The ministry is named ‘WTF’ – a common abbreviation for a common profanity. If you’ve survived this long without knowing what those three letters usually mean when used together, I’ll spare you the details!

This isn’t an example of a church being naive – the decision to use this title was deliberate. The church behind the ministry explains:

“It is something that our target audience is very familiar with. We are a progressive college group located in Albuquerque, N.M., and we know that any college-aged person is a phone-weilding, text-sending machine. So why not use what they are familiar with?”

In the target audience (university students), the response has been positive, and the ministry is bearing fruit:

“At this event we had on the UNM campus (where this picture was taken outside one of the main buildings), we had over 300 students attend in that location alone. And from this one service, 50 people gave their lives to Christ. UNM is a big campus, and we have only just scratched the surface.”

I don’t think relevance is a bad strategy for communication, or evangelising – in fact, it’s essential. I got a gospel tract in the mail today that quoted the Bible in a version of English we haven’t used in a long time. For most people reading that tract it would scream one thing – irrelevant. It’s important to ensure that what we’re doing is intelligible to the culture we’re communicating to. I commend the creative thinking that’s gone into thinking about how to reach the lost with the good news about Jesus.

However, it’s perhaps not surprising that I am not a fan of this strategy. One of the big reasons for this is that when I see those three letters, I read out what those three letters stand for, in my head. I sympathise with L.J. who commented on the site:

“I personally have trouble reading this. I do not swear, nor do I associate with many who do, yet it is the vulgar use of the letters which play through my head.”

If I went to this university campus and saw the signs, I’d struggle to live out Philippians 4:8. I realise the strategy is centred around unbelievers, but surely it shouldn’t be at the expense of believers?

I also agree with Alissa – the president of a Christian campus ministry. She says:

“Why are they going to go to a “Christian thing” to get the same culture they can get on the internet or in their dorm room? What secular college student is going to be intrigued by a cheesy mockery of the very culture they live in?…Want to hook them in? Share something startling (the gospel). Live life differently and intentionally. Have real relationships with people. Confess sin to each other. Encourage one another. Have open and honest discussions with non-Christians.”

The strategy has some defenders, and I read through their arguments to understand where they were coming from, and to challenge my own perspective. In summary, these are the seven reasons given in defence of the strategy:

1. It’s becoming all things, to all people, to reach the lost (prooftext: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
2. As long as it’s not sin, it’s ok.
3. Look at the fruit – if people are being saved, it’s a good thing.
4. If it transforms just one life, it’s worth the criticism its received.
5. As long as it gets people in the door to hear the Bible.
6. It doesn’t matter how or why (the motivations) things are done – as long as Christ is preached (prooftext: Philippians 1:15-18).
7. Any publicity is good publicity.

If you’d like to see these in more detail, read the comments on the post.

We can safely cross off number 7 – there’s lots of ways you can get people talking about Christianity, but this doesn’t mean that a) they’re saying good things about it, and b) that they’re more likely to come along to church, and c) that the publicity is advancing the cause of God’s church (think: Dove World Outreach Centre!)

Let’s take a look at the first 6 arguments used and consider this Biblically. Can these arguments be used to defend the strategy used by Copper Pointe Church?

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You can read more and download the poster notes from the Outreach Media website.

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It wasn’t even my idea – it’s the idea of my colleague Hayley (you can find her on Twitter, or check out her website).

This was going to be the plan:

Step 1. Design and print a poster encouraging people to read the Bible. We completed step 1, and developed this poster (click on the image to enlarge):

Step 2. The next step was to put the poster in the a-frame outside the church, next to a table with free copies of ‘The Essential Jesus‘ – the gospel of Luke.

Unfortunately, on returning from the printer after completing step 1, I discovered a ranger from the local council inspecting our a-frame. I was told it was illegal to display this outside the church in our local area (this was news to me, and apparently news to every other business on the street that was also receiving the ‘take-down’ instruction).

This has put a bit of a roadblock in this plan to encourage people in our community to read the Bible!

How are you seeking to achieve this goal in your community?

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Nathan Campbell has written a very helpful article with lots of practical tips on how to promote your church and its activities to the media, and how to respond when they show interest!

Check out: How to write a media release to promote your church event. Nathan will even write you a 10-line media release for $5!

I’ve written (with the wisdom of @dylanmalloch) a media strategy for promoting our upcoming art exhibition – I Heart Kirribilli. I’ll keep you posted on what wer’re doing, and how it goes.

How is your church or ministry using PR?

What other resources and tips would help you to do this better?

(Feature image credit: somadjinn)

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• You visit the Chatroulette website.
• You click ‘start a new game
• You are randomly assigned one person to chat with. At the time I was checking out Chatroulette there were 20,000 people online.
• You chat via video and text for as long as you want, and then when you’re done talking, you click ‘Next’ and move onto the next person. Of course, the person you’re chatting with can do the same too!

Obviously this website (and others like it, e.g. onlychat.com) have their dangers:

• your self-confidence could be rocked if people constantly ‘nexted’ you,
• they’re dominated by men (i.e. there’s a tendancy to be dating-focused),
• it’s open to abuse by perverts (what isn’t these days?!)

A film maker has put together a video of his experiences with Chatroulette:

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Those dangers aside (if indeed we can push them aside), I had an idea. Could we use Chatroulette for evangelism? We knock on peoples doors to tell them about Jesus – this is a very similar concept!

What do you think?

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In the meantime, here’s some articles I’ve come across on a related topic – using technology to advance the gospel. Again, I haven’t found much on this topic either, but one article I was particularly encouraged by is number two in this list – “Plugging the planet into the word”. If you have other links on this topic, please share them with us. I’d also like to write some reflections on this topic – social media and the internet are opening up some big doors.

1. Technology and the gospel – leaders share their thoughts on “How do you see technology (blogs, podcasts) as tools to advance the gospel?”. Interesting, but I’m not on the same page on a few of the opinions expressed.
2. Spreading the gospel through technology – links through to a wonderful article in the Washington Post, “Plugging the planet into the word” on how technology is assisting the spread of the gospel around the world.
3. The gospel according to electronic culture: what if the medium is the message? Reading this reminded me, I need to have a read of Shane Hipp’s book, “Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith“. Here’s an interview with Shane.
4. Proclaiming the gospel in a wired world. This article serves more as a warning.
5. The wireless gospel. Described as “A case study in evangelicals’ love affair with communications technology”.
6. Technology transforms gospel for teens. It’s not long nor reveals anything particularly new, but does remind me of the changed world we live in, and especially how this affects youth ministry.
7. Gospel must be shared with technology and personal witness. The Catholic church and its reflections on the place of technology and the gospel. “The old technology of personal witness and personal encounter and sharing faith is essential to the Gospel.”

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and:

The artwork isn’t particularly cutting-edge – we’re used to seeing images of starving people.

However, I’m feeling increasingly convicted that Christians need to be on the front foot, at the forefront of caring for the poor, the marginalised, those who have been the victims of injustice and oppression. You can’t read Amos and not feel uncomfortable.

Should we have posters like this out the front of our churches, encouraging the people in our church and community to remember the poor and oppressed? Why or why not?

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