I have never seen a commercial for my denomination, ever. I imagined that if we did it would have an intelligent and beautiful elegance of the reformed tradition that I have discovered here in seminary.
here is our ad for Advent…
seriously folks? Were are going to offer this stuff on bumper stickers? can we do no better? I pray we engage our communities better than this.
It doesn’t seem too bad to me, not offensive anyway. In what context did you see it?
I see it as another attempt to bumper sticker theology. It dumbs Jesus down to an option between profane and divine. If Jesus is just an option then I ask, where is the transformation?I just do not see how is is going to help the denomination in outreach. If this is what we are doing with our limited mission budget then we are not doing well.I believe we can do more in outreach than a cheesy commercial that basically repeats “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”
I don’t know if the choice between profane and divine is really so dumb. I mean, it is if you force the issue to its dualistic extremes, but the central decision we make as Christians is to love the divine in the midst of the profane. In terms of transformation, the spot talks about the difference of meaning between Christmas with Christ and Christmas without. Knowing God transforms the meaning of our experience of our entire life.Will it help as outreach? Is it a good use of our mission budget? I don’t know, but I do know that neither you nor I should condemn this ad for its cheesiness. To do so would simply be to value our own aesthetic over someone else’s. I can actually easily see this ad appealing to the tastes of many Americans.I also like how it brings up Advent, instead of just saying, “Come to church this Christmastime.” And also, not to be too picky, but Jesus is indeed the reason for the season.