deltadom
Oct 26, 2017
I wondering how many people can see through church gimmicks or worldly gimmicks to get people to church.
What is the most weirdest ones that you have experienced ?
I wondering how many people can see through church gimmicks or worldly gimmicks to get people to church.
What is the most weirdest ones that you have experienced ?
I see through them, which is one of the main reasons we left our last church.
Or I guess I should say we left the building where the group of believers met on Sunday morning.
This one happened a while back and did raise many eyebrows:
Just so you know, the Ed Young in the article is NOT the Ed Young pastor of 2nd Baptist Church in Houston. It is another pastor in the Dallas area with the same name.
-Daniel
Pastor Ed Young of Dallas says...
"Sex is the ‘superglue’ in a Christian marriage.”
Gee whiz! And all this time I thought it was Jesus that help a marriage together.
Bro Blaine
I don't remember what preacher/pastor it was that made people wait until the next day to tell him why they wanted to be saved but I like that idea.
Gimmicks are caused by needing results; i.e. home office wants results for their money or it's sadly, a replacement for the Holy Spirit. Everyone is vying for people's money and just like businesses who use psychology to get people to shop at their store or their brand, churches have found that if they use the same exact technology, they can win people to "their brand" of worship or church.
Preachers seem to be in a hurry to get people saved, to get those numbers because sometimes, they may not be in town tomorrow and well, you know, hell does not wait for anyone. So, I definitely liked how that preacher handled it, making people come in the next day to tell them why they wanted to be saved. No gimmicks there!
God bless,
Lisa
I feel that if an atheist turned up at this site and came upon this Topic through a google search he would never believe the people here were Christians.
I believe we need to :
a) stop being swayed with the crowd of anti church backslidden theologians.
b) not make excuses as theres no church thats perfect,
c) get to be where the sinful Christian is so we are able to give them the message of repentance and the True path to following Christ. Because, "Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins". James 5v20
You get things like Movie Sermons where about the sermon is about 10 Percent about the Movie, 90% about the preacher and nothing about the Bible
I so want expositional holy spirit preaching, I find it so difficult finding somewhere as someone who has read bible commentaries for fun.
I so want church to be a place where after the sermon you learn more about the Bible than you did during the sermon.
It is hard when you are going through a sermon and at a touch of a button you can access things such as interlinear, bible commentaries and other sermons on the verse.
My worse thing is when pastors try to be cool with tech which they know nothing about. it is hard when they try and use tech terms and being from a computing background.
Also using marketing terms or business terms when you first year at uni was marketing.
From Huff Poat...
6 Of The Most Ridiculous Stunts Pastors Have Pulled To Get People To Church
By Carol Kuruvilla
Gone are the days when a banner advertising a revival service was enough to get Americans excited about going to church.
Pastor Lawrence Bishop II, of Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, was willing to be bruised and trampled by a bull named Bonecrusher in order to spread the gospel.
The "cowboy pastor” transformed his church into a bull ring on a recent Wednesday night, ABC reports. Bishop managed to hold on to the raging bull for about three seconds before being bucked to the ground. Then he climbed onto the stage and gave a sermon.
After this wild ride, at least 300 new believers responded to Bishop’s altar call and were baptized that night.
Some pastors regularly go to extreme lengths to fill the pews ”” opening up their church and their homes to reality TV camera crews and conducting services in a bar are just the beginning. Last year, Religion News Service came up with 12 crazy ways pastors have tried to boost attendance at their churches.
Bishop’s daredevil tactic got us thinking about a few other times the spirit moved religious leaders ”” maybe a little too far ”” to experiment with ways to spread the word.
The Gun Giveaway
In an effort to reach unchurched "rednecks,” the Kentucky Baptist Convention hosted "Second Amendment Celebrations,” during which churches served steak and gave away guns as door prizes. Chuck McAlister, a former pastor and traveling evangelist who presided over the events, called his strategy "affinity evangelism” because it used a common interest to attract potential converts and turn them into a community.
The tactic reportedly brought more than 1,500 men to make "professions of faith” in 2013.
"You have to know the hook that will attract people, and hunting is huge in Kentucky,” McAlister told USA Today. "So we get in there and burp and scratch and talk about the right to bear arms and that stuff.”
The raffle winners needed to pass a federal background check before they could claim their prizes at local gun shops.
The Fights
There are hundreds of churches across the country that are incorporating MMA fights into their men’s ministries, according to documentary filmmakers Bryan Storkel and Daniel Junge.
Some churches offer fight viewings, while others host bloody MMA battles on church property. Even though Jesus instructed his disciples to "turn the other cheek” rather than use violence, some pastors look to the mythical fighting prowess of biblical leaders like David and Samson as examples.
In a trailer for the Storkel and Junge’s 2014 film, "Fight Church,” one pastor explains, "We’ll just be a couple of God-fearing men punching each other in the face.”
The Motorcycle Club
In 1972, a small-town pastor named Herb Shreve bought his son a motorcycle in an attempt to bridge a growing gap between father and son. It worked. Two years later, Shreve attended his first motorcycle rally and saw thousands of people he felt needed to hear the gospel. So he formed the Christian Motorcyclists Association, which now as 1,200 chapters around the U.S.
The CMA has sparked similar motorcycle ministries. At Northeast Texas Bikers Church, for example, Pastor Dominic Crescimanno preaches at a pulpit shaped like a motorcycle and prays over his parishioners’ bikes.
The Furry Friends
Pastor Ed Young, of North Texas’ Fellowship Church, decided in 2012 to get a little creative with his Easter sermon. He used a real lion and lamb as props to demonstrate the message that Jesus is both the lamb of God and the lion of the tribe of Judah. The stunt certainly captured his congregation’s attention, but Young was criticized by members of the local humane society.
The Action-Movie Move
During a sermon series on doing what others say is impossible, Pastor Troy Gramling, of Florida’s Potential Church, teamed up with stuntman Mike Buse ”” who’s better known by stage name "Mr. Dizzy” ”” for a legitimately explosive illustration. As Gramling’s cheering congregation looked on, the pastor sat in a car that was blown up, and emerged unscathed.
Bro Blaine
Charles Stergeon is the person who would require seekers who were convicted and wanted to see him for council to come to him early the next day at 7 or 8 in the morning. I think I remember hearing about this in a Leonard Ravenhill sermon.
Just a thought, Duncan Campbell didn't advertise the revival he was preaching but God did when He came down! Everyone with in distance came in their pj's at night to the church because of God.
Leonard Ravenhill said we don't have to advertise a fire (or something like that), people just come to watch!
Herman Fennig (my pastor yrs ago) said, 'you can find six men to carry you to the grave faster than you can find six men to pray with you through the night.'
I remember hearing about this and thought it was awesome. I vaguely remember the story behind it so don't quote me word for word.
A layperson mentioned to Charles that they had to strike while the metal was still hot. His response was: "If God heated the metal it will stay hot the next day and the day after and the day after that further into the week."
I want to say I heard this story in a Paris Reidhead sermon but I can't pin point it exactly.
I ran across this article titled the "Top 12 Worst Pastor Gimmicks ”“ From the RNS" The flesh can come up with all sorts of craziness.
The last one cracked me up....
#12 Don’t Try This at Home. If you need an ambulance standing by for your Sunday service, you have derailed.
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