While working on a sermon awhile back I was once again struck at the awesome love of God. I am floored at how God chose to extend His loving hand toward us, his broken children. It’s an easy equation really. One that shouldn’t require much discussion. God loves us like crazy, Sends Jesus to show His great love, Jesus is a perfect example, and then we are told to love like Jesus. Pretty simple right? WRONG! There is nothing easy about love, and right when you think you have it all locked down Jesus throws in ‘Love your enemies’! The wonderful thing is though, we do have His example. Without it Love would have no definition.

When have you felt his daddy arms around you?

As a photographer one of the things I love about digital shots is the ability to immediately erase any shots that are blurry, too dark, or just plain messed up.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our lives had that delete button? Earlier in the day I was discussing television shows with a group of people I respect a great deal. At one point in the conversation the most elderly of the group brought up the fact that his wife enjoys watching the ‘Ellen’ show. After allowing this info to sink in for a second he immediately followed it up with, ‘Well, she thinks she’s funny. We don’t condone her lifestyle or anything’. It was in this moment I wish I could just hit delete and walk away.

As Christians we don’t need to make statements like that. I don’t believe it’s necessary. I mean if my friends were talking about how much they like me and then said ‘Dustin’s a fun guy to hang out with, but I don’t condone his thoughtlessness’ I would feel weird. Sin is the absence of our Lord and Savior. We [Christians] need to face the fact that we are all infested with it. It should make our hearts heavy when someone lives a life apart from the King. We shouldn’t be more worried if others think were condoning sin. The religious thought Jesus was a condoner of sin, but He was instead sent to demolish it. Some talk, some love .. I want to love.

There have been many moments in my life that I wish I could hit the delete button. Many times I have put my foot in my mouth, showed disrespect to another, or was just plain rude. One of my favorite promises is that when we ask for forgiveness God tosses our sin as far as the east is from the west. God has the ultimate delete button. Ever have an incident where you wish God would hit it?

Sometimes words dance. Sometimes they go together like peanut butter and chocolate, sometimes they don’t. Church & Marketing are two words that simply don’t gel. Unfortunately many churches gauge success by numbers and dollars. When the numbers dip, they run an ad in the local paper in order to get butts in seats, and dollars in plates.

I believe that church marketing starts with you. You go to work or school everyday and you have hundreds of interactions with others. You choose to love those around you or act like a jerk. You have the ability to be a very real example of Jesus to those around, that to me is the greatest billboard for Christ that exists.

For more info go to www.ChurchMarketingSucks.com

What examples of church marketing bug you?