“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, NLT)
So what’s your brand of choice? Are you the one who’s been loyal to Ping since your set of Ping Eye 2’s from the ’80s? Are you the TaylorMade freak who now must have all things white? Did you possess everything Nike, at least when Tiger was on top of the world? Or are you the traditional Titleist “purist”?
Whichever company receives your loyalties, there is something about the brand that matters to you. The big money marketing efforts of your company have been effective in claiming your golfer’s heart.
If only we believers in Jesus Christ could be more intentional in our branding, we might be a more effective in our message. We might capture people’s hearts, too!
Andy Stanley, Pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, said in a recent sermon dealing with this topic, “Christians are viewed as being judgmental, homophobic moralists who think they are the only ones going to heaven and who secretly relish the fact that everyone else is going to hell.”
The famous author, Anne Rice, who became a Christian over ten years ago, recently posted the following on Facebook: “For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”
Let’s face it, Christians have a big branding problem. The analysis of our insiders seems pretty accurate. Andy Stanley and Anne Rice helped confirm something in my heart that the Holy Spirit had already been working on in me: be more of a lover and less of a fighter. I wholeheartedly believe that if we would always err on the side of grace and love, we would deliver a much more attractive brand that more closely emulates Jesus. The apostle Peter said “love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8), and if you’re anything like me you could use a multitude of sin covering!
Perhaps the reason Christians have such a bad brand image is because we have missed the whole purpose of Christianity. We do not truly follow Jesus. Instead of examining and following what he and his disciples taught, Christians as a whole have turned our focus and efforts on ourselves and our institutions. It was in these things that Christ often found opposition with the Pharisees, and it was their religious snobbery that became their brand identity.
Two thousand years later, we Christians often continue to try to claim God’s Way with self-righteous, judgmental hearts. In this, we miss the opportunity to actually reveal the one, true God because we’re too busy picking fights in his name. We are constantly fighting for political, social, and moral stances (even with justifiable reasons). But instead of winning over our enemies with love, we push them farther away because we do not resemble the one we think we are fighting for.
I can only imagine what people would say about us if we just focused on what Jesus said was the greatest commandment: to love.
—
Josh Nelson
July 12, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.