV every day.

It is free, but I think it is funded solely by record sales for the "cool" bands worthy of pushing them for airtime.

Most of the music is awful, unless you like thrash metal and rap. It is so much like the world that I can not even hear the “Christian” message, and I grew up on the hardest of hard Christian rock!

2. Vanessa said the following at 11:55 AM on Oct 1:

Was it my imagination or did the second "Biblical Divorce and Remarriage" not really cover anything besides saying that church leadership should watch out for relationships involving divorced individuals? I was hoping for some more information on this topic. Let's hope the guest speaker will weigh in on the first (or even this) post to answer some more of our questions!

On a lighter note...the pink/red ribbon in the hair thing was a cute idea. Maybe there will be some guy who listens to the podcast here in Central Florida who will see that and go...hey, we might have something in common. Grin. At this point, anything is worth a shot....

3. BDB said the following at 3:20 PM on Oct 1:

I just ran across somthing that gave me pause.

I was going to Google "why get flu shot" to understand the science comparing the inactive flu shot to the weakened nasal vaccine. I got the shot anyway because, it was closer and I have no idea who carries the other one. And I'm not that motivated.

On Google, when I typed in "Why Get" a whole list of questions other people are typing came up.

The #1 question: why get married.

4. BDB said the following at 3:24 PM on Oct 1:

Turns out the shot is better anyway.

5. Brx said the following at 8:18 PM on Oct 1:

Ashley, I don't think that sounded like PR for Jesus as much as it did PR for your church.

So, let's be honest for a moment - we're the Church and in general, we probably spend the majority of our time subtly pointing at ourselves rather than Jesus. And, if we point people to us, then yeah, we need a lot of PR manipulation because frankly, we're not all that and a bag of chips.

Jesus on the otherhand, just asks honesty and humility.

Grace, peace & honestly humble adventures!

6. BDB said the following at 8:45 PM on Oct 1:

Grace and Truth?

I do not think it means what you think it means.

God's dual nature is Love and Holiness. Both are TRUE. We are not separate from God because he is True. We are separate because He is Holy and we are not Holy.

The Truth of the Gospel is that God So Loved the World that He Gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have Eternal Life.

BOTH parts are truth - the perishing part and the giving of His Son part.

7. BDB said the following at 9:13 PM on Oct 1:

I went back and listened to his answer to the question about people who are delaying marriage because of their parent's divorce, and...he didn't answer the question. He went off on a tangent about being a better Christian. What he said was true, but irrelevant to the question. Or is he really saying that if someone is a holy enough Christian, they will automatically be able to succeed where their parents failed?

It actually applies to the inbox question, too. I know women whose parents are divorced and they've made the deliberate decision to not pursue marriage until they are super-independent. The tactical result is that they specifically refuse to respond when men approach them. This makes the men assume they are not interested and, indeed, if you ignore them, they go away.

I'm going to split this into two comments.

8. BDB said the following at 9:31 PM on Oct 1:

On Independence:

The operational reality is that no one is good at everything. There's too much available to know for anyone to know everything.

But, there are lots of times I've observed people drawing their life boundaries tightly around what they are good at. They refuse to participate in anything they are not good at, or take any interest in someone else's interests. The result is they may come across as independent and capable in their own field, but completely uninterested in someone else's field.

For a recent sermon my pastor used a marriage-counseling example. The couple had been married for 26 years. He asked the wife what her husband did for a living. She said, "he works with wire." Well what does he do with wire? She didn't know. You've been married for 26 years and you have no idea what your husband does for a living? No wonder the marriage is on the rocks. She takes no interest in his work.

Maybe she's not good at it. I have a personal example. I felt like God was pushing me to try my hand at teaching Sunday School to kids. When I was at the first meeting and people realized my background was corporate finance, someone remarked, "You're really out of your box, aren't you?" Indeed.

Talk about a completely different skill set. I was first paired up with a guy who was amazing. I thought - there's no way I can ever do what he's doing. Turns out he was an elementary-school principal and had been doing this for 17 years!

Since I've struggled with classroom management and kids running amuck, I've been amazed a few times when these tiny 24-year-old women who are teachers can walk into my classroom and instantly take control and get the kids back in their chairs. How do they DO that! It's given me a lot of respect for the skill set elementary teachers have. VERY different than corporate finance.

Over two years my skills have improved to where I can teach as the lead teacher now without the class running amuck. But I can also talk to teachers about their work with a lot more knowledge now. A great reminder of how taking an interest in something else helps you understand someone's struggles - and meet a lot of new people.

I know women who refuse to do this. They may spend hours and hours talking about themselves and all their friends relationships, but just laugh at things they're not interested in. Well, if that works for you, I guess you can do it. But I think they'd get a lot farther by asking questions about other people's interests and trying to learn. When you learn that someone has a skill you don't have, don't laugh at it - let them help you in tha area.

I remember overhearing a conversation at a restaurant where the tables were really squished together. A married couple was relating how, on the 2nd date, her husband showed up with a bunch of wires and re-wired her stereo system. It needed to be fixed, men like to fix things.

She let him do it. They ended up married.

Now, there are plenty of sermons out there about how men should just "listen" and not try to "fix things." Well, if you are a woman who wants to be married, don't ask men to pretend to be a woman and just listen. Let him fix it! It might work! And he'll feel he's made a contribution.

9. Courtney said the following at 12:50 AM on Oct 3:

I was so glad that you addressed the issue of Jesus PR in this podcast as it's been foremost in my mind for quite a while now. In New Zealand there is a Christian music festival that you may have heard of called Parachute. It's the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere actually and every year it draws anywhere from 25-28,000 people and gets bigger every year with headlining bands such as David Crowder Band, Casting Crowns and Third Day to name just a few. Many folk are saved through the Parachute ministry also which is great.

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to Parachute 09 in January and I had an amazing time with plenty of Christian fellowship and some incredibly inspiring worship leading from some of the bands.
But this aside, there were as many things that bothered me about the festival as encouraged me as the people around me flung their hearts, minds and souls into the PR of Jesus. The music (thinking of style and lyrics), the message, the money-requests, politically correct sermons preaching on the joys of giving and resisting the devil came across to me as doing whatever it takes to emphasize peace, love and me-centred worship. And I'm pretty sure that sharing communion with EVERY person there whether baptized, searching or atheist is not biblical! Parachute seemed to me to be bending over backwards to make Jesus as cool as possible, as if He needed any of that.

So it was really good for me to compare what I experienced to your advice in the roundtable. It is enabling me to sort God's truth from man's deception and I really appreciate it.