Christianity Today

Obviously, one's attitude toward marketing depends upon one's soteriology. It appears that many people think that ugly Christians block sinners from salvation and beautiful Christians attract them, so we need do nothing to evangelize but to be beautiful Christians. It's as if they think salvation is a beauty contest. But Jesus and the disciples were the most beautiful Christians ever and they got crucified. The vast majority of Israel rejected Christ. Was it because he was a poor example? I think not! What did Jesus say was the reason people reject him? He said their hearts were hard, like stony ground. He said they love darkness more than the light because their deeds are evil. Through Paul, Jesus wrote that people know the truth but suppress it with immorality. Even crass marketing is nothing but an attempt to persuade sinners to listen to the gospel one more time. But if you think salvation is a beauty contest you won't be interested.

We settle for a marketing approach because it's easy, plain and simple. There is a place for marketing, but it's secondary (or third-ondary, maybe fourth-ondary) to what Mark writes about. With marketing we can say we've done our bit for evangelism without getting messy or being put out. We don't have to go to the messy, sinful person's house and have dinner with him. We don't have to deal with their complicated life choices. We don't have to visit them in prison, dig around in our closets to give them a shirt or do anything that's uncomfortable. I was struck the other day how Jesus said people referred to him as a pig and a drunk who hung out with low-lifes (my translation of Luke 7:34). Would people accuse us of that because we're trying to love some folks who don't know God? I hope so.

It's sad how many have come to believe marketing is equated with publicizing. The painful part is the scores of people being sold salvation on the cheap who expect to receive this nice, wonderful "abundant" life that Jesus in fact did not promise (there is a world of difference between "abundant life" and "life abundantly") only to be bitterly disillusioned down the road when they find out that it's actually a hard life ("the way is hard") and that there is a cost of discipleship which goes way, WAY beyond your church attendance, tithe, and a $75 leather bound Bible. You must lose your life, your whole life. Jesus did not come to give you your dream life. He came to take it. Think about his words to the rich young ruler living the good life. Some marketing strategy! Check out http://www.harderthanflint.com/articles/christianity-and-consumerism/ for more on how this has been detrimental to our witness as a church.

Excellent analysis. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is nothing new. Going back to Charles Finney's 19th century revivals in NY and on the American frontier, the church had been using a man-centered approach to get people "saved" for almost 200 years. The underlying problem is that we have little confidence in God's appoint methods to save people - His Word (Rom. 10:17) and the love of the Christian community (John 17:22-23)

@steve m - It sounds like you read only the first page of this article. If you read the other two pages, you'd have seen that Mark did offer an alternative -- trusting in God's grace instead of our own abilities, and living out lives of genuine love for our neighbors.