The Old Bait-and-Switch

I used to think bad marketing was good evangelism.

It seemed the height of wisdom to advertise a big youth activity - pizza, games, skits, fun for all! Fliers would go out. Teens would be urged to play it up to their friends, to hype it at school, to urge it on their family.

In reality, there might be rather pathetic cheese pizza, 15 minutes of games, a skit performed by some people who ought to have known better, and then the youth leaders had fun herding all the teenagers into a big room to listen to a 45-minute sermon.

Sometimes, this was effective in getting people to trust Christ or make decisions for Him - the gospel is a powerful thing, even if it's abused by poor marketing. Depending on how dynamic or funny the speaker was, sometimes many would come back for more. But just as often, the kids who came were one-shot wonders, annoyed at being tricked into a church service when they were promised games and fun.

Now, believe me, I've got nothing against pizza. I'd be thrilled if they'd give it its own food group, and maybe put it down at the bottom of the pyramid, with roughly the same recommended portion as grains, veggies, meat, and dairy combined. (After all, those are all on a worthwhile pizza - why can't we just eat lots of pizza and call all those things done?)

I love games, and I especially love the kind of games that get played at youth rallies - lots of enthusiastic violence and mayhem, little refereeing, plenty of potential for exciting injuries. And if someone is really funny, let the man work!

But I don't like deception. And we don't need deception. If the world needed more games, Christ would have founded Nintendo instead of dying on the cross. If it needed more pizza, He could have served that instead of representations of His own flesh and blood at the last supper. If it needed more laughs, He could have told jokes instead of going to the cross in silence. What the world needed was good news - the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins and risen from the dead. So that's what He gave us. And that's what we have to give the world.

There's no need to dress it all up and trick people into coming. Teens (and adults, for that matter) are desperate for real answers, for peace with God, for love, joy, hope, purpose, and acceptance. We've got all of that. Why hide the true power of what we possess behind a facade of skits and games? We're not here to entertain - we're here to transform.

I still have youth activies (and young adult activies, and so on). And they still involve lots of potential for injury, loads of pizza, and we laugh all the time. But I don't try to cover it up that we'll be looking at the Bible and talking about what it says, either. I try to make it clear what people can expect.

As we've done that, as we've renewed our focus on the Bible, as we've been up-front about when we're having a Bible study, when we're having a game day with a brief challenge, and when we're having a church service, the Lord has blessed. We're seeing young people saved, we're seeing them bringing their families to church with them, and we're seeing God work.

We don't have to trick people for Jesus. His truth is far more powerful.