Advertisement versus Life

I have been thinking about the Gospel as has been preached since the Bible times and the way it is done today. I have also been comparing ministry over the different church ages with the way it is done today. Look also at Christian literature over the ages and compare it with the way it is done today.

I came to that as I continue being amazed, albeit negatively, with the way I see ministry being done.

It is easy to think that a church is a corporate entity that relies on the pressured goodwill of its supporters and the pastor is the marketing or resource raising hireling who must look for funds to run that mammoth entity, many times being driven by the fact that he is the primary consumer of the same. The sad reality is that there is no expectation for accountability for all that money one gives, especially because no one should know what the other gave. They could be therefore be holidaying all over when you gave your precious food or investment money because the sales pitch was too compelling to ignore, especially when God and His inability to deliver without your giving was brought into the picture.

Look also at marketing. Do you know that advertising exists to drive people into buying things they do not need? And have you realized that if competition is removed advertisement for necessities will be completely absent from the media? Or have you ever seen advertisements from a monopoly unless as a reminder for people to pay bills (with the threat of disconnection of course)?

Let us take the supermarket as an example. It requires effort to get the things you must buy like food items. They are kept out of sight and you will need directions in a new supermarket. Yet what will you find in areas with premium sight as you walk along the aisles? Unnecessary things like cosmetics and beverages, even as milk is hidden with the other essential items.

You must be convinced to buy what you do not need on your way to buy what you must have. We complain about junk food without realizing the same truth; that it is packaged to make us crave it. You walk past a fast food place and your eyes are drawn to the somersaulting chicken and the tantalizing smell of the other fast food that creates hunger even if one is from having a heavy breakfast. And we do not win the war by getting information about dangers or waste.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. (Proverbs 23: 31 – 33)

Alcoholism is advertised the same way, since Bible times. Even the alcoholic knows he is on the downward slope yet is unable to resist that advertising in the package and company.

I was in a drug and alcohol rehab recently and heard the same statement repeated by several people; some completely free and helping others and some who have just joined. They had been looking for somewhere they could be free from seeing alcohol or friends as they had completely failed to resist the pull back to the hell they were experiencing. Call that the power of advertisement.

Life operates on a different level. Its existence is the drive that calls everything to it. Look at the wild to get my point. When it gets dry all the animals will congregate around the water holes or swamps. From the eater to the eaten none will go very far from water because they won’t be able to last long without it.

You may be wondering what I am driving at. The church is mastering the art of advertisement. And of course this tells me one thing; that such a church does not possess any life because then people would be flocking to get it. The fact that we must convince people using all ploys to come and give should be a loud scream that we are peddling nothing of value in the spiritual sense.

Jesus was always running from people to be able to get uninterrupted time with His disciples. Yet they would always look for Him wherever He went. Remember this?

Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. (Matthew 15:32)

Three days in the wilderness without food and nobody was in a hurry to leave? And we are talking about twenty thousand people (five thousand men). What did He have that could draw such a crowd to such a remote place that they even forgot they needed food?

His teaching possessed and dispensed life. That is the reason people looked far and wide for Him. He dealt with their issues in ways that released life to them.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

That was the reason people flocked to Him irrespective of the cost or discomfort involved.

And it was not only Christ whose ministry drew in the crowds. David drew in the crowds even when he was an outlaw. Jonah drew in the whole city though he was smelling all fishy and probably with his skin peeling from his encounter in the belly of the fish. And John the Baptist drew in the crowds to the desert. And many other servants of God shared that experience.

What is lacking in our ministries that we must advertise them? It goes without say that we lack the divine spark. We must therefore create enough diversion so that people do not see our emptiness. We must also convince people to fund that emptiness. Our lack of life must therefore be made to appear so full of life so as to convince people to fund it.

And I am also talking about my writing. If my posts do not possess life that I must be more entertaining and comical to convince people to read whatever I have to write, I am hopelessly desperate to get relevance instead of seeking God’s face to hear what exactly He wants me to share with His people.

My cry is that whatever God gives me to post will draw whoever needs the message to be drawn to my blog by God Himself as opposed to advertising to get agreeable hits and followers. I am not in the business of writing but in the ministry of writing and will therefore be content if the message I post will bring life to only one person.

Why are some churches more concerned in selling real estate than in sharing the message of life? Why are pastors marketers of all kinds of schemes instead of preaching the Gospel of life? Why do almost all sermons lean toward entertaining and sanitizing sinners instead of bringing life by dealing with the sin that is a sure recipe for death? Why do most pyramid and get rich scams start with the church leadership? Why do gambling companies have church leaders in their leadership?

Why do pastors with books make their books the subject in their sermons to entice people to buy them especially as they will leave so many gaps in the sermon to ensure that you buy that book?

Why do we have to use loud sound systems to project our sermons to people who accuse us of sound pollution? Why do we advertise our services all over for a church that has been in operation for decades? Why are we always preaching about giving money instead of preaching about complete surrender of all, including that money, to the Lordship of Christ? And why has sin stopped featuring in our sermons as if getting the whole world can be compared to accessing eternal life?

Why are our ‘worship’ leaders always singing about others’ revelations as if God stopped being real to His people? Why is selling music and getting invites to ‘bashes’ more important than actual ministry? Why do famous musicians snub invites from small ‘unimportant’ churches and functions yet have no problem doing collabos with secular musicians for functions that offer more public exposure and fame? Why do we treat talent as more important to character when looking for ‘worship’ leaders?

Chances are that we are peddling a counterfeit Gospel, a Gospel devoid of life. No wonder we must advertise it as supermarkets do the inessentials in the most prominent places. That is the reason that for years we are compiling list after list of the unreached people groups yet we are never any closer to reaching them as we are more fixated on building mega churches for people we are stealing from other churches. That is the reason we have crusades in places that have been trodden grassless for ages instead of taking them where the Gospel is direly needed, all with so much money being used to organize and run those meetings, money that a small portion would be required to support one missionary to an unreached people group. And it is no wonder that we take offerings in those crusades because we know that there are no non believers there or we are too desperate for that offering to care whether those giving those offerings know Christ or not.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)

Are we lifting Christ up in our ministry? This is because it is as Christ is lifted up that He releases life to the world. We may try anything and everything else but we will be marketing hot air if He is not central to our efforts. No wonder too much effort and resources are expended in pursuing that nothing.

How does a Christian singer bribe radio and TV presenters to have their music on air? How can a Christian girl sleep with a producer to have their music produced? How can a Christian publisher fleece upcoming writers in the name of business? How can a senior pastor consolidate all the gifts to his person at the expense of all the other ministers in ‘his’ church?

Why is sycophancy and gifts the shortest route to accessing church leadership and resources? How does a person with a shady past who has no known salvation experience attain a pivotal leadership position just because he uses sense and nonsense to vigorously fight for the pastor? How does a known thief get into leadership just because he gave a huge gift to the pastor? How does a prostitute join a ‘worship’ team by buying a suit for the pastor? Is there any difference from Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:9)?

You see, Christ is either everything or nothing. There is no middle ground. We either lift Him high or we are lifting the devil high however loud we shout to the contrary. He either calls all the shots or He is nowhere near our structures. We might have all appearances of the presence or psyche ourselves vigorously to replicate it but we retain ichabod like backslidden Israel bringing the ark of God to the battle ground, only that ours may be worse.

Being involved in the writing ministry, I am in constant touch with printers. I can say with certainty that the title pastor is probably the most high risk name one can take to a printer. Most have been fleeced by those silver tongued orators to pour their money into books that were never paid for. Many times because the pastor did not realize that the cloud had moved when they ventured into the book project (ichabod), or they mistook psyche and presumption for faith when they committed themselves and their nonexistent money into printing a book. He will therefore start hiding from the printer when he realizes that nobody will buy his idea of revelation especially because he will require them to pay a premium for it through buying that book. But it is even worse for ones with a huge name because then they will have a ready market for whatever nonsense they may publish, making it harder for them to see when God leaves them.

There are Christian singers who find pride in running ‘worship’ sessions among drunkards in bars, many times sliding down to imbibing those liquids secretly. I heard an unsaved friend trashing some senior Christian musicians because they frequent the same drinking dens. There are church elders who own bars.

But as usual we must look for a solution instead of complaining. That is God’s way of doing things. He shows us what is wrong to enable us to agree with Him when He shows us the right.

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

John’s confession must define us from the depths of our hearts. When He becomes the only reality we use to guide us, it becomes easy to make the right choices and especially deal with the pressure that comes from the enemy through our closest friends, even our cravings

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2: 15 – 17)

It is the desire to please self that drives us to advertise when we realize that God stopped moving with us when we started ignoring His revelation. Sometimes we do that after being mightily used of Him and He gives us an order that seems to indicate that we start from scratch. And I have seen many ministers becoming irrelevant to the Kingdom who were once powerhouses and excellent weapons in God’s hands in their past. They have become spiritual shells of their past, reliving their former victorious lives and ministries to remain spiritually relevant. Of course their lives are powerful testimonies when looked at from the world. But like Christ asked what does it profit for one to gain the world and lose the heavenly approval?

King Saul is the one clearly identified with such when his army became more important than God’s opinion.

Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. (1Samuel 15:30)

To him, like with so many of us, it really does not matter that God has rejected us provided the crowds continue holding us in awe, and of course pouring their money on us. But sadly God goes with the life that He alone possesses when we turn our back on Him.

When we become the focus of the ministry we do, when our image becomes more important than the impact of that ministry, when our needs and future determine the direction the ministry will take, then God will become an accessory, an object to further our agenda. It then follows that only the mention of His name will be left on our packaging to convince people that we are still focused and that they should continue supporting us. But God and His life will have left us.

No wonder we will need to aggressively advertise our emptiness.

Will we cry like Moses that we will not take another step if God does not move with us?