Tim Bednar’s article “What A Trend We Have In Jesus: Why Marketing Jesus Does NOT Help Proclaim The Gospel” has a catchy title and asks a good question about marketing the gospel, and if The Passion really is such a good thing for us.
My thoughts, influenced by last weeks reading of a Gospel in our Culture book (cant remember which one) is this;
If the gospel is a product, we need be be sales people.
But the gospel is rather a story, not a product, and God is looking for journalists . . . or in today’s world, bloggers.
What a Trend we have in Jesus
Interesting thought, Andrew. Maybe that’s why the authors of the gospels were more like reporters than salespeople?
the ‘reporters’ analogy makes sense, but, well … really, it’s still a little too much from the residual school of thought, isn’t it? journalists are supposedly very objective, info/word-centered, passive – reporting on the events rather than creating the events. how about if the gospel is a story, then we need ENACTORS – subjective embodiments of the objective Word, people-centered, active. show, bay-bee … not tell!
Thanks Brad. Good reminder that we need to be both storymakers (by our lives) and storytellers (by our words). but we must have both. Bloggers need to have a life worth blogging and people changing the world with the gospel need a voice.
Brad, i am wondering if you are attending any events at SXSW in Austin this week.
I like Brad’s comment and Andrew’s response.
Thanks for posting the picture of me and Amelia. It is my favorite. FYI: she’s 10 months old now and only four in the photo.
Oh, Maggi Dawn hosted a great discussion on the nature of blogs. Scroll down to Feb. 17 and 18. Make sure you read the comments.
hi andrew – very well stated in your “both/and” response about being storymakers and storytellers. when i think i see something missing, i probably tend to overemphasize the other end of the continuum in order to try to rebalance the teeter-totter, and then it probably looks like i’m unbalanced when it do that. ah, well. ironic way to express my bias toward balance, eh?
hadn’t planned to do anything at sxsw, but maybe the Lord has somethin’ up His sleeve … and He’s got the biggest sleeve in the universe … maybe i’m ready for a bit of a surprise!