We Need New PR

by Tim Schraeder on 01/13/2010 in Just For Fun with 19 Comments

Matthew Paul Turner’s Twitter ID says it all: JesusNeedsNewPR.

It’s true.

Jesus needs new PR… the Church needs new PR.

The word Christian has moved from being a verb to a noun… and not a good one either.

To be Christian in the past meant you were following Christ, living out His call, acting justly, loving mercy, and living out your life in a way that reflected Christ.

Today it’s a noun that’s used to describe people who are doing anything but that.

Pat Robertson’s remarks about the earthquake in Haiti were completely inappropriate and uncompassionate and made me want to cuss [maybe I did], but regardless, it was another fine example to the whole world [it was the #1 trending topic on Twitter] of people who, however right their intentions may be, misrepresent us.

Are you kidding me?

And then, there’s our dear Westboro Baptist friends… [UPDATE: Of course they would have something to say about the earthquake... check it out here.]


Ok, so I don’t mean to stir up a bunch of negative emotions, but seriously… we need to get upset about this.

We are being misrepresented.

The sad thing is that wackos like these are the minority but when the world thinks of Christians these are some of the leading ones that come to mind.

That’s a problem.

In their landmark book unChristian, Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman found through their research that some of the top associations people make with Christians and the church were that we are: anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, old-fashioned, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of others, boring, and confusing.

That’s so sad because when I think about what our calling as believers truly is, I believe we’re called to be loving and accepting, compassionate, authentic, fighting for justice of the oppressed, in touch with our world and the needs around us, relevant,  exciting, inclusive and that we are to communicate the message of the Gospel clearly.

I don’t have the answers, I’m just raising the point… we’ve got an image problem.

We are being misrepresented.

I pray we can live our lives out in a way that makes the world see the goodness and grace of God… in a way that captivates people with the truth and beauty of the Gospel… and in a way that shows God’s love and compassion.

This has got to stop.

I pray the Church can be the Church, that Christians and can be Christians, and that through situations like these we can show to the world what it really means to follow Christ and be a Christian.

Yes, sin exists. And yes, we need to bring people to an understanding of their sin… but Jesus never “saved” anyone by beating them over the head with the Bible, yelling and shouting at them, or by telling them that God hated them.

The most condemning words Jesus spoke were to the religious; His most compassionate to those who weren’t.

Maybe there’s a lesson in the way He approached people we could learn from?

</tangent>

In the meantime be praying for those who are affected by this incredibly tragedy, for aid workers and government leaders.

A family in our church had a daughter in Haiti who, thankfully, has been reported to be safe!

But keep praying for those who have family there, for missionaries and others… I pray the Church can be the Church and respond to this crisis.

Please donate to aid work being carried out by Samaritan’s Purse,  Water Missions International, or donate by texting HAITI to 90999 [$10 will be charged to your phone bill and donated to the Red Cross].

Tim Schraeder
Tim Schraeder is passionately committed to helping churches effectively communicate the timeless message of the Gospel in a way that’s relevant to our ever-changing culture. He presently serves as the co-director of the Center for Church Communication and is the creator and general editor of Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication, a field guide for church communication leaders. Tim lives in Chicago where he can be found in any neighborhood coffee shop that has free wifi. Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Sign Up for My Newsletter
Tagged:
  • http://dennarr.wordpress.com/ Dennis

    AMEN!

  • http://www.thejakers.com Jake Johnson

    Couldn't agree more. I'm so tired of having to put so much energy into salvaging people's image of American Christians.

    I'm encouraged to see social media playing a huge part in giving Jesus new PR. The majority of comments on Twitter overwhelmingly condemn Pat's comments and have created a trending topic on Twitter. Hopefully people will see that Pat doesn't speak for the majority of American Christians.

  • Traci Tyson

    Seriously??? I feel like vomiting. When would that EVER be Christ's response to people dying and hurting? I pray that our Christian community will respond to this with love and care and comfort and outweigh any negative aspects of statements like that. Argggghhhh.

  • http://twitter.com/xcetrachick @xcetrachick

    Well said!

  • http://twitter.com/faithbookjesus @faithbookjesus

    When I think of how Christian have represented Jesus it makes me want to vomit. Thanks for sharing this!!! The church is going to wake up someday and I just hope it's before another 9/11 happens…or earthquake. God be with the folks in Haiti right now. Praying!!

  • http://www.adamlehman.us Adam Lehman

    They will know we are Christians by our stance on homosexuality? By our purity? By our beliefs? By our faithfulness to scripture?

    Nope.

    Jesus says you'll be able to tell who his followers are by their love.

    If that's not true, you're not a follower of Christ. At least not yet…..

    You might believe in God. You might read the Bible. You might preach on Sundays. You might picket funerals. But if you are not marked by loved, you are not a follower of Christ. At least not according to Him.

    • http://thegirlinthemiddle.wordpress.com molly

      Which is exactly what I was saying to a friend on facebook today on this very subject ( knowing us by our love).

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/timschraeder timschraeder

      Dude, preach it!!!!!!!!!! LOVED your take.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Matt_TCoNP Matt_TCoNP

    I'm an avid reader of MPT's blog. He's a good guy, and he's for real. Seems like we have to work twice as hard to drown out the voices of insanity that 'represent' us.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/timschraeder timschraeder

      let's charge on, brother!

  • http://www.bethgsanders.com beth g sanders

    This sickens me as well. I hate when people like Robertson spew this crap and couch it in terms of "speaking the truth." Blah.

    Speak the truth … IN LOVE. And maybe think about putting your feet (in service) where your mouth is?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/timschraeder timschraeder

      ha! seriously. great perspective.

  • Mabrie

    Great post! I couldn't agree more!
    Also, the comments by others (Adam's) are great and so thought provoking!
    Thanks for writing and speaking out on this!

  • http://thegirlinthemiddle.wordpress.com molly

    It seemed to me from watching the video that the co-host held her breath and cringed a little, but that might have just been me. Thanks for the blog post, I have shared it with my friends on facebook.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/timschraeder timschraeder

      thanks, Molly! appreciate it!

  • Kevin

    Related to the earthquake in Haiti, some possible organizations to partner with financially to support the Haitian people in their time of trouble or "blessing in disguise" as Pat Robertson calls it are:

    World Vision
    http://www.worldvision.org

    Samaritan's Purse
    http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

    I can't even start to understand Pat Robertson at times, but I do have to say that I worked with Operation Blessing, which he is in charge of, for about two and a half months in the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina and they did and are still doing some great work down there. They were one of the first organizations to respond immediately following the hurricane and their full-time staff exhibited the love of Christ to the residents and other volunteers in a way that I wish Pat Robertson would on a regular basis.

  • sam

    Tim,

    Great post. I share your anger (and I believe it to be righteous:) I don't know of something more damaging then when people's actions bring dis-honer to the gospel, to the glory of Christ and to the name Christian.

    However, I would add something to the conversation…

    There are many ways to dis-honer Christ, we have seen the despicable ways of the Baptist church in their hatred and lack of understanding the whole counsel of Scripture…namely a overemphasis on the wrath of God. Of course I agree that God is a God of justice and wrath BUT he also has provided a way for the wrath to be removed and he does so by sharing his love with us in the person and sacrifice of Jesus.

    Pat Robertson has the potential to dis-honer God by making "stupid" statements that seem to revolve around all crisis situations…he is so politically minded that he might not do any "heavenly" or "Kingdom" good.

    But Adam's post disturbed me a bit as well. I of course agree with his words on the world will know us by our love for one another. And I may be misunderstanding him (if I have please forgive me in advance Adam) or he may have worded it the way he did to put emphasis on the subject at hand. I guess the issue I take is that Jesus and Scripture does call Christians to a life of purity and it is tied into our love for God. Jesus was clear that if we love him we would keep his commands. Part of living a life of love is by being pure.

    We all have tendencies to run to the opposite extreme when reacting to something. And I just want to pull back and add that James 1:27 says that True religion before God is both taking care of the oppressed and keeping ourselves unstained from the world. Its both a call to represent Christ by caring and loving for the needy and by living a life of holiness. C.H Spurgeon once said that "The two garments of Christianity is Charity and Purity."

    Like Beth said, we must be speak our truth in love, and we must be like Jesus who was full of Truth and Grace.

    An impure life can do just as much damage to the glory of Christ as an unloving life…the world will see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven, and our good works include both social justice matters as well as purity and holiness.

    sam

  • http://www.thisischurch.net Mikey

    1) I really like you.

    2) I think the cultural understanding of Christians "acting justly, loving mercy, and living out a reflection of Christ" may have been a short-lived one…like maybe a couple years. Because if you were in Corinth, Christians also would have been known for being arrogant, divisive, judgmental…(and that's just the first 4 chapters!!)…sound familiar?

    The extravagant grace of our Savior is so scandalous that the Pat Robertsons and Westboro Baptist preachers of this world are given the same title as me: "sinner", and offered the same gift: "Not guilty".

    How insane is that, brother??!!! These videos hold up a mirror for me. They bring my own sin and judgment to the forefront of my mind. To be honest, I think Jesus could do with much better PR than I offer him…but he still calls me his ambassador. May He get glory even though I am just a jar of clay.

  • http://twitter.com/bensonlee @bensonlee

    timtim, i think you hit this nail on the head so i won't add anything here.

    i thought you might be interested in seeing this: http://jaesonma.com/. jaeson is a pastor friend of mine, but he's doing something called "365 days of love" — each day he tweets / writes about an experience of loving someone that God has put in his path. it's been a tangible picture of the church being the church, following the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and loving people. this is the loudest kind of PR we can do — not the kind that is done in interviews, but is prefaced by tangible action.

←
→