People who pull on to the Church by the
Glades campus in Coral Springs, FL this Easter weekend will be greeted by friendly volunteers, fresh Krispy Kreme donuts, freshly-brewed Starbucks coffee and Judya 9,000 pound Indian
elephant. It is all part of their new relationship series entitled Rehab.
The purpose?
Week one of the series is about denial, said Pastor David
Hughes. Many relationships suffer due to a denial of the elephant in the rooman obvious misplaced priority or passion that the people involved refuse to acknowledge and deal with.
Here at Church by the Glades, we value creative communication, Hughes
added. He believes that having a real, live elephant there as
people enter the property will grab their attention from the moment they arrive.
We are always trying to find fun ways to engage people and start the
teaching time from the moment people drive onto our property, said Hughes.
History shows that Church by the Glades is in the habit of doing
creative things to
draw people to their church. They have used iPhones, iTunes
gift cards, Hannah Montana tickets and Nintendo Wiis to promote teaching series in the
past.
No not the Onion, but an actual press
release forwarded to me from
target=”_blank”>Dawn Eden concerning
href=”http://cbglades.com/” target=”_blank”>this
church. They certainly have a slick web site.
Most web sites for Catholcs churches are not exactly Web 2.0,
more likely Web .6 beta. You can always tell you are on a web
site for a Catholic church because when you click on the bulletin link
it either doesn’t work or gives you a bulletin from last year.
I guess though for this Florida church
that they can do a whole
series with animals.
- Grab one Camel and one needle or you’re all set to do
another example. One hump or two. - Then there is the Lion and the Lamb one to demonstrate that
we are not there yet. This one would not be for the faint of
heart. - Roll in a giant whale tank to do a sermon on Jonah.
Camping out for three days inside the whale first might be
rather iffy though. - Obviously there is the whole Ark thing and you can rent out
the contents of the local zoo for a demonstration. - Snakes are pretty versatile for exegesis. One day
you got Genesis, and Moses gives you lots of snake flexibility.
Then of course there are the Gospel example with Paul getting
bit and the picking up snake stuff that some Churches already cover.
I wonder if they advertise for a sacristine
with good shovel skills?
I am not surprised they have increased
church attendance by 40 percent in one year with giving out prizes in
teaching series. If you are going church shopping well why not pick one
with Starbucks coffee, Krispy Creme donuts, and
iPhone contests?
And of course rock worship music and
everything you need to make you feel at home (if you live in a
Mall)
means:
A RELEVENT CHURCH
Though possessing the ultimate truth, the Church is often guilty of
dumbing down and dulling down the life-altering message of Jesus
Christ. Lost in confusing jargon, bogged down in doctrinal
minutia – simply said – the church has not stayed current.
Nothing like an Elephant and Hannah
Montana tickets to keep the
church current.
29 comments
“the Church is often guilty of dumbing down and dulling down the life-altering message of Jesus Christ.”
Um, does anyone else see the irony here?
Hi Jeff!
First, thanks for picking up the story. I am on staff at that church. Although I obviously don’t agree with your take on things, I do respect your opinion.
To be honest, I don’t think the elephant and giving things away is what keeps our church “current.” What does is our church’s desire to creatively engage people and teach them biblical truth. This is something many churches don’t do at all. In my opinion, if it takes elephants and iPhones to get them to our church to hear about Christ and how he saved them from there sin, I am OK with that.
As a quick note, Church by the Glades is not a Catholic Church…Also, there isn’t any Dawn Eden on staff here either.
Katherine: I don’t think having an elephant on campus has anything to with how we teach the truth about Jesus. I don’t see any irony there. It is simply a starting point for the teaching of it…from what we can tell, it seems to be working…
Fred, wow, your church is on-the-ball, picking up this blog-post so quickly. Kudos.
Let me introduce you to the Curt Jester, it’s a blog filled with satire, comedy, and irony 😉
Though if you folks did do the lion-and-lamb bit, I’d fly down to watch!
I’d say more, but I’m confident that you are using a Christian elephant, so it’s all okay.
Couldn’t resist… what if the elephant sprayed water out of its trunk… could that be used to baptize people? 😀
Using an elephant as a launching pad to talk about the “elephant in the room” might be a tad insulting to some folks’ intelligence. Are there that many people that need to be hit in the face with a giant (pun intended) object lesson in order to grasp a simple concept?
Um. Well. No offense, Church of the Glades guys, but have you ever heard Mark Evanier’s story about the joys of having a live elephant on a variety show?
The short version: it’s not #2 that’s the problem. No… it’s the duration and volume of #1.
I totally want an elephant at my parish on Easter Sunday morning. It would go down in parish history as “the Easter we had an elephant.” Catholic kids get visits from the Easter Bunny (not at church, of course, but let that go…), so why not a visit from the Easter Elephant?
-could that be used to baptize people?-
Well, you see, LCB, this is a complex issue. What was the elephant’s intent? Did he say, or at least sort of mumble a trinitarian formula? Are we sure that this is water, and not some type of mucus discharge? We really need a sacramental expert, perhaps a liturgist, to solve this dilemma for us.
Stick some fake bunny ears on that elephant, and you’ll be set.
The Communion hymn could be “Heffalumps and Woozles.”
I wonder…
It strikes me that Fred has a point worth taking seriously- that the doorway to Christ cannot be solely through religious practice.
Christ called Zacchaeus by inviting himself to dinner. He preached from hillsides and did miracles that involved wine and mourning.
It is noteworthy that Christ’s calls to holiness almost never happened in the Temple or synagogues.
So too, the Apostles spread the Good News where the people were, not where they were revered and welcomed.
My point is that the Church has every reason to purge its practice of that which has no basis in our tradition or revealed Truth, but the doorway to our faith is outside of the practice… It MUST be or we are “preaching to the choir.”
Wonder if they use this poster: http://www.spurgeon.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/e-s_002.jpg
“if it takes elephants and iPhones to get them to our church to hear about Christ and how he saved them from there sin, I am OK with that”
That’s great – but are you using innovation and creativity instead of the Truth to keep people returning? Isn’t Jesus Christ enough to get people to come to your church? Is Christ’s saving action on the cross insufficient? Your website is all very hip, and while you talk a lot about sin and Christ’s saving action on the cross, you are glossing over the “doctrinal minutiae” that Christ did talk a lot about – remember the Sermon on the Mount? The Mount of Olives Discourse? the Bread of Life Discourse? Oh yeah, and St Paul had a heck of a lot to say about Christian living. Sorry to say this, but I’ve been to similar Rock-n-Roll Bible Schools where I’ve heard “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you love Christ and love people”. If you don’t have the Eucharist, you don’t have Christ, and you don’t have the fullness of the truth he came to proclaim. All you really have is a circus and a glorified Radio Shack. And a whole bunch of people wonderfully entertained but woefully unprepared.
Personally, I like the Easter Beagle.
Perhaps the invitation and the practice are not exclusive and can co-exist.
To those in the Church, there must be the challenge to live in accordance with our faith. The effort to reconcile Catholic practice with the individualism, non-denominational “spiritualism,” and heretical notions of modern Evangelicalism is ultimately destructive to the Body of Christ. We were called to a life of holiness. Christ said it would be hard.
At its best, a church challenges and inspires. The Church, in the fullness of Her history, does this and we have too long remained silent as to her power to transform.
However, Vatican II was about opening the door to those who have their minds closed to the Church. It appears to me that creativity in matters outside of the practice of our faith is required if we are to evangelize. Again, the Apostles were not sent to synagogues alone to preach the Good News.
Thus, everything from carnivals to seminars should be on the table. We shouldn’t underestimate the power to transform of good acts. In this vein, perhaps a carnival-like atmosphere OUTSIDE the practice is entirely appropriate… as long as it exists to open the door to faith, rather than as a “feel good” substitute for the Church Herself.
The elephant’s intent and mucus discharge? That was uncalled for.
Until then, my coffee had stayed right where it belonged in my mouth. NOW I have to go find a towel and clean up my desk, my key board, my monitor, the mouse. This could take a while, gotta go.
No dice G-Veg. It’s pandering and reduces the Faith to just another marketable (and ultimately disposable) commodity.
Scott W.,
I appreciate the reply but I am not sure whether you reject the notion that Christianity should be “marketed” to the public or whether you object, as I do, to diminishing the practice of our Catholic faith.
For example… I assume that you would not object to a Parish Carnival as a vehicle to invite non-Catholics to take a look at the Church.
Bringing the carnival into the church is a different matter.
I guess my question is, what is the dividing line between evangelism and “reducing the faith to a marketable commodity?”
It’s funny, but it’s also worth asking ourselves: how well do we follow up on folks who visit us for an occasion? Do we have outreach in place for the “Christmas & Easter Catholics” who’ll visit us this weekend? When we have a parish carnival/fundraiser, do we invite folks to tour the church & have info. about RCIA handy? I’ve certainly had more invitations to our Sister Churches while scarfing down baklava than I’ve ever seen in my home parishes’ fish fries.
I have to wonder how seriously one can live the Gospel if they are needing to be entertained all of the time. This is what I see being bred by things like this. Teaching doctrine doesn’t dumb down the message of Christ. It’s when doctrine is not taught that this happens. When will people learn?
David Ancell,
I couldn’t agree more.
Picking up one’s cross and following Christ is serious business. I have no doubt that the practice of our faith, with all of its rubrics and solemnities intact, is the straightest path to death to self and life in Jesus.
However, the introduction to our faith cannot, to my mind, be through the practice alone. Sure, our living in as close to a Christ-like fashion as we can will inspire. It always has.
However, the doorway to Christ is an approachable one.
Just as the Apostles went out to the markets and the missionary orders to the unknown, Catholics have to leave the protection of our daily rituals and rites to meet the uninitiated on thier own turf.
I agree that the practices of our Faith must not be corrupted by a world that sees all but materialist individualism as a threat, but we cannot hide from the world either.
To the poster “on staff”. Starbucks is an antichrist company. Don’t you read the news? Abortion and homosexuality plus outright anti-Christian slogans on their dang coffeecups. Ditch them.
There is a more than just a fine line between “marketing” the faith and making it accessible to the un-churched. The gospels already show us how to do that, and if these churches were truly “biblical”, they would know this – in one Gospel, Andrew went to find Simon Peter to bring him to Jesus; Philip went and told Nathaniel “We have found the Messiah”. It is up to us as individuals to personally invite others to meet Christ and risk the rejection. Setting up carnivals, bringing in gimmicks and what not – I don’t believe that’s the best way, or even a good way. As for parish carnivals – the idea of the parish picnic is to foster community among the parish, not to increase the ranks. The best way, for 2000 years, is to be missionaries, whether in our own neighborhoods or venturing to other countries – in fact, which is a greater “marketing” tool, an iPod giveaway or a martyr’s sacrifice? Which one requires more of the believer, renting an elephant or giving one’s life totally to Christ? Between those choices, which one is more likely to convince a non believer of the Truth? I have no doubt it’s the personal invitation, the personal testimony, the risk of rejection, the sacrifice of life, the examples of the martyrs. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” Heaven help us if, in the effort to be “culturally relevant”, it becomes “The texting on iPhones is the seed of the Church”.
Fred, I very kindly invite you to visit catholicbridge.com.
LarryD,
Your response was eloquent and reasonable. Thank you.
I hadn’t thought of the “personal invitation” as a primary means to evangelize. Perhaps it is a testimony to how uncommon this is that I have never engaged in it. I suspect that few Catholics have.
In some ways, I use the Parish events as a proxy for personal evangelizing. It is easy to plan and execute a “public event.” It requires little of us but time and some money.
In thinking about your post last night, it occurred to me that the public events shield us from having to personally invested in evangelizing. Those who reject the event remain unknown to us… They simply drive on. Those who attend are predisposed to the Catholic community and, more often than not, are members.
Personal evangelizing is the province of the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Mormons in my area. (Philadelphia) I have never seen anyone else at my door. (Though every Halloween I receive a Baptist pamphlet in my door for my kids that tells them how Halloween was instituted by the Catholic Church at the behest of Satan to inculcate occult ideas in in children.)
For one who harps on about how Christ’s message is radical and personal, I had missed the point that evangelizing is not the duty of the Church as a body only.
Thank you for your thoughts.
David
G-veg: I should add that there is plenty of evangelization left to do within the Catholic church as well, not just among the non-believers or our separated brethren.
and thanks for your kind response.
Jesus doesn’t need gimmicks — including rock-and-rollers wearing t-shirts showing skulls wearing crowns. What’s the deal with that, man?
The people in the Bible who used gimmicks and marketing were the Pharisees – y’know, broad phylacteries and enlarged fringes and all that….
Krispy Kremes + Starbucks = a 9000 pound elephant? It sure says something to me, but probably not what was intended. 🙂 True, nevertheless.
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