Something I typed up a few months ago and forgot to post. Enjoy:
While perusing a Southern Baptist weekly newspaper, I noticed an article praising a pack of SBCers in South Dakota for their gospel witness to the motorcyclists attending the annual Sturgis bike rally.
The article applauded the group, not for its strong testimony accomplished through service and Christ-likeness, but for establishing their witness by dangling a free Harley Davidson before the bikers.
The group spent the entire year accruing enough funds to procure a brand new Harley to give away at the rally. Their deal: if you listen to our 3 minute gospel presentation, we will permit you to place your name in this drawing for the free motorbike.
Apparently, over 2,000 bikers heard their propaganda, and supposedly some 700 of them “professed faith” (who knows how many of these professions were made by sober people).
Is this what our gospel has been reduced to? A 3 minute presentation propped up by a symbol of American materialism? Have we really cheapened our gospel that much?
No longer is Jesus attractive by merit of His cross and resurrection, we must now try to sell him to unbelievers. No longer does the grace of God stand on its own, it must now be buttressed by Harley Davidson. No longer does Christianity speak against the trends of this world, but now we join in on the trends for our gospel to have relevance. No longer must one understand the narrative of salvation history in order to comprehend the cross, she merely needs to accept a gospel which can be proclaimed in the time it takes to pop popcorn in a microwave.
It took God a few thousand pages to proclaim his great message of salvation and we think we can reduce it to 3 minutes! Our cheap grace, shallow, manipulative gospel has produced generations of cheap grace, shallow, manipulative Christians. A cheap grace gospel is no gospel at all, and it is certainly not a gospel that should praised in a Christian newspaper. The goodness of God, not Harley Davidson, leads people to repentance.
**I think I’m particularly frustrated by this stupidity this week because the sermon I heard on Sunday was a ‘Salvation’ message with no cross, no resurrection, and no involvment of the intellect.
3 Comments
Without the cross, there’s no gospel. We must preach Jesus crucified, or not preach at all.
3 Minutes ain’t bad. God works in mysterious ways.
That said, good point:
(who knows how many of these professions were made by sober people).
lol
-edgar.
That is interesting and sad. I would agree with your points. I find it strange that the churches wouldn’t have worked through existing ministries that are targeting bikers? There is a large organization of Christan bikers: http://www.cmausa.org/ that could actually provide the Gospel in a meaningful context with the Cross intact.
Crossn81,
Hear you loud and clear, brother. (hogan’s voice was intended as the mental reader of that last line) The gospel is best presented wrapped in culture, not naked and alone. When it is naked, it seems to the world as a sham, as something artificail and unrealistic. When wrapped in culture, that is, lived out in real lives and presented as a real alternative to the kingdom of the world, then its real power is unleashed.