Tag Archive - Jesus All About Life

The research behind the Jesus: All About Life campaign

September 20, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

UPDATE 20/9: I have come across another page on the JAAL website with a bit more information on the research behind the campaign. You can also download a $50, 26-page report that details the research that informed the campaign.

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Matt posted a comment recently, asking about the research that had been conducted as to how people in our communities might respond to the signs. Part of what he said was: “Have the promoters researched and considered how the community will see these signs?” Whilst I’m not sure what research was undertaken regarding the signs per se, I came across a document on the JAAL website (it’s available at http://www.jesusallaboutlife.com.au/campaigns/sydney.html and the text for the link to download says ‘tester’, near the bottom of the page or just download here), that includes a summary of the research behind the campaign.

Below is an excerpt from that document (both the text in the block quote, and the para beneath it, i.e. everything that follows – just to avoid any confusion about who is saying what!).

“The research revealed that Christianity is widely rejected by most non-Christians as an anachronistic and undesirably rigid set of doctrines, while the Church is widely regarded as an old-fashioned organisation that is guilty of failing to live up to its own ideals of tolerance, forgiveness and humility.

While we may wish to present Christian faith in God as a distinct and intrinsically good idea, it is practically impossible to make any reference to Christian faith, Christ’s teachings or the Bible without immediately eliciting negative associations surrounding the Christian Church and its doctrines.

Most non-Christians believe that they already live in accordance with essential Christian values, and do not need either to accept articles of Christian faith or participate in Christian worship to fulfill the basic requirement that qualify someone as being ‘a good person’, such as ‘do unto others’ and ‘love thy neighbour’.

The commonly and often unwittingly accepted principle of secular humanism is that individuals need to look inwards in search of personal meaning and fulfillment, a never-ending search directed towards realising your full potential, rather than a process that leads to some final, ‘ideal’ state of consciousness.

At a more fundamental level, non-Christians tend to reject the idea of ‘one truth’ as a divisive concept that is to blame for much of the conflict in the world today, and that clashes with the secular humanist ideal of taking personal responsibility for lifestyle choices and interpersonal values.

Against this background of attitudes and beliefs, the response to ‘born-again’ Christian testimonials tends to be overwhelmingly negative:

  • to accept Christ as the only way to find meaning in life represent a failure to accept personal responsibility or realise self-awareness
  • to accept Christian beliefs as the ultimate truth is to reject contemporary ideals of multicultural tolerance and openness to new ideas

(Angus Kinnard – Futurebrand)

Our research shows that sharing the Gospel in the Australian community needs to be done thoughtfully and carefully, connecting with people and stirring them to consider the message. It is not about pandering to them or watering down the message or humanising the gospel, it is about being thoughtful in how we communicate.”

Coming soon to a bus shelter near you!

September 19, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

The Anglican Church League reports that phase 2 of the Jesus: All About Life campaign has launched, with advertisements being placed in bus shelters across NSW.

If you check out the post by the ACL you can download a document with the four advertisements. I’ve also taken some screenshots from this document and added them below (click on the image for a larger view):

JAALBus1

JAALBus2

JAALBus3

JAALBus4

Responding to feedback on ‘Four reasons I’m disappointed…’

September 18, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

I have received a mixed response to what I wrote last night in ‘Four reasons I’m disappointed with the start of Jesus: All About Life‘. Some people have been very upset and discouraged. Others (both Christians and non-Christians) have told me that they are confused and disappointed (and some embarrassed) with the campaign.

I’d like to respond to some of the feedback I’ve received, to clarify a few things, to apologise, and suggest a way forward.

  • First of all, some people are making connections between what I have said, and what my church might think about the campaign. I want to make very clear, I was speaking personally, about my own reflections on the campaign – these have nothing to do with my church’s involvement. Please avoid making any connections – there are none.
  • I want to reiterate and again make very clear also that I am very passionate about this campaign being a success and Jesus being honoured and glorified through it. I am entirely supportive of this campaign! Offering critique isn’t an indication of lack of support. I wholeheartedly desire that this campaign be a great wake-up call to Australians, and the means by which many come to know Jesus. This is what our city, our nation and our world so desperately needs. And this is why I am so passionate about doing things well, and why I have felt so sad with how the campaign has been implemented thus far (i.e. phase 1), because the implementation affects perceptions and peoples’ engagement with it. I was nearly in tears on the phone to a friend this morning, grieving what I have seen as lost opportunities.
  • I want to apologise to the people who I have discouraged by sharing the critique. In critiquing the campaign, I wasn’t in any way seeking to discourage you (although I can see how I did this). You are all working (and praying) very hard, and I am as desperate as you for this campaign to work. My intention with the critique was a) to demonstrate that whilst Christians agree on the purpose of the campaign and other outreach activities (i.e. making Jesus known), we don’t necessarily agree on the method (nor, I don’t think do we need to); and b) to identify opportunities for improvement so this campaign can have the maximum possible impact.
  • Some people have suggested to me that if I had an issue with the campaign, I should have raised it with the Bible Society/JAAL organisers privately, rather than posting about it online. The general principle that seems to be suggested here is Matthew 18 – “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” Obviously, the people running this campaign haven’t sinned against me, but I can see what these people are saying and the benefits of this. Perhaps I should have done this. By offering the critique publicly, I was hoping to encourage Christians to offer their (constructive) critiques, to get involved in doing what they can to improve and make the most of the campaign, and to show that as Christians we are open to robust critique and discussion, for the purpose of improvement. Whilst some people who aren’t yet Christians might read the post, I think (and I hope not naively), that they will appreciate the fact that Christians can disagree, and whilst we agree on the glorious message, can differ on the method. At least from one comment I’ve received from a non-Christian friend, he seems to appreciate the fact that some of the flaws of this campaign haven’t gone unnoticed, and that there’s opportunity for improvement (i.e. we know there are issues and we want to get it right).

In offering critique in the previous post, I realise I could have been more explicit in offering suggestions of where to go next. Here are my thoughts on how we can make the most of the campaign. Perhaps you have some to add – all for the purpose of making this campaign a success for Jesus’ name.

  • as the first phase is being implemented via electronic media, we need to get onto the forums where people are discussing the campaign and respond to what people are saying. Implementation musn’t be the first and last step – genuine engagement using the designated media must follow.
  • we need to help Christians, like me, know how to respond to the big issues people are raising in forums (and in general conversation) about pain and suffering. We need to equip Christians to answer the difficult questions that are raised about whether we should just be thanking Jesus for the good things in life, and what is His role in the bad. I understand the next phases of the campaign might address some of these issues, but people are struggling with them now. By the time the next phases are launched, some credibility or ‘listening capital’ might have been lost. This is a great opportunity to share the gospel – let’s make the most of it.
  • we need to use Twitter and Facebook as best as possible – equipping Christians to creatively use these media to engage with their friends. This might include prayer updates, links to media reporting, testimonies, videos, tips for answering questions, images people can use on their Facebook/Twitter profile, discussion forums that engage with the questions people are asking, and more. I’d be happy to sit down and help brainstorm these ideas.
  • we need to provide clear links to good quality resources about Christianity, the gospel, apologetics material, and even material such as testimonies of people who know Jesus. This page is a good start (Who is Jesus?), but other pages (such as Order the Gospel of Mark) could be more inspiring and informative, providing more information targeted at people who don’t know Jesus. Lots of people will be thinking about Jesus, and whilst I know we want to encourage them to churches and church events, the online medium allows people to anonymously explore these questions for themselves. I’m sure there are lots of people who would be willing to compile resources and write copy to this effect (myself included).
  • we need to fix the allaboutlife.com.au website. It’s slow, some of the links are broken, and, because our levels of concentration and patience with new media are so low, it doesn’t take much to turn people away from a website. If the developers need help to fix the site and optimise the speeds, again, I’m sure there are lots of Christians out there who would be willing to assist.
  • for each of the above, there is a wealth of Christian talent that can be harnessed to great effect. For example, God has gifted many Christians in PR, website development, social media usage, search engine optimisation, website usability, etc. There is an ‘army’ (for lack of a better term!) of Christians who I’m sure would do whatever it takes to increase the impact of this campaign to be the most memorable campaign this city has ever seen and that bring many into the kingdom.

To all working on this campaign – you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love you, I’m praying for you and I am sorry for any discouragement I have caused. Please let me and others know, how we can help you to make Jesus name known through this campaign.

Four reasons I’m disappointed with the start of Jesus: All About Life

September 17, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

I want to be clear from the start – I want the Jesus: All About Life campaign to be a success as much as the next Christian. Jesus is worthy of all glory and honour, and is the saviour and hope of humanity. I desire, along with Christians in Sydney and around the world, for all people to come to know that, and to acknowedge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. For this reason, I am enthusiastic and supportive of ideas for declaring the good news of Jesus to as many people as possible.

However, I’m disappointed with how the campaign is playing out so far. I know, it’s early days and we’re only in phase 1, but here’s four reasons why I’m feeling disappointed.

Reason #1 – Average (i.e. bad) use of social media

Phase 1 of the campaign is the ‘seeding/viral stage’ (check out JAAL media dates). What does this involve? According to the JAAL website:

“Thank  You  Jesus”  campaign  images  sent  out  via  emails,  Facebook,  Twitter  and  distributed  by  electronic  media.  This  will  build  momentum  and  create  preparation,  awareness and community participant involvement to thank Jesus on line for something that means a lot to them.

Clearly, this phase of the campaign is focusing on the web and associated applications. However, the online presence is pretty basic and unimpressive. The campaign has two websites (jesusallaboutlife.com.au and allaboutlife.com.au) which is confusing, and, whilst neither website is visually impressive, the allaboutlife website is a shocker (see Reason #2). The Twitter updates aren’t particularly inspiring (lots of “Check out www.allaboutlife.com.au and post a message”) and lots of Bible verses – which are great, but not very re-tweetable. There’s only one event listed on the official Facebook page, and only 20 posts on the four discussion forums that have been active in September. The prayer updates are a great use of social media, but these haven’t been updated since July. Finally (on this point), the campaign has been receiving some attention online (particularly in atheist blogs – see full list here), but I haven’t seen much interaction from Christians, responding to people whose attention has been pricked by this campaign. This is such a wasted opportunity – using social media to promote the campaign, but not following up when people notice and respond in-kind to the campaign.

Reason #2 – The ‘Thank you’ Jesus website (and concept) is kitsch

Take a look at the allaboutlife.com.au website. It screams ‘Christian’. Visitors are encouraged to upload a personal ‘thank you Jesus’ photo/image. These are then displayed for others to see, or even print onto a range of merchandise. I noticed on Facebook that people were being encouraged to invite their non-Christian friends to upload an image – personally I’d be hoping my non-Christian friends didn’t come across the site. It just looks daggy and everything (I think) we’re trying to not look like. This is reinforced by many of the trite things people are thanking Jesus for – “my mole”, “hot chips”, “crocs”, “birds that look like they’re wearing pants” and “bubble wrap”. These ‘thank you’ messages have been the subject of ridicule on the 7pm project and Rove (again, see list of media mentions) and in many ways, I don’t blame them.

Reason #3 – The ‘Thank you’ Jesus website is technically unstable

Unless you uploaded a ‘thank you’ message, I can’t imagine why you’d like one printed onto a t-shirt or other merchandise. However, I decided to test this functionality out, and both times I tried I got a (different) error message (e.g. ‘Length cannot be less than zero. Parameter name: length’ and ‘Check that the path is correct and that the domain is in your allowed domains for upload.’). Despite the best de-bugging, error messages are hard to avoid, but it is possible (and recommended) to create custom error messages that make more sense to visitors when they encounter them.

Reason #4 – The ‘Thank you’ Jesus concept is overly simplistic

Perhaps most disappointing is the main concept – thanking Jesus. I’m all for thanking Jesus, and encouraging people to remember that everything good comes from God. But this concept, when promoted to those who don’t know Jesus, opens itself up to big questions that lie not so deep beneath the surface, because, as one person on a blog pointed out:

“If one should thank Jesus for all the nice things in our lives, shouldn’t one also blame Jesus for all the crap things too?

After all, if some crazy flight of fancy convinces you that Jesus gave the world hot chips, then I guess he also gave the world throat cancer, poverty and Dolf Lundgren movies.”

Should we also be encouraging people to say:

  • “Thank you Jesus for letting my baby girl die”? or,
  • “Thank you Jesus for giving me cancer”? or,
  • “Thank you Jesus that I don’t have a job and can’t afford to feed my family”?
Whilst this encourages people to thank Jesus for the good in life, it doesn’t deal with so much of the pain that people are experiencing, and what God’s role in that pain is.
  • Why is there pain?
  • Is Jesus only in control of the good and not the bad?
  • If Jesus isn’t in control of the bad, why should I be interested in a powerless God?
  • If Jesus does have control of the bad, why doesn’t he do something about it?
Of course, the Bible helps us to understand these issues better, but the problem of pain isn’t easy, and I fear a can of worms has been opened that will distract from the main game – Jesus.
What do you think? Is my assessment harsh and unfair? What are your reflections on the campaign so far?
The next two phases are described as ‘ambient’ (bus shelters) and prime-time media (television and Hoyts cinemas) – let’s hope and pray that the next two phases are an improvement on the first.

Two media campaigns reveal Australia’s perceptions about Christianity

September 14, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

September has been an interesting month for Christianity in the Australian media, and particularly Sydney.

Jesus has hit the headlines in two media campaigns launched this month – one, a poster campaign by Outreach Media, challenging who is forming our opinions about Jesus (see the poster, and read the responses to critical claims about Jesus). The other is a mass-media campaign launched by the Bible Society and supported by churches across Sydney – ‘Jesus: All About Life‘.

Both campaigns have received media attention through mainstream media (tv, newspapers), and also in the blogosphere. I have been particularly interested to see the comments that these media mentions have received (i.e. where the articles have been opened up for comments so that the general public can respond with their opinions).

Below is a list of media references and links to discussion forums I’ve collated that discuss these campaigns. I’ve found the comments made against many of these articles to be particularly enlightening about how Australians perceive Christianity.

The responses (in general) remind me of 2 Corinthians 2:16 -

“To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”

Have a read for yourself…

‘Too brainwashed to read the Bible’ campaign

‘Jesus: All About Life’ campaign

Previous campaigns

The Jesus: All About Life campaign has also run in Adelaide and Canberra. Where there are links of interest back to the earlier campaigns, I’ll post the details here.

I’ll keep adding to this list as new mentions appear.

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