“Free Pizza, Free Eternal Life!” \u00a0That was the advertisement one of the campus groups at the university where my husband teaches put out the other day.\u00a0I guess if you’re really hungry and really love cheap pizza, you’ll take the “free eternal life” as a throw-in- even if it comes with a short spiel about “The Four Spiritual Laws.”<\/p>\n
It’s funny to think about all of the associations we can make in an effort to sell Christianity. \u00a0These days sports and Christianity are a big sell. \u00a0Take Tim Tebow’s Easter appearance the other day when 15,000 people showed up. \u00a0(Those Texans like things big, don’t they?) Or, Bubba Watson’s testimony of faith following his dramatic victory at the Masters.<\/p>\n
I”ve got to hand it to Tebow and Bubba, too. \u00a0Their willingness to talk about their faith in the public sphere takes guts. \u00a0Let’s just say I’m a fan.<\/p>\n
It’s the rest of us Christians and leaders in the church I’m inclined to poke fun at. \u00a0Because while, for example, Tebow and Easter may be a subtler association than free pizza and free eternal life, they still spell \u00a0“gimmick.” \u00a0They are still an example of how we in the church get stuck in applying slick \u00a0advertising approaches to evangelism.\u00a0We can tend to make our Christian celebrities into “fields of dreams”: if we just “build it” (or invite the latest billboard for Christianity) “they” (the crowds that need to be evangelized and see how cool we and Jesus are) “will come.”<\/p>\n
If you didn’t catch Colbert’s Easter routine, which features some all-in-good-fun pokes at pastor Jim Champion, who invited Tebow to speak at his megachurch, here it is. \u00a0Hats off to all my Australian friends for your work to save the “Easter bilby,” too:
\nhttp:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/412155\/april-09-2012\/easter-under-attack—bunny-vs–bilby?xrs=share_copy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Free Pizza, Free Eternal Life!” \u00a0That was the advertisement one of the campus groups at the university where my husband teaches put out the other day.\u00a0I guess if you’re really hungry and really love cheap pizza, you’ll take the “free eternal life” as a throw-in- even if it comes with a short spiel about “The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[589,587,590,591],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-bubba-watson-tweets-his-faith","tag-meaning-of-easter","tag-stephen-colbert-and-easter-under-attack","tag-tim-tebow-and-tebowing"],"yoast_head":"\n