I don’t know exactly what a “Rock N Roll Airhead” is but apparently we are the church for them. Recently, one of our invitations landed in the mailbox of a very disgruntled Christian who felt compelled to inform us that our church is the pits. It is not uncommon to recieve criticism like this when you are reaching real people…Jesus did. I find it a wee bit disheartening though when a fellow believer would rather spend their energy shooting critical arrows at those who are actually making a difference than to actually make a difference. Here is a copy of the email:
Hello,
I found your flyer adorned with a picture of a used-up roll of toilet paper still on its hanger in the mailbox of my weekend getaway in Wilmington, and I think it is, without a doubt, the most vulgar invitation to a church service that I have ever received.
Your targeted demographics, I’m sure, are rock ‘n’ roll airheads who have the crude sensibility to think that your disgusting graphic and its message are cool.
We are certainly living in strange times when a “church†has to resort to bathroom humor to attract worshippers. If this is what Christianity has fallen to– dumbed-down to– in its desperate search for new converts, then it is not worth . . . well, it’s not worth a roll of toilet tissue.
I can just imagine your tacky services with rock and roll “praise†singing, feel-good fellowship, banal and semi-illiterate, insufferable sermons. No dignity. No poetry. No intelligent theology. No majestic, traditional hymns. Nothing of any taste or culture.
“Come, Lord Jesus,
Our guest to be,
And let us rock ‘n roll with Thee.â€
Is this your mantra?
When it comes to Christianity, the Lifepoint Church must be the pits. I shall save your advertisement to illustrate the revolting shallowness of contemporary worship services in an article I am writing that contrasts Christian Humanists with Christian Fundamentalists. I believe your church falls into the latter category.
So, all you Lifepoint Rock N Roll Airheads, raise your lighters high and sing with me:
“Come, Lord Jesus,
Our guest to be,
And let us rock ‘n roll with Thee.â€
AMEN!
He must have found out about the Guitar Hero game at the office.
)
I told you that game would get you in trouble (ha he ha he
What is so funny is last Sunday Brad mention we should hold up our lighters or cell phones when Dave was belting out the song!
Would love to see a copy of the flyer that generated this response… Can you scan it in?
Tks.
dude you’re so late to the party…this is old news! ha ha. keeping on keeping on jeff. we’re all rockin’ with you. i posted on daryl’s blog how funny it is that people get so worked up over our relatively tame marketing… i guarantee you that guys wife still buys stuff on occasion at victoria secret despite THEIR marketing!
Grrrrrrrr! Snarl! Snort! Why I oughtta! This mad me so mad I could squeeze a grape! So, rather than abuse innocent fruit, I wrote a blog of my own about it. Check it out…
[...] criticize you no matter what you do or how you do it. One such person wrote in this super offended response to our innocent toilet paper graphic that was the cover of our mailer for our “Stuck?” [...]
“Come, Lord Jesus, Our guest to be,
And let us rock ‘n roll with Thee.â€
SORRY, THAT IS JUST TOO FUNNY!
I wish I could have composed something like that the first time our local hipster church did the “Sizzling Sex” mailer for their Easter kick-off. (They’ve done so many sex series over the past 5 years, I think even their own members are finally bored with it. (They were a bit behind the community on that one.)
A roll of toilet paper? What will you hipsters think of for the next mailer? A picture of a used prophylactic with the caption “Feeling Used?” ?
Wait, I’m probably giving away ideas….
(Don’t use that one..no pun intended)
Seriously, while I know most of the hipsters here are on an arrogant high (as they’re sure they’ve redefined and reinvented evangelism for the “first” time), you may be surprised to know how many detractors of the movement are actually “former” members, and therefore able to see how phony, arrogant, condescending, juvenile, and unspiritual the whole movement really is.
Well, I s’pose there can’t be a thing wrong with a toilet paper mailer just so long as these poor, lost souls being introduced to your “Rock n’ Roll Airhead Church” are learning the spiritual way to hang toilet paper.
Ya know…? Just the basics are good enough. Should the end of the paper be facing the wall, or away from the wall? Also, should the end of the paper be up or down…?
You could really take this one to high spiritual levels, like, should the toilet paper be to the right or the left of the toilet.. Obviously right would be the better choice, I mean, the whole thing with the right hand of God? On the right side of his throne?
In which case I am a horrible sinner, as my toilet paper hangs to the left of my toilet. Gee, didn’t even realize that till just now! I will HAVE to change that.
But seriously, toilet paper has GOT to play into this somewhere, RIGHT?
“Come Lord Jesus, our guest to be
let us rock and roll with Thee”
Probably the funniest thing I’ve seen all past week. Man this guy is good.
-Carolyn
But Ron…we’re really not very hip.
now the prophylactic thing is just gros… we may be younger, but we’re not idiots OR indecent. i love how just because we do something a little different or dress in more modern clothes, we’re called “those hipsters”. as if we’re trying to be a “hipster” on purpose whatever that is…whoever thought of just being ourselves- a bunch of 20-30 somethings living for Jesus to make a difference. how do people call you phony, arrogant and unspiritual when they’ve never talked to you, been to a service, or even bothered to listen to a podcast? oh yeah, i forgot, because all those “hipster contemporary churches with their rock n’ roll music” MUST all be the same…there’s a lot of real “meat” in those sermons! i’d bet people would be surprised to know half our congregation is over 45! the older generations must be getting SOMETHING spiritually solid out of it…
Hey wait a minute! Don’t you contradict Ron, Jeff! I like that term…hipster…hip…I’m a hipster…I’m hip! Yeah! Way cool dude! I’m a 53 year old hipster. Thanks Ron! Wow! Hip! Who’da thunk it? Now you’re gonna have hard time getting my head back down to normal size, Pastor. By the way, is there something wrong with the mind of someone who would come up with the prohylactic idea? Very unhip!
Yeah my hips are around a 29. I’m not a hipster for sure. I agree with you Jeff.
Jeff, rebekah, and Eddie,
My sincere apologies for the tasteless mailer suggestion. (I was merely demonstrating vulgarity by being vulgar, which was unfortunately, coarse and inappropriate. And trust me, with 7 children and #8 on the way, I believe the idea to be very unhip as well
)
I think you missed the point of the note, though.
Watching the church trying to conform to the ways of the culture in order to evangelize it is kind of like watching a 60 year old man with a bad toupee (sp?), bell-bottom jeans, and a tie-dyed T-shirt trying to pick up college coeds at a singles bar. (There’s a picture for you!)
We are to be salt and light, a city on a hill, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people called out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Pet 2:9). We are to pursue holiness as we discard the things and ways of this world. (Col 2:8)
Now I know the favorite verse of every purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, consumer-friendly, culturally relevant pastor is 1 Cor 9:22, but I think it has been taken way out of context and to excess.
It has become the focus of nearly every aspect of the movement. The message of the Gospel (Christ crucified) and the power of the Gospel (salvation, deliverance, sanctification through the Holy Spirit) have given way to the method. (And it is so appealing because it feeds the flesh through its “human wisdom” and it appears to produce results, at least for as while.) (See 1 Cor 1:18-2:5)
“Tastes great, less filling” was the best description I could find after nearly two years of being “culturally relevant”.
The church has muddled through history for 2000 years, and it hasn’t always been pretty. (There is a lot of room for criticism, to be sure. I’ve done plenty of the criticizing as well.)
No one wants to be left out of the game, and I think that fact, as well the the simple fact of human pride has fostered a movement that has produced almost a caricature of itself. (We’re a long way from Saddleback Sam.)
Ron,
You judge us by one mailer like you’ve known us for years and actually stepped through our doors the first time when you haven’t. You don’t know us or our heart because you haven’t taken the time to listen. All you’ve done is run off at the mouth bashing us for what you think we may be or are about. I’m pretty sure they’re is some scripture to back up listening more than you talk.
If you knew us or even been to Lifepoint you would know that whatever the method we may choose to use, the focus is always Jesus in everything we do and everyone of our services. We talk more about salvation, deliverance, and Jesus more than any church I’ve ever been to. And quess what else we talk about? Sin! Yes we can even confront that head on. Jesus is and will always be the focus! Nothing we do will EVER get in front of the masterpiece! Methods are simply a way of connecting with culture. So before you judge us and accuse of us on what our focus may be, you should look around and see that we speak truth. Til then I think we’ve all lost focus. Instead of arguing with us maybe you could spend that time loving people to Jesus. And I’m going to go do the same!
I feel for your apparently sad experience Ron, but please don’t allow it to cause you to use such broad-brush strokes and stereotype every modern church. At Lifepoint I believe our main priority is Jesus and after that Jesus and making Him known. It is a shame that while we are doing that we have to waste time dealing with the “heresy hunters.”
I think it is awesome that people are upset. It means you must be doing something right.
To quote Gene Simmons (or was it Petra?):
God gave rock and roll to you
Gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul of everyone
I raise my lighter with you to sing,
“Come, Lord Jesus,
Our guest to be,
And let us rock ‘n roll with Thee.â€
Keep up the great work. Rock on Lifepoint!
Well, my hips, nor my age is anywhere NEAR 29 like Brad’s but you know what? I think you are all definitely reaching people in ways that others cannot. And the ones that need to be reached by the suit and tie, you approve and point people there as well, not condemn them for what they are doing. So from the viewpoint of a 46 year old hipster, married to a 50 year old hipster, raising a 14 and 16 year old hipster (who’s hips are probably under 29…and who rock Guitar Hero I might add) I say props to you all for reaching people in whatever means God leads you to use. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it isn’t right. The people that think they have it all figured out (I won’t mention names…) are usually the ones that scare me the most….God knows I don’t have it all straight but He will help me to get there….using the means He needs for my needs! Have a lovely day!
I guess Jesus was just dumbing Himself down and conforming to the world by always speaking in parables.
I guess Paul was conforming to the world when he taught about God, spreading the Gospel through an altar “to an unknown God.” (Acts 17)
I guess Jesus was sinful when He insisted on talking to that Samaritan trash at the well, something no good Jew would have even considered doing. (John 4)
I guess even the Holy Spirit was wrong for letting the first followers of Jesus speak the languages of foreigners in order to reach them with the Gospel. He should have done the right thing and insisted those pagans learn the languages and come find Jesus themselves! (Acts 1-2)
Shame on you Lifepoint Church for following these shallow examples of people becoming relevant to reach people, dumbing down the Truth and Message along the way. You need to abandon all your vain efforts and withdraw from culture. If people don’t feel like coming in to your church, learning your language and culture and getting involved with something they don’t care about, that’s there own fault. If they are too selfish to give up tickets to a game or Sunday afternoon plans to come to a foreign place where they get welcomed on command, then they don’t deserve Jesus. The best thing you can all do is sit on your hands, wait for the world to come up with a reason to come to YOU, and then do something about.
(Sounds pretty rediculous doesn’t it? Sadly that’s what people opposed to life giving churches are saying with their actions, only they don’t say it with sarcasm…)
Our hips don’t lie!
I think I actually liked the idea…even if it don’t reach all the way where I live.
But question…who did God prefer to hang out with again??!!!
Was it the rich people with everything all together?
No! At least not of what I read! You gotta get down to peoples level…different churches reach diffent people. The person that I might be able to reach out to might not have anything to do with you! Same the other way around! God uses everyone as an extension of him, right? If all churches were the same, life would suck!!
I think it’s cool that the mailer is getting this much attention! How many times have you just tossed a bulk mailer away? This past weekend, a lady handed me a brochure for a church in Wilmington, and the ENTIRE thing was just text….which I threw away. So, the mailer is doing what we wanted!
I think all this discussion and differing opinions are great, but lets make sure we are discussing the right thing: the method of publicity. Because, as mentioned several times, the Message at Lifepoint has NEVER changed! We have always been and always will be about pointing people to Jesus. So we will do WHATEVER it takes to accomplish that. And yes, we will offend some people along the way, but we will remain laser focused on our mission as a church.
I do not read Blogs very often but I do not understand why when Jeff Blogs about spirital insights, only a few people comment. But when he posts an e-mail by a individual who receives a random mailer and does not like the way the church is trying to reach hurting people, the comments are more than I can read. As a 60 year who has been a Christian for 35 years, and spent most of that time in a church that taught me all about the bible and how we need to encourage our fellow christians, I can tell you that after spending just 18 months working with Jeff at Lifepoint Church, my heart has been changed for people. I have had the opportunity to see over 30 people get saved in the last 6 weeks and probably close to 100 people in the last 18 months. I have seen lives changed, (this is for you Eddie), I have seen people with addictions healed, I have seen marriages restored, I have seen one person (this is for you Rebekah) take it on herself to help a flood victim who lost everything, and I have personally had the opportunity to counsel and help people get their lives together. If it takes a mailer with an empty roll of toilet paper to get hurting people to come to hear about the real Jesus, then I say keep sending this type of mailer. For 35 years of my life, I was not used by God becuase I had the same mentality as the writer of this e-mail. But I have learned from a young pastor, who was called by God to Wilmington because God saw a need for a church like Lifepoint how we need to reach all people. Thank God that he allows Lifepoint Church to welcome anyone and everyone into the church. I count it a blessing that we are being criticized for this mailer. I believe we are in good company. Somewhere in all of my book studies, I think I remember that Jesus was criticized for wanting to take the gospel to everyone, not just a few. I remember that Jesus spent time with the hurting, the unclean, sinners and thiefs. An he also was crucified for what he did. When we learn to see people as Jesus saw them and we learn to have a heart for people as Jesus did, then we will stop looking at mailers and start looking at our mission. I believe God has given us a mission to take the gospel to everyone and we should not stop until everyone in Wilmington has heard about the saving grace of Jesus. That is a huge task, it is unfortunate that other Christians would rather write e-mails than go out and find the hurting and lost people of Wilmington.
amen George
‘Nuff Said!
I’m mad because I posted the same dang thing on my blog first and I only got 7 comments. That’s just wrong. Reposter are posers.
And communicating and conforming are two totally different things.
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