Marketing Christianity

Marketing Christianity, doesn't that just sound awful.  We have a word that makes it easier to digest. It is evangelizing.  There, that's better.  But, how do mainline churches evangelize.  Maybe we should ask the question, why do it in the first place.  There are a number of people out there who would really rather not trouble themselves with the task.

We watched a video today in our bible study titled Selling Swimsuits in Alaska.  The presenter really did not bring out a lot of profoundly new ideas but he made me and the others think and I'm still thinking.  One of the things that he brought out was that you have to be really sold on what it is you are promoting.  You also need to be able to articulate why you chose your denomination or religion over the others.

Let me spend a little time talking about why the Episcopal Church is important to me.  We have something called the three legged stool.  Without one of the legs the other two will not hold the stool up.  The three legs are scripture, tradition, and reason.  All three of these legs work together.  Scripture is important.  We need to always  keep in mind the context in which it was written.  It will give the reader a deeper understanding of the message itself.  Tradition is equally important.  Once again, we need to know why a particular tradition is in place and if it still holds meaning for Christians today.  The last one is reason.  God gave us a wonderful power of reason and God expects us to use it.  All three of these legs really depend on each other to hold us up.  That is why I am sitting as I am as a deacon in the Episcopal Church.

By the way, Evening Prayer at St. Andrews is Wednesday at 5:30 P.M. It lasts about twenty minutes and there are four of us who are there most of the time.  We would like to make it five, or six, or seven.......

Peace,
Deacon Fred

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