Every Friday I get together with a group of guys for coffee. We often talk about nothing. Basically just hangin' out and havin' fun. The other morning we got talking about the Copy Cat commercial from Staples or where-ever. You know the one that has the guy who is going to save his company a lot of money because he found a cat that could paint his copies instead of getting a copy machine? This copy cat discussion and the recent trip toGrainger Community Church got me thinking about some things.
For a long time I have thought that the church can be a copy cat at times. This view all started when I was in high school. You would see it all over. Some Christian company would make the "Lord's Gym" shirts or the "Bud dog" shirts ripping of Budweiser. You can see it all over. It seems as though there are no original Christian thoughts. Always just playing off of what the world is doing.
This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I could never figure out why the church and it's cohorts could not do something original. Now being in a position where I design and am in control of the promotions and advertising of a church I have been faced with this internal struggle again.
One one side, to capitalize on the things going on in the world sounds like a great strategy. What better way to show God's glory than through using something not of Him to influence someone to Him? Do you know a better way? Tell me.
The other side of it is that I want to be original and use the talents that God gave me. To tell you the truth I have struggles with this for many years. Seems as though everyone is doing it! I mean the holy Grail of churches is doing it so why shouldn't I?
I am not totally settled on this issueyet. My heart is still up in the air on this one. I feel almost as a sense of duty to stick to my guns and not fall into this "trap." On the other hand I do feel like it is a good strategy to share the good news
with those that are far from it.
Where do you guys weigh in? Let me know.
Tryin' to figure things out,
~Hosh~
1 comment:
There was a time in my life when I thought those copy cat t-shirts were clever (I owned at least one, I think). But now, it really seems to me that the best way to find respect and credibility is first through quality and then through originality. It's most important to be good at what you do, but not far behind is the ability to not blend in with everyone else. I find this in music for sure. Much of the Christian music industry just copycats the mainstream. But on the other hand, I do think Christian music gets too generalized by the public. You can find some good stuff. Anyway, back in the day, showing that Christian music could be just as good (and sound just like) secular music might have been effective in attracting people to it and Christ, but consumers (especially college and high school consumers) seem to be less accepting of bands that simply fit the mold created by others. I think this carries into areas other than music as well. Look at the Passion movie. It was blatantly a Christian message, it was done well, it was done in a fairly original style, and it was very successful.
Haha...that's my 2 cents.
Miss you man.
Question Boy
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