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Our culture is seduced by celebrity. Successful marketing firms know this, which is why Shaquille O’Neal advertises for inexpensive auto insurance and Tom Selleck advertises for reverse mortgage (do we really believe that either of these celebrities actually makes use of these products?!). Television, radio, billboard, and online advertisers flood the consumer with testimonials from celebrities in regard to certain products. A new insurance advertisement with Dennis Quaid even pokes fun at this scheme. All of these companies attempt this ruse because it works. People gravitate toward products endorsed by celebrities. Most of us have at some time, knowingly or not, purchased something based off of the advice of a celebrity. This advertising method has a fitting name—“gimmick.”
While gimmicks are a savvy strategy in the advertising industry, how effective or appropriate is it for the church? Most of us would be appalled that the church would admit to such tricks in order attempt to get people to respond to Christ. Unfortunately, this is all too often the norm in ministry. For example, in order to get people to come to a service, we provide an energetic speaker and promise a free meal. In order to get people to attend a retreat, we provide a favorable location at a cut-rate cost. In order to fill leadership roles, we lower the standards of expectation. In order to encourage giving, we create promotional campaigns. Regrettably, we have quickly discovered time and again that these ministry gimmicks may fill seats, but they produce few disciples. Lowering the criterion has lessened the impact. We move from one event to the next, attempting new ministry gimmicks that will hopefully attract large crowds.
Please don’t misunderstand. There is an appropriate place in ministry for meeting people where they are. Numbers do matter because every number is a person deeply loved by God. Paul readily admitted that he had “become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). We need to remove every barrier that could keep people from Christ. We must utilize innovative strategies directed at reaching as many people as possible. But we do this not with gimmicks, but the gospel.
While gimmicks appeal to numbers, the gospel appeals to souls. Gimmicks produce fans; the gospel produces followers. Gimmicks lower the standard; the gospel demands greater accountability. Gimmicks provide dollars, the gospel engenders generosity. Gimmicks promote cheap grace; the gospel promotes costly Christianity. Why have we resulted to gimmicks? The prophet Amos would testify to the painful reality that is still true today: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it” (Amos 8:11-12). People reject God’s Word, so in desperation we result to gimmicks.
Since the gospel of Jesus Christ is the very thing which should define the church of Jesus Christ, just how do we offer the gospel without gimmicks? The Scriptures are unrelenting in answering this question.
The church must repent. The culprit for the spiritual atrophy of our community is not the unchurched, but the churched. While each of us is responsible for our own sin, only Christians know the means for forgiveness and the power of God in the gospel. “For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household” (1 Peter 4:17).
The church must obey. “To obey is better than sacrifice, to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). The old adage is true: It’s not how high you jump, but how straight you walk when you hit the ground.
The church must pray. Deficiency for the things of God is so rampant because our prayers are so silent. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This is not a suggestion, but a necessity.
We ought to be ashamed when we replace the gospel with gimmicks. Rather, we must “not be ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
Jason