The King Biscuit Flower Hour Show Album
Churches are renown for producing comic sans posters riddled with clipart and printed onto day-glo paper. Thankfully, this is in decline due to basic design packages with relatively tasteful templates. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the text. Some of the tag lines are beyond belief (pun intended), for example, at the last world cup, "Make Jesus Your Goal!" >> WAKE UP PUBLISHERS!, this. is. dreadful. Really.
One could write commandments for this; "Thou shalt not attempt to challenge the public", "Thou shalt not give burden to those who know not that such burden doth existeth", "Thou shalt not try to be hip unto thee for thine will only show thyself up to be foolish" "Thou shalt not use terminology which doth meaneth nothing to thine punter and would bring ridicule unto thyself or freaketh thee out" "Thou shalt not use ye olde English, for thou'st will only get thyself unto an frightful kaffufle with thy thees, thous and thines".
Trying to coax people in, or getting them to recognise they have a problem they didn't know they had, isn't right. Speaking in terminology, isn't right. Making bold unfamiliar statements, isn't right. So, "Jesus died for you / Jesus loves you / Jesus is Alive!" type church posters don't mean anything in outreach. They don't. Why? Because Jesus isn't anything or anyone to the people you are reaching out to. Exchange the names in that poster, "Great Scott died for you" - my response, at best, would be > okay. "Great Scott loves you" > again, it doesn't matter to me if he does. "Great Scott is Alive!" > jolly good. To those who will be reading the poster, Jesus is little more than an exclamation. Don't freak them out or confuse them before they've even entered the building, that's the job of the congregation.
Commercial advertising is where people are told they have a problem they didn't know they had, or terminology is used to make the punter think they are out of touch or scare a consumer into thinking they can't live without a product. Come on, Christianity is better than that, don't bring it down to the level of advertising where you're trying to flog a product. Rise above this. Rise above dressing up. Rise above tactics. Just be relevant and honest.
August 31st, 2011 - 13:51
Our local Methodist church posters have recently been telling people that Jesus is better than Sat Nav. I hope that doesn’t mean they close their eyes and pray for directions while driving.
September 1st, 2011 - 05:59
I have mixed thoughts about these signs, even if they are better than some of the worst. I, probably like many others Christians going by, think “isn’t that clever what they’ve done there”. However I’m not convinced that skilful punning makes going to church attractive.
On the other hand commercial advertising is done by professionals and, like so many things in church, those signs are done by amateurs.
September 1st, 2011 - 06:16
Thanks Paul. Unfortunately, the poster I was referring to (Make Jesus Your Goal!) was produced by a professional publisher (CPO – “The Church Publicity Specialists”). I should probably reword the opening paragraph…
September 2nd, 2011 - 04:19
Oh dear, what hope is there.
September 2nd, 2011 - 09:51
So, what would you like to see? Let’s have some suggestions. How about, “Free beer after the service!” I’d go. Or, “Come and meet the Creator of sex!”
There. That took 30 seconds thinking and those ideas are brilliant!