Selling Easter?

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
Recently, the news wires hummed with the story of a church in Ohio sponsoring an Easter Sweepstakes. Two lucky winners will walk away with $500 each just for showing up for Easter Sunday worship!

Apparently, such theatrics "work" if the goal is to pack the pews with lottery winner wannabees. Last Easter, the sponsoring church more than doubled its usual attendance.

Today I read about a Georgia pastor who is planning to jump his motorcycle, Evel Knievel-style, over nine buses outside a Baptist church in Florida. This enterprising daredevil for the Kingdom also plans to jump through a wall of fire.

It's not hard to spoof or dismiss such attention-grabbing antics. They are crude, sensational, and manipulative. They appeal to people's basest motives. They represent the sort of melodrama and magical thinking Jesus rejected so emphatically during his Wilderness temptation: he was not partial to swan dives off the Temple (Matthew 4:5-7).

But much to the chagrin of my more sophisticated friends, I must confess the other side of my ambivalence: at least these folks are trying to gain a hearing for the Good News of Jesus. Maybe this is their best effort to get a increasingly secular, self-absorbed culture to even notice the church, much less pay attention to its message or feel its welcoming embrace.

Now, relax. I'm not about to suggest some flamboyant, tactless measure to generate a crowd. But what's Plan B? What does a church like ours need to do, want to do to draw others into the journey with Jesus? How can we learn to cultivate and practice the restless, seeking love that goes after the "lost sheep" until it is found? How do we practice evangelism (literally, "Good News-ism") with the sensitivity and compassion of Jesus?

Maybe we start by thinking of one person we know who needs Jesus and Jesus' people, the church. Then we covenant to pray for that person each day until our heart aches for him or her to know God's loving touch. Maybe we ask God to create an opening for us to speak with that person about faith in a gentle, non-threatening way. Maybe we invite him or her not just to church, but to community--to sit beside us, to share a laugh or a tear, and maybe even Sunday lunch. After all, Jesus never missed a chance to break bread with those falling in love with God, despite their best efforts to keep God at a distance.

Raffles and stunts are not likely to draw people into a relationship with the living God. For that, we need Jesus. And Jesus needs us to be his hands and heart, opening wide to all those who have an ache in their life only the loving Heavenly Abba can fill.