The Enhanced Church

I sure am glad Christmas is over.

I am not a scrooge (I use this term knowing full well that Scrooge now loves Christmas because the grim reaper told him he was going to die), but I am always thankful when the holiday season is over.

Now that Christmas is over, I get a month long break from those stupid jewelry commercials. I have never seen one that didn't make me want to kick my dog (I don't actually kick my dog, but I do chase him around the house for a minute and a half). These commercials irritate me for three reasons that I can articulate:



1. The actors are horrible.
    I would call the acting cheesy, but I am afraid of a liable suit from Wisconsin. Even worse, they now have begun to spruce up the awful acting with dubbed in voices that can only be described as whispery.

2. The plot is unbelievable.
    The plot always consists of some romantic moment that is supposed to make me feel warm and fuzzy, but instead it gives me the willies. I am not sure that anyone can connect with these romantic scenarios.

    Does anyone watch these commercials and say, "aww, Honey! Remember that time we were in that cabin in the woods and it was storming something awful while we were looking out our massive window and the lighting struck and I got scared and jumped into your arms and you told me in a lower and more whispery voice than usual that you were present and that you always would be... remember that? that commercial we just watched makes me reminisce about such times... You probably should have given me a ring."? 

    The answer is no. No one relates to these settings. It doesn't connect with anyone.

3. The ads are deceiving


    You may have never noticed that at the bottom of the screen while they are showing off their over priced accessories, it says the following in tiny print:
     "The jewelry may have been enlarged and enhanced."


May have? Just once I would like them to be completely honest and say,
     "The jewelry you are looking at right now is bigger and shinier than what it will be in the store. Seriously, when you go to the store to fork over a grand for this ring, you will be greatly disappointed."


Sadly, we have often taken this same advertising approach with Christianity.

We have tried to appear as though we have it all together in order to entice people into our buildings, and sometimes it works. When it turns out that we are not as good as we claim to be, we alienate these people. They then rightfully refer to us as hypocrites.

I don't think people are looking for a perfect church. Instead, they are looking for a church who is acutely aware of its own shortcomings.

A church that is humble.

A church that is not enlarged and enhanced, and eventually disappointing, but a church that is modest and realistic.

The problem with hypocrites is not that they do not live up to what they claim, but they claim to be something they can never achieve.

A humble church is growing whether the numbers increase or not.