Success - Part 5

"Do you ever wish we had a new word for “Christian?”

That quote is from an article called "Those who would be Christians," by John Fischer. Let me share it with you today and I look forward to your comments.

I bet there are a lot of people out there who would be Christians if they didn’t have to become a “Christian” to be one. If that sounds confusing, it’s because I’m not talking about true Christianity but about how the word “Christian” has been translated into contemporary American life and culture. “Christian” has now become commonplace. But what we think of when we use the “C” word is rarely what the rest of the world is thinking.

When they hear the word “Christian,” the average non-Christian doesn’t think of the church at large or of followers of Christ in all cultures, classes, denominations, races and nationalities. They are more likely to have in mind a kind of American cultural Christianity that is a composite of what has surfaced in the media in this country in the last 15-20 years—a stilted stereotype at best. Whether we like it or not, we have been branded, and the image is not a good one.

My wife is a marketing executive. She knows that selling products has to do with consciously branding them. For instance, LL Bean has come to represent Yankee honesty and value; Volvo has a worldwide reputation for building the safest cars; Disney is the undisputed expert at entertaining children (of all ages). These associations are no accident. They are designed by marketers to tie a personality or identity to a product or company aimed at a targeted market. Though the Christian brand may not have been the brainchild of a conscious marketing strategy, we are branded nonetheless by a stereotype that has little to do with truly following Christ. In short, Christians have been branded into an image that most non-Christians reject, even those who would be Christians. Truthfully, many Christians reject it, too, but few non-Christians know this unless they get close enough to our lives to see the difference.

The world hears “Christian” and sees a white, middle-class conservative on a political soapbox with an American flag in one hand and a Bible in the other. It doesn’t imagine a kid with dread locks and bones in his nose singing about Jesus. It doesn’t imagine an African-American pastor helping neighborhood kids get off drugs. It doesn’t imagine a body of Vietnamese Christians sharing a church with Hispanic believers in the middle of rural California. And, saddest of all, it doesn’t imagine non-judgmental people with compassion who are marked by their kindness to others and generous spirit of service and unconditional love. It is truly a tragedy that a merciful gospel that welcomes everyone is branded by an image that speaks for only a few.

I think as Christians, we have put too much into our media-based efforts to spread the gospel and not enough into our own lives and relationships. It has been these mass-market efforts that, to a large extent, are responsible for this branding of Christianity—one that is counter-productive to the gospel, driving away those who would be Christians because they can’t get past the brand.

As Christians, we are all bearers of Christ, and our lives become the proving ground of faith in the world. If the world rejects the Christian brand, it may not be such a bad thing, as long as real Christians give people something tangible to put in its place. That kind of witness can’t be found in a song or a TV show or a film series or even a seeker-sensitive church service. It comes over coffee or at the ball game, or while car pooling to work or working out at the gym. Personally, I think the world is full of people who would be Christians if they could just meet and get to know a real one in a natural, normal setting.

Christians need to be shaken from these stereotypes as much as the world needs to encounter the message free of them. To a certain extent we have cooperated with this branding effort because it has given us a false sense of power and influence, and it has enabled us to hide in a subculture, safe from a hostile world. Letting a brand dictate the gospel to the world seems potent, but, at the end of the day, no one is closer to the truth, ourselves included.

There is a place for a public representation of a Christian and the Christian point of view, but it will be in the relationships of our private lives where the reality of faith lives or dies. Those who would be Christians may not think they like Christians, but it’s only because they haven’t really met one yet. They’ve only seen and heard the brand. This is where you and I come in. (John Ficher, The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding grants permission for this article to be copied in its entirety, provided the copies are distributed free of charge and the copies indicate the source as the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, ©2008)

What are your thoughts on John's article and how we can be more successful in the "courtroom" of public opinion?

Thanks for stopping by!
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Adrian