God Goes Bankrupt

Extra, Extra, read all about it!

In shocking news this week God has gone bankrupt after spending all of his resources on a failed media campaign.

In the past 5 years God has been spending billions on a billboard and Christian Radio Station advertising campaign.

If you haven't seen the black billboards with white, witty, sayings attributed to God on them, then you are missing out.

Something about me wants to love this campaign. The Americanized Church is finally responding to the criticisms that it is no fun. Many of the sayings are clever, the campaign reaches people in their cars, which are our last bastions of thought (other than the commode). Most of the sayings refer to a loving God who just wants to be connected with his creation.

What a beautiful vision!

Unfortunately some of them revert to the hellfire and brimstone Christianity that ran so many people away from the church (myself included).

You can see the billboards from the God Speaks campaign here. http://www.godspeaks.com/AboutTheBillboards.asp

In the end though, as much as I would like to like witty billboards, they are just the new millenium's bumper sticker. The churches refusal to get down and dirty and live life with people. Their stretch to "save" as many people as they can before the rapture! The encouragement of "nominal Christianity."

This "let's get you saved and then worry about the rest" mentality has not worked. Because the church never does worry about the rest, or when they do, it all boils down to a simple moral code they have placed upon their members.

When Jesus came, he so passionately dialogued with the Pharisees for this very reason. The Pharisees loved God dearly, they really did, and they thought they were pleasing him by trying to cleanse Israel. And honestly, what did the prophets call for over and over again before the Pharisees came along? The Cleansing of Israel.

So these Pharisees said, "well God's laws need to be followed, and its so important that we are going to extend them even further, so that we never even come close to breaking them." They imposed a moral code on the people that was not of God. Jesus came along, so conveniently at this point in God's love story with his creation and told the Pharisees they had it all wrong. And the Good news he came to share was LOVE. Over and over his messages overflow with love. Where the Pharisees had imposed rules, Jesus said that Love would suffice.

Yes, don't kill your brother, but even more than that, don't even hate him.

That is wh I love the billboards that preach a God in love with his creation. If only the church was willing to be God in that way to the world, and love them personally, in community, rather than just "reach out" to them.

I am involved in a wonderful faith community that even struggles with this very thing.

How do we not "reach out" but rather "bring in."