The Christ Covenant Church of Beaumont, Texas has decided to advertise itself as “What a Bunch of Jerks!” Really.
The church is the product of a merger of a Church of Christ and independent Christian Church. According to Church Report,
“How do we tell this community that we want to be different? This is like our mea culpa. We know we’ve failed,” said Chris Beard, the church’s lead minister.
The billboard is meant to direct people to a website about a new sermon series, “What a Bunch of Jerks: Teachings of Jesus too often ignored by the church.”
If you go to the internet site for the church, you find this message —
What a bunch of JERKS!
The church has failed. That’s right; we’ve messed up, big time. The church was SUPPOSED to be a reflection of the God it claimed to serve. The church was SUPPOSED to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. But, for the most part, the church has failed.
Our failure has left a bad taste in people’s mouths. Our mistakes have led to a lack of credibility. Our messes have caused people to seek answers for this life elsewhere. And really, who could blame people for giving up on the church? Ghandi had a very good point when he said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
What a bunch of jerks. Prideful, hypocritical, selfish, judgmental jerks.
At Christ Covenant Church, do you know what our response is? Guilty as charged. We are fed up with it just as much as you are. We’ve failed. We’ve failed you, we’ve failed each other, and the worst part is that we’ve failed to act like Jesus. And it’s time to own up to our failure because only then can we turn it around. So no more sugar coating it, no more pretending.
That’s what this is all about. We’ve decided that we want to turn it around. We may not be able to change the past, but we can sure change the future. And we want to. We want to be a reflection of the God that we serve. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Humility. What a concept! Might even lead to more church mergers. And conversions. I wonder if it’s ever been tried before?
Jay,
I think your post resonates and contains too much truth. Consider the response posts found on your:
The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 1
The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 2
At this moment, Part 1 has 49, and Part 2 has 44 response posts. Yet this "Bunch of Jerks" has only mine. Does this"apparent" lack of interest adequately reflect the truism of the idea found in the statement by the Covenant Church and your statement about humility?
As I was reading the comments to "The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 1" and "The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 2" today, I found myself wondering what I would conclude from them if I was a non-believer reading them and trying to use them to find my way to God. I know that such a person needs to read the bible for themselves and not depend on notes in a blog but most such people just go to a church and listen to what is being said there and that would be similar to the blog notes. I concluded that I would be terribly confused and might even just give up on the pursuit. I just don't think God ever meant for everyone who wanted to come to him to have to have a Ph.D. in Religion with a Greek minor. It has to be simpler than that. I think the church has greatly over complicated the pursuit of God. The big question in my mind is can Christ Covenant Church pull off what they say they want to do?
And the response of the community to the billboard is probably:
"What a bunch of gimmicky glory hogs. I think I read something in the Bible once condemning false humility."
When Jesus first began His ministry on earth, a few people discovered Him. When they invited others, they said, "Come and see."
Where can we invite people to "come and see"? The church is supposed to reflect the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Do we?
Too often we reflect the attitudes and actions of the Pharisees more than those of Jesus. If they come to see – and see only us, we will have failed. If they can see the Spirit of Christ in us, God will succeed.
Jerry
Interestingly enough, Josephus who was a Pharisee makes statements to the effect that God does not care about ceremony but about righteousness–the exact opposite of the Pharisees in the gospels. Jesus' complaint about the Pharisees is always that they are exalting ceremony above morality. They are concerned with tithing and forget about justice and mercy, for example. Seems Jesus' teachings sunk in and the latter Pharisees clearly incorporated his teachings. Yet in the meanwhile, apparently, the church slid back and incorporated theirs.
NPA: Is that a judgmental attitude to have? I'm not saying it is — it is for you to consider. I think the sign would be even more powerful if the congregation still has the COC moniker…because they'd be playing into an active stereotype. As it is, I doubt this congregation has developed much bad will on their own. So, I suppose they are speaking up for Christians in general.
Ray: My thoughts exactly. I suppose it is more fun to argue than it is to be convicted. It is for me, at least. Jay has mentioned before that his expository posts get, like, two responses — whereas any IM post is guaranteed to get 100 responses.
Doug: I too wonder what a seeker would think if they stumbled upon our squabbling. Does it do any good? First, we have to look at the focus of this blog: reconciliation between two ends of the COC denomination. Therefore, it kinda becomes hard to criticize the dialog in my opinion… we just "are where we are", and we deal with it.
No, a seeker isn't going to get hung up on "the Man or the Plan." Our legalistic brethren (because I hate using the term 'conservative' to describe them), however, find things like this to be matters of salvation. So, yes, it becomes necessary to have the conversation "where we are at."
To that end, I see [some] of these conversations as being fruitful. What I find to be ironic is that we'd probably be WAAAAY more fruitful having these conversations with similarly-progressive Baptist groups, Methodist groups, etc. Just like an ultra-legalistic COC would have way more in common with an ultra-legalistic Baptist fellowship than they would with, say, Rubel Shelly (my opinions entirely).
I think we could have conversations with people of similar thinking in other fellowships and make much more headway towards unity than what we will with the legalistic COC.
jmf,
I hate to think it, but I believe you may be right about where the more fruitful conversations may lie.
NPA: Is that a judgmental attitude to have?
You don't think that's what the community will say? I'm sure they would consider it a gimmick and would ask why they need the mediation or help of the church when the church admits to being a failure. After all, the community has undoubtedly considered themselves to be in fairly good standing with God all their lives, and has always looked at the church and said "those hypocrites condemn us just because we don't put on a suit and go hear some blowhard prattle on every Sunday morning? And look at how they live!!!" Saying we've failed isn't going to convince them that you truly have God on your side. It is just going to convince them all the more that they can approach God just fine without your help or your doctrines. Looking at it the way an outsider would, It clearly is a gimmick, and one that isn't well thought out. Not that SOME people won't be taken in by a gimmick like that, because some are looking for just such a gimmick! But does that make it any less a gimmick?
I don't understand the connection between the billboard and the words on the web site.
How does not being what we are supposed to be make us jerks?
Are failures jerks or merely failures?
Perhaps I pay too much attention to the words.
My first week in college, I visited a church where the sermon was about problems in the congregation and how good families do have conflicts at times. It was a good sermon and I appreciated the points made. My conclusion was to find a different place because this church was having problems.
It's hard to know if the message of this church was one of humility or of pride. Were they apologizing for specific things their congregation has done or trying to say they are different (and therefore better) than the others who call themselves Christians?
In either case, my limited course work in advertising and marketing doubts the usefulness of such an ad campaign. Anyone going there is identifying themselves with the "jerks".
If it was me I would of repented, openly rather than advertise in this manner.
The Publican did not even rise his head and said father have mercy on me.
This in my view is a little more respectable to the community and should have brought fear and respect to others.
Writing from Trinidad and Tobago, please check out my face book page and leave you comment at any time on any one of my discussion, I took the liberty of coping the info of The Plan to my wall for others to read, I thought that this to is a true concern here in Trinidad of preaching the Plan rather than Preacher Jesus. thank you
I can certainly understand what they're trying to accomplish. And I think it's good for us to examine our faults. But this does seem gimmicky IMO.
I hope what they have done is in deep sincereity. Yet one does have to wonder if this is truly guided introspection resulting in genuinely needed repentance or just an ad agency-style gimmick done as part of yet another "Seeker" outreach scheme?
I would also fear they might be only validating the simplistic, hateful stereotyping dished out by enemies of the cross.
Yes there should be a difference between Christians and the world. So yes it is good if you can acknowledge you are hypocrites. However, if the body of Christ ever gets real, the world will hate it, not because it is a hypocrite but because the world's deeds are evil. (cf. John 3:19; 15:18-20)
Sincerely,
Robert Prater
I worked in my state's biggest ad agency (back then) for nine years as a copywriter, creative administrator, traffic manager and even typographer. The sign succeeds in getting attention, but it doesn't "sell" anything; it is too easily misunderstood.
In an environment where Christians and other groups often "dis" other Christians, the casual observer is likely to assume that this is a posting by a competing church, or an atheist group, or just a hate group. Who's paying for the posting isn't immediately clear. "We admit it," or other brief wording would have helped.
Better: "Please forgive us. When we're jerks, we're not Jesus." Or "We mess up. Christ lifts us up." Or "Less of Me. More of Thee." Or "We're looking for folks who can out-sin us. (It's not easy.)" Still not great, but at least it associates the message with the messenger.
I think this is an attempt to duplicate what Donald Miller and his friends did with their "confession booth" during the annual bacchanalia on their college campus. There are venues where that can be effective – intimate, personal ones – and there are venues (like outdoor advertising) where it just really doesn't.
~ Ex-ad-guy
I'm with you Keith, it's not a very good ad and I think most people won't understand it or misinterpret the meaning.
It would be fascinating research to read if someone could take a collection of all the little pithy sayings that churches put on their signs and then ask a good well-balanced number of unchurched (especially in the emerging generation) what they think of such signs. My suspicion is that most church signs (other than providing event/contact info) are just another forgotten sound-bite at the end of the day that do nothing at all to help the church live out its mission.
But it creates a monday afternoon chore for some deacon's child, right :-)?
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Rex,
I saw some similar criticisms of marquees by another progressive blogger a few months ago.
It reminded me of when a drunk driver crashed into our marquee/sign. It took a while to settle with insurance before we could have it rebuilt. During that time, several people (not members) stopped by asking when the sign would be replaced. They said they missed the pithy sayings.
Actually we get comments from time to time about our marquee signs.
I served in a church who put up sayings on the church marquee and received some good comments…all from people who attended some other church. I also have non-Christian friends on Facebook who were having a conversation the other day about some saying they were mocking.
My original comment isn't to say that no one enjoys church marquee signs. My question is what does the unchurch, and especially the emerging generation, think of church marquee sayings. The only way that question could be answered with any certainty rather than speculation (based on the few positive or negative comments we here in passing) is some controlled research. I think the research would also need to differentiate between geographical and social locations. For instance, how people think in the rural midwest is different from that of the suburban/urban northeast.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
We have a couple of churches in town that sit across from each other along a major street. They both have marquees with clever sayings. Sometimes they seem to compete. And it can be quite funny at times.
At my church, we've had several people urge the elders to put up such a marquee. They tell us how much they enjoy those churches with their battling slogans. Then we ask them whether they've ever visited either church.
I enjoy clever church marquees. But I doubt that the cost/benefit ratio is very favorable. Indeed, I question nearly all church advertising of any kind — other than good works.
I mean, how many readers have selected a church based on advertising? I wonder …
Where I used to live, one of our deacons owned his own advertising agency. He would talk about keeping the feeling of being alive in front of people. He was continuously finding us deals on signage, mass mailing, website and TV commercials. He said success was providing continuous changing awareness to the public about you. One source of coverage, such as a marquee, isn't enough. Also, measuring the success of one source, such as a marquee, will give false results.
I know we would often have visitors from the community walk in without knowing one of our members. They would usually say they had heard about us and wanted to see what we are like. It was difficult to know what was the exact draw.
Advertising doesn't change a person's heart. It is for people who have already decided to start seeking another place or are seeking for the first time. You want them to pick you to visit.
A marquee isn't a make or break proposition by any means. There are certainly other ways to get the word out. From experience, I highly recommend some type of signage that is in good taste and changes routinely.
Jay said,
I missed addressing this in my previous post. I agree with what I think is your intent here. Our devotion to God, service, hospitality and overall Christ-likeness needs to be in place first.
A favorite Church sign:
Mon – AA Mtg
Tue – Abused Spouses Mtg
Wed – Eating Disorders Mtg
Thur – Say no to Drugs Mtg
Fri – Teen Suicide Watch Mtg
Sat – Soup Kitchen
Sunday Sermon – "America's Joyous Future"
I guess I should add that while the sign above is a bit humorous, it does reflect a Church with a servants heart and that gets back to the meaning of the sign in Beaumont.
Doug,
If only every church sign would read something like yours…
Grace and Peace,
Rex