Thursday, March 21, 2019

NEW SLOGAN

I'm thinking up a new slogan for L church which is a downtown church in our small town.
I  read a blurb in our weekly local paper, just one paragraph, about something an upstart, non-denominational church which meets in the high school on Sunday mornings is planning.
  The church has been around about a year or two at most. I don't know who they are affiliated with.
The get an awful lot of press when it comes to our community First Friday events, which L church
participates in most months. Infact, I headed the Pirate Palooza last August and decorated the walk the plank area with seaweed from green trash bags woven into fish net, boxes labeled "RUM" and
small box labeled "POLLY"S CRACKERS", plus gave out pirate certificates for walking the plank, along with candy, gold plastic coin, Pirate's Lemon Rum (lemonade) and Fish & Chips (cups with goldfish and potato chips). Even another non-denominational church did a walk the plank, but ours was off the ground and better looking. Did we get our picture in the paper? No. But this upstart church did and gets on the front page nearly every month - just because they occupy the Gazebo in the middle of downtown. We're just a block north of the Gazebo and have yet to get our picture in the paper.
   It appears that this church is going to hold an egg drop - renting a helicopter to drop gazillions of plastic Easter eggs on the football field on April 6th. There will be some entertainment plus there will be prizes given away - local restaurant gift cards, big screen TV, Xbox, and a Nintendo Switch, amongst the big ticket items.
   Now I ask, what does this have to do with Easter? (Aside from the eggs?)
   This is what a church does to draw members?
   Feeding into the consumeristic and what's-in-it-for-me mentality? That church is about entertainment and what we get out of it, rather than the offering of ourselves to God?
   What a poor example of stewardship and call to faith.
   Perhaps, since I entered a new decade, I'm now of fuddy-duddy age, but really? I simply cannot believe this.
    So I am contemplating putting a new slogan out front of the church - "We Invite and Don't Bribe"
    Maybe we're not flashy, maybe we're mainline, but maybe we are grounded in stewardship, doctrine, grace, and what it means to live our faith in Christ Jesus in community and out in the world.
I think about the money being spent on this venture and know that 3 local agencies could well use that money - a shop that gives out diapers, and items that kids need, a group that helps folks pay their rent, electric, gas or water bills, and the Salvation Army that gives out food, school supplies, & runs an after-school program. Every mainline church in town supports these 3 agencies and they help many people in our community.
   I'm not saying church can't be fun and do fun things - but when it is excessive and feeds into the entertainment, narcissistic, consumerism of society, then I have problems with that.
   Or am I just an old fuddy-duddy?
   In the meanwhile, I still like the "We Invite and Don't Bribe."
Any thoughts?  
 

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