Stop Using Media (Part Two)

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Design | 15 Comments

This is the second installment in an ongoing and open-ended series devoted to convincing you, the church leader, not to use media.

Stop using media if this is the best you can do:

Our designer, Ryan Jarrell, sent this my way this morning. Wow.

And before you start in on me, no, I’m not pro-fornicaction. And no, I’m not against teaching on sin and its wages. What I am against is drive-by condemnation, bumper sticker evangelism, and half-hearted attempts at being set apart in this world that involve slogans or bubble letters.

Stop using media–whether it be digital or stick-on–to try to convict people of sin. Start using media to tell people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Start using media to tell people–regardless of their spotless or despicable sexual history–how much God loves them and desires a relationship with them. Oh, and one last thing: Don’t use media on the freeway or at a stop light. Please.

  • http://www.archiemckinlay.com Archie Mck

    That’s amazing… I completely agree. Too many times we use things like this as a crutch at best and as a way to completely alienate/offend other people at worst. I’m not saying that parts of the bible are not “offensive” but speak in love and not correction or condemnation. We’re called to love, not judge, last time I checked that was God’s job.
    I think all great media speaks of God, whether it’s Christian of secular, it rings of our Creator, the original creator. This is an example of bad art. I would say it speaks against God more than it could for Him.
    Maybe one could drive a Prius to show how God cares about His creation, that would be drive by preaching I could understand…

  • http://www.the-boring.com Clayton Borah

    Agreed.

  • http://chrischowdhury.com/ Chris Chowdhury

    You said it!

    Start using media to tell people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    Great post. Sad photo.

  • http://www.johnwsnyderblog.wordpress.com John Snyder

    Another example of Christians telling people what they are against, instead of showing people what they are for.

  • http://www.savethedoodle.com Chris

    ewww…That typography is giving me nausea.

  • http://www.layguy.com LayGuy

    Just a thought…
    I wonder how the prophets of the OT would have felt, or would have been reacted to, when they did their “walk-in condemnation.”

    Not saying that I agree with this – not saying that I don’t. Just thinking…

  • http://chrischowdhury.com/ Chris Chowdhury

    @layguy: You ask a good question. I tend to see more empathy in the message of the prophets than this kind of alienating condemnation. They identified with the sin of the people they spoke judgment against and even understood it as there own judgment.

    “… I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…”

  • eoobro

    but it makes me feel like I’m sharing the Gospel without the fear of rejection or having to do much of anything at all. How can you beat that?

  • Paul Loeffler

    I tend to agree with the comments posted here. In addition, though, I would add that I don’t have a problem with the idea of teaching about hell and God’s judgment… as long as it’s given along with the answer of God’s love, grace, etc. After all, what’s God’s grace about/for if there’s nothing that we are being condemned for without it. All that being said, the problem isn’t the message necessarily, but how it’s being delivered. I like the author’s definition: “…drive-by condemnation, bumper sticker evangelism, and half-hearted attempts at being set apart in this world that involve slogans or bubble letters.” We’ve got to engage with grace, not drive by with condemnation.

  • http://www.bedeviant.com Justin Wise

    This is a great post. I borrowed the image for a post on my blog. You can find it here:

    http://www.bedeviant.com/2008/10/08/jesus-drives-a-ford/

    Thanks so much for your ministry and being willing to cultivate the goodness that exists in this world! As God said, “It is good….” Peace.

    JMW

  • http://www.christianjava.wordpress.com Roland Thomas Gilbert

    I’m in complete agreement. My fear is that you’re only preaching to the choir with Collide’s audience. You’re selling the already sold. How can we get this message to the driver of that car? They OBVIOUSLY don’t “get it.”

  • http://adrian-rodriguez.net Adrian Rodriguez

    I agree that is definitely on the road of condemnation. Things like that get people confused about who Jesus really is.

  • http://mandoron.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/share-it-saturday-october-11/ Share-it Saturday, October 11 « From The Mind of MandoRon

    [...] Drive-by condemnation courtesy of Collide Magazine. [...]

  • http://chaoticministry.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/links-from-the-past-few-weeks/ Links from the Past Few Weeks « Chaotic Ministry

    [...] Drive-bys Need to Stop [...]

  • http://www.adammabry.co.uk Adam Mabry

    Wow. No, WOW.

    Living in the UK, I’d forgotten that stuff like this happens in the States.

    We’ll do our best over here to keep this use of media from getting popularized. :-)