Stop Using Media (Part Two)

Posted by Scott McClellan on October 7th, 2008 at 9:24 am

This is the second installment in an ongoing and open-ended series devoted to convincing you, the church leader, not to use media.

Stop using media if this is the best you can do:

Our designer, Ryan Jarrell, sent this my way this morning. Wow.

And before you start in on me, no, I’m not pro-fornicaction. And no, I’m not against teaching on sin and its wages. What I am against is drive-by condemnation, bumper sticker evangelism, and half-hearted attempts at being set apart in this world that involve slogans or bubble letters.

Stop using media—whether it be digital or stick-on—to try to convict people of sin. Start using media to tell people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Start using media to tell people—regardless of their spotless or despicable sexual history—how much God loves them and desires a relationship with them. Oh, and one last thing: Don’t use media on the freeway or at a stop light. Please.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Visual. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “Stop Using Media (Part Two)”

That’s amazing… I completely agree. Too many times we use things like this as a crutch at best and as a way to completely alienate/offend other people at worst. I’m not saying that parts of the bible are not “offensive” but speak in love and not correction or condemnation. We’re called to love, not judge, last time I checked that was God’s job.
I think all great media speaks of God, whether it’s Christian of secular, it rings of our Creator, the original creator. This is an example of bad art. I would say it speaks against God more than it could for Him.
Maybe one could drive a Prius to show how God cares about His creation, that would be drive by preaching I could understand…

posted at 10:41 am on October 7th, 2008 by Archie Mck

Agreed.

posted at 1:47 pm on October 7th, 2008 by Clayton Borah

You said it!

Start using media to tell people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Great post. Sad photo.

posted at 2:14 pm on October 7th, 2008 by Chris Chowdhury

Another example of Christians telling people what they are against, instead of showing people what they are for.

posted at 9:02 pm on October 7th, 2008 by John Snyder

ewww…That typography is giving me nausea.

posted at 7:26 am on October 8th, 2008 by Chris

Just a thought…
I wonder how the prophets of the OT would have felt, or would have been reacted to, when they did their “walk-in condemnation.”

Not saying that I agree with this - not saying that I don’t. Just thinking…

posted at 7:31 am on October 8th, 2008 by LayGuy

@layguy: You ask a good question. I tend to see more empathy in the message of the prophets than this kind of alienating condemnation. They identified with the sin of the people they spoke judgment against and even understood it as there own judgment.

“… I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…”

posted at 8:55 am on October 8th, 2008 by Chris Chowdhury

but it makes me feel like I’m sharing the Gospel without the fear of rejection or having to do much of anything at all. How can you beat that?

posted at 9:18 am on October 8th, 2008 by eoobro

I tend to agree with the comments posted here. In addition, though, I would add that I don’t have a problem with the idea of teaching about hell and God’s judgment… as long as it’s given along with the answer of God’s love, grace, etc. After all, what’s God’s grace about/for if there’s nothing that we are being condemned for without it. All that being said, the problem isn’t the message necessarily, but how it’s being delivered. I like the author’s definition: “…drive-by condemnation, bumper sticker evangelism, and half-hearted attempts at being set apart in this world that involve slogans or bubble letters.” We’ve got to engage with grace, not drive by with condemnation.

posted at 12:36 pm on October 8th, 2008 by Paul Loeffler

This is a great post. I borrowed the image for a post on my blog. You can find it here:

http://www.bedeviant.com/2008/10/08/jesus-drives-a-ford/

Thanks so much for your ministry and being willing to cultivate the goodness that exists in this world! As God said, “It is good….” Peace. JMW

posted at 8:29 am on October 9th, 2008 by Justin Wise

I’m in complete agreement. My fear is that you’re only preaching to the choir with Collide’s audience. You’re selling the already sold. How can we get this message to the driver of that car? They OBVIOUSLY don’t “get it.”

posted at 4:49 am on October 10th, 2008 by Roland Thomas Gilbert

I agree that is definitely on the road of condemnation. Things like that get people confused about who Jesus really is.

posted at 6:08 am on October 10th, 2008 by Adrian Rodriguez

[…] Drive-by condemnation courtesy of Collide Magazine. […]

posted at 9:02 am on October 11th, 2008 by Share-it Saturday, October 11 « From The Mind of MandoRon

[…] Drive-bys Need to Stop […]

posted at 9:49 am on October 17th, 2008 by Links from the Past Few Weeks « Chaotic Ministry

Wow. No, WOW.

Living in the UK, I’d forgotten that stuff like this happens in the States.

We’ll do our best over here to keep this use of media from getting popularized. :-)

posted at 7:16 am on October 25th, 2008 by Adam Mabry

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