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Church Gimmicks
Easter
Outreach

“Many churches see Holy Week as an opportunity for community outreach, in some cases the bigger the better. Church leaders say they hope the spring-themed fun will serve the community, glorify God, and attract new Easter-weekend visitors to worship.” - CToday

Discussion

Mon, 04/06/26

I just can't get past the thought of "what trauma would occur to all those kids of the Easter Bunny's chute didn't open?". Maybe I'm just warped.

Along similar lines, I was at Cabela's once, admiring the central taxidermy exhibit, when a kindergarten class came by, and the tour leader noted that the caribou were like Santa's reindeer. I was waiting--thankfully in vain--for one of the kids to put two and two together and figure out that some galoot was blowing away Santa's reindeer.

Call me weird, but even in my decidedly not evangelical upbringing, I saw real wonder in the reality of the resurrection. Yes, they'd failed to make me a theological liberal...

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Mon, 04/06/26

I was studying Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower today before I read this. Jesus gives that parable as he is explaining why he uses parables instead of speaking plainly. He then quotes from Isaiah 6:9 to show that it is because their eyes and ears are too dull to see or hear what he is saying so he uses parables. Further their eyes and ears are dull because of their hearts. He then goes on to explain the seed and sower parable and how the word does not take root and it all hinges on the problem of their heart keeping them from understanding. He explained by quoting Isaiah in the midst of that parable.

The whole point was that Jesus was using parables so that those who were really dedicated to hearing his message would put in the effort to understand, but those who didn't care about it wouldn't bother. If Jesus took an approach of giving the word in parables to those who were serious, why do we think we need a gimmik to try to get the word to those who are not serious.

I understand the idea of salting oats get a horse to drink water, but too many churches are so busy salting the oats that they neglect those who really want to hear and understand the word of God. Jesus didn't do that. He taught in depth to those who wanted to hear. The context of that parable about the sower was that so many wanted to hear that he had to go out in a boat from the shore to teach them. Then he taught them in parables so they really had to want to hear it to understand it. Lets not dumb down Christianity.