You Don't Have to Advertise a Fire

Worship at Redeemer

A Toledo television station recently called me, saying it wanted to feature our church as their "Church of the Month." The representative told me, up front, that it would cost us some money. I said "No, we don't spend money on advertising our church."

Instead, we spend money and resources on tending and stoking the fire, which costs surprisingly little and often costs nothing. Advertisements are not the fire. A lot of ads hype, right? If they hype they are disingenuous, which is one thing Jesus was not. If you have to hype Jesus it's a sign that Jesus might not be there. If you hype-advertise without actual, present, Jesus-fire people will see that, behind the promotion, nothing resides. The emperor has no clothes; the church has no God-presence.

Promote Jesus. Follow after Jesus and honor him. Direct all resources to this cause!

Staying below the radar screen can be good. The original church was an underground movement of secretly growing seeds. Get subversive. Armies don't advertise their existence and appearing. Revolutionary movements, I suggest, don't need to.

If Church Movement is happening, you won't have to advertise the fire.