I heard a story on the news the other day about a church in my hometown (Frisco) that was doing something outrageous. At the beginning of the broadcast when the lady imparting the news began, she said, "The youth group at Northstar Church in Frisco, TX..." I got a little prideful. I puffed up a little. That's my hometown. They're on the news for doing something newsworthy...something for Jesus.
Unfortunately, my pride only lasted a brief second.
They are in the news because they are trying to break a Guinness World Record. For what, you might ask? For the largest plate of nachos. They loaded a trough full of chips, caked it in cheese, threw on some peppers and added a ton of salsa. The final measurement? 3,555.25 lbs. (The old record was 3,158 lbs.)
An article in the Dallas Morning News quotes the assistant pastor as saying, "We want to show you that you don't have to be stiff and starchy to love God."
Really? So, while millions of people around the world are starving to death, a church in a yuppy Dallas suburb is creating a plate of nachos so large that no one who is starving will ever see.
Apparently, there were hundreds of kids there at this event. Are hundreds of kids really going to eat 3,555 lbs of nachos? I don't think so. So, what happened to the rest? I can only guess.
I know that doing fun things can get people into church and our rationale is that once we get them there, they will hear the Word of Truth and be here for good. Dave told me something that he read on a blog when churches were giving away cars and big screen tvs on Easter Sunday in an effort to get people in the church doors: What you win people to Jesus with is what you win them to."
The gimmicks we use to get people in the doors aren't always bad. But, like Dave said, we give away materialistic goods and then later we're going to turn around and no longer endorse being a part of a material driven world. There has to be a balance somewhere.
In my mind, I have a hard time justifying building a huge plate of nachos purely for the sake of getting people in the doors of the church. Not when it's excess. Not when alot of it probably went to waste. Not when a church will take the glory for breaking a record. "By faith in God Northstar Church broke a world record in nacho building." Yeah, I don't think we'll see that added to the Book of Hebrews anytime soon.
Did people come? Sure they did. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have been tempted to drive out there and see or even eat some of these nachos, if, for nothing else, to say that I was a part of breaking a world record.
But those unchurched people who did come, what is their perception of God and the Church? Do they view church as fun, fun, fun? 'Cause, you know, it's not all about fun. Live life to the fullest, yes, but it's not all cherries and roses and we can't lure people into the church believing that it's all fun and games.
Maybe I'm being too harsh. I know that their motives were pure. I'm sure that their sole desire was to bring people in. I know that they had honest intentions. And they are just a springboard for me to focus on a larger issue.
How far is too far in gimmicks? Maybe you can help me with this. What is too much?
Whatever happened to the Word. What happened to the Words that were as sharp as a double-edged sword that could pierce to very marrow of the bone?
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"We want to show you that you don't have to be stiff and starchy to love God."
ReplyDeleteHuh? What does that have to do with 3,000 pounds of wasted food? This kind of crap pisses me off. Maybe, maybe they had good intentions. However, they were sorely lacking in wisdom. How did this event honor God? How did this event proclaim the Gospel? It reads to me more like a "hey, look at us and what we're doing! we're cool, so come join us." event. I don't get it at all.
I watched a clip from a John Piper sermon recently where he said (while holding up his Bible) “Don’t let the world shape you so that this looks boring. God almighty has spoken, IT CAN”T BE BORING! It Can’t Be Boring. We are the problem.” He then goes on to say that Jesus is a “Vesuvius of Joy and energy and power and wisdom...”
ReplyDeleteThis addresses the problem of gimmicks to get people to church. We have bought in to the belief that even though the almighty God has spoken to us and sent his son for us, it is not interesting enough. Maybe if we would fall madly in love with our God we wouldn't have to try to trick people to know him. We would just show people him and show people how amazing he truly is.
I have no words... seriously??
ReplyDeleteI guess if you wanted to find a positive, you could say "At least they are trying to make a statement for God." I know some of you may think this is a stretch, but it is the same concept as the community fair that our church hosted a while back. They wanted to offer something fun to attract a crowd so they could try to bring some attention on the church who could then bring the attention to Christ. We wanted to offer health screenings, fire safety classes, child id pictures to bring a crowd in so we could bring some attention to the church so the church could then bring attention to Christ. I know we can argue that the things we offered had value so that is ok, but it is still the same concept. Offering something to get people in the doors.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of churches do these types of things, it is just a matter to what degree they do them or what avenue they use. I don't think they are entirely wrong, but we do have to be careful. We have to make sure we are giving the people Jesus and the truths of God. So if you are going to offer any type of event to bring in a crowd you need to make sure that Christ is the center of it.
You want to bring in a crowd? That's fine by me. I'm much more disgusted with this particular church wasting 3,500 pounds of food on a PR stunt. That food could have had an infinitely greater impact had the church used it to reach to those who actually NEEDED it. You know, the homeless, the poor, the destitute? Frisco may be a rich area, but I bet you don't have to look too hard to find plenty of hungry people.
ReplyDeleteUse a little common sense or wisdom people. Being wasteful isn't helpful to anyone.
First of all: "What ever happened to the Word." That needs a question mark...ENGLISH TEACHER.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all...A lot of chruches do a lot wasteful things. Look at the church you go to and I'm sure you can think of MANY things your church wastes money on or should do differently. Having said that I really don't see the point in doing this - Guiness Records are getting ridiculous. They used to be cool things but Biggest Plate of Nachos? Anyway I gotta go. I'm brewing the largest pot of hot tea to be cooked over a wood fire that uses formaldyhyde as an excellerant.
My dad just sent me an email. He heard a report on the news that they had to throw away over 1,000 lbs. of nachos! What a waste!
ReplyDeleteIt is a waste. I do also agree with Danny that many churches waste things on a regular basis. Gracie and I were talking about this last night.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if they wanted to do this, they could have at least brought in some poor people from nearby areas and used it to feed them, or something. If not enough poor people just offer it as a free meal for anyone in the community. Then once the crowd came talk to them about Christ.