By The Prodigal Jon
I read a lot of advertising magazines right now. Part of the reason
I do is that I work in that industry, but I also read because I think
advertising is an interesting mirror on our society.
Nothing is accidental anymore when it comes to creating messages.
It’s all calculated with research and focus groups and persona studies
and traffic reports and ROI. Knowing that, when you see an ad it’s
fairly safe to assume that something in our culture has created a need
for that ad. That is, an ad that talks about how easy it is to get
carpet installed was created because a lot of consumers told the
advertisers that getting carpet installed was difficult. So that need
was met with a new message.
This is why a recent quote in the magazine Communication Arts,
frustrated me a little. It wasn’t necessarily the words they used. It
was more that their words reflected back on the church and in some
ways, me. Here is what they said:
“As traditional institutions, such as government, the church and the
schools, fail to provide meaning, consumers will increasingly turn to
products and services to find meaning in their lives. Savvy companies
that can align themselves with the core values their customers find
meaningful, and do so authentically, will prosper in an economy that’s
increasingly based on meaning.”
It’s not surprising that advertisers try to create meaning with
their customers. Meaning or as the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi calls it,
a “lovemark,” with a customer means they won’t leave your brand. Even
if you mess up, as Apple did with their recent iPhone price drop,
people will feel too attached to your brand to go somewhere else.
The difficult part of that quote is the idea that the church is
failing to provide meaning. As a result, consumers are looking to other
products and services for meaning. Like the Luna candy bar. Instead of
saying, “Hey, come eat some nougat,” Luna’s website says, “Food feeds
our souls …” which is a bit of a stretch. I love Willy’s burritos in
Atlanta (don’t mention Moe’s in the same breath) but rarely has a meal
there fed my soul.
So then, if the church is failing to provide meaning, what does that
mean? What does that look like, why does it matter that millions of
dollars is spent every year telling people nougat is more meaningful
than God?
The answer to those questions and many others is longer than this
post could ever be, but I will say this –sometimes the creative work we
develop for the Lord is horrible. The easy example of this is all the
milk rip offs, “Got God?, Got Destiny?, Got Jesus?” Imagine if in the
Old Testament Solomon had said to God, “Hey, the new temple is about to
open and there’s this really popular local advertising campaign called
‘Got Camel Juice?’ I was thinking about changing that to ‘Got Temple?’
Nice right?”
That is such a dumb example but it does reflect a bigger problem.
The creator of the universe deserves to be represented creatively. He
deserves a web site better than the one the son of a staff member at a
church can create. He deserves postcards that don’t have typos and
bumper stickers that herald his splendor instead of amplifying our own
shame, e.g. “Real Men Love Jesus.”
This might be a pet peeve of mine, but in Malachi I felt like God
called into question the creativity I offer him. Forget for a minute
your monetary tithe. How are you, as a Christian, tithing of your time
and your talent? Lots of people get treasure right, but time and talent
are a challenge.
I confess that often, God gets my scraps. He gets my leftovers. My
creative throw aways that I would be embarrassed to give to my boss at
work. He gets my 15 minutes in the morning and maybe a few minutes of
prayer in the car on the ride home. How does that make him feel? Here
is what Malachi 1:13 says,
“When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them
as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord.
I confess that my time and talent are often injured, crippled and diseased.
Why does that matter? Because creatively speaking, God designed me for so much more.
In Exodus, we get a pretty detailed picture of how important
creative people are to God. In fact, the artists and craftsmen were the
second group of people God consecrated. After Aaron and the priests,
God focused on the designers. Imagine if churches did that? Imagine if
the second person hired after the senior minister was the senior
designer? Would that shift in focus change the way the church and God
are represented in this country?
And in Exodus 36:2 we see an even more direct description of how the tabernacle and ark were built:
“Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to
whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the
work.”
When I first read that, I thought about what an amazing opportunity
it must have been to be able to build the ark, the very temple of God.
And in a heartbeat, God convicted me that I have that same opportunity
to build his temple every day. When I expressed confusion he reminded
me of 1 Corinthians 6:19 which says, “Do you not know that your body is
a temple of the Holy Spirit,”
Foof. That was like a punch in my creative face and is why I
honestly try to make these posts as insightful and creative as
possible. (Minus that horrible camel juice reference above.)
I hate when people treat the church like a piñata. It’s such an easy
thing to do, to pick on the cheesy stuff we do, or the bad materials we
create with budgets that are admittedly microscopic compared to the
Luna bar folks. But it can be better. I have friends that are using
their creativity to the fullest. They are giving God the firstfruits of
their artistry. Carlos Whitaker at www.ragamuffinsoul.com, Tim Challies at www.challies.com,
Julie at North Point Community Church, Gabe with Catalyst, Donald
Miller and countless others. God has blessed me with friends that
sharpen how I reflect His glory.
Today, I want to challenge you to look at your creative offering to
the Lord. Is it crippled and damaged, like mine all too often is? Or is
it choice and pure and beautiful, deserving of the father of the world?
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