Good morning church family,
Most commercials nowadays are designed to promote a brand name and not a product. I mean, what does a woman rollerblading and dancing her way in short-shorts down a boardwalk tell me about the can of soda in her hand? Or what have I learned about the inherent value of the high-dollar sedan that it’s able to go drifting through the salt flats at high speed? And I’m all for a little baby sleeping soundly in her crib, but is that reason enough for me to invest all my money with Fidelity?
In the poor, black neighborhood that I grew up in, there was nothing more important than the kind of shoes you wore. You might live in a crowded one-bedroom apartment in the projects; pouring evaporated milk on Malt-O-Meal and using cardboard boxes for closets, but you wouldn’t be caught dead on the streets with any knock-off kicks. Nike, Adidas, and British Knights were the only acceptable footwear for kids in Chillum, Maryland. All other shoes, like the Stride Rites my parents bought for me, were derisively called “bobos”. I remember begging my parents to do whatever they could to get me anything with a swoosh on it.
My first full-time ministry was as the youth pastor of the Bethlehem Advent Christian church in Augusta, Georgia. It was a wonderful, little fellowship full of life, love, and service to one another. The Lord really blessed the youth ministry while I was there. Wednesday nights saw the church overrun with teens from all over the city. But I remember very well when one of the homegrown teens in the youth group – a young woman whose family had been going to the church for over a hundred years – came into my office one Sunday to complain about the church. She loved the youth group and all that was going on there but thought the Sunday morning services were boring and stuffy – certainly nothing she would ever invite her friends to. “I don’t know, Pastor John,” she began with a shrug and a sigh, “can’t we do something to make our church a little more cool. Like, maybe instead of being Bethlehem Advent we could change the name to Bethlehem Baptist. That’d be way better.”
Lisa and I recently went on Facebook marketplace in hopes of finding a small bookcase to use in our homeschool classroom. We found a few for sale in the area and settled on a brown, wooden one in Lebanon that was listed for $25. While hauling it up the stairs and into our house, I noticed the name of the manufacturer on one end of the case. With the little piece of furniture in place and the kids stacking their new curriculum on its shelves, I couldn’t help myself. I had to look up the value of the thing. The bookcase already met our need and was in keeping with our budget, but I Googled it anyway. Maybe I’d be able to tell visitors to our house; “Yeah, it’s a pretty nice piece, isn’t it? You know it’s a Bombay bookcase. Yeah, it’s a real nice piece – not cheap either.”
There’s an old Thomas Fuller quote that goes: “Cheat me in the price but not in the goods.” What Fuller is saying is that the reason for any purchase is the usefulness of the thing being acquired. No one ever wants to be cheated, of course, but I think we’d all prefer to overpay for a sturdy, dependable vehicle, let’s say, than to get a lemon at a discount. What’s most important is not the brand name, sticker price, or the esteem its acquisition brings from the neighbors. What matters is what works. What matters is what gets the job done – whether it’s shoes, bookcases, or beliefs.
I bring this up in order to caution us against the allure of brand-name Christianity. Believers throughout all generations, have sought to promote their own particular systems of belief, codes of conduct, methods of sanctification, and programs of spiritual discipline. They do this for lots of reasons: to gain influence, accumulate power, exercise control, and make money; to name just a few. They form their own kingdoms within the Kingdom and then do what they can to make access to them and their benefits exclusive. And because these forms of Christianity can’t possibly offer something more than Jesus Christ, Himself, and because everyone who does call on Jesus is freely given all of Him; these subkingdoms must, then, promote something other than Jesus in order to attract devotion.
As we share the gospel and invite people to church – let us not use Madison Avenue as a model for our outreach. Let us not promote personalities but rather the Spirit who grants the charisma and dynamism we’re attracted to. Let us not promote a building but the One whose presence there makes it holy. Let us not promote the beauty of our worship music but rather the truth of the lyric that inspired it. Let us not promote our good deeds but rather the goodness of the One our charity seeks to glorify. Let us not promote community for community’s sake but rather the taking of communion for the sake of our Heavenly Father who sacrificed His only Son to win a way back to Him.
The sun seems to be heading over the hill, brothers and sisters. So, with the daylight that remains, let us venture out beyond the gates and work to point the lost to the narrow way home. When Jesus returns on the clouds, may He find us simply telling people what happened in Jerusalem two-thousand-years ago. May He find us faithful to the Gospel.
What a blessing it will be to gather together tomorrow morning and enjoy the shalom found in worship. As the Lord prepares to welcome us – let us prepare to come! May the Lord, mighty God, bless and continue to keep us!
- Pastor Tate
