Bellies with Stars
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
-Dr. Seuss, The Sneetches
Negative marketing was around long before John Quincy Adams supporters began passing out handbills declaring Andrew Jackson’s mother a prostitute, and his wife an adulteress. In politics, we’re used to negative campaigning, or mudslinging. Focussing on the negatives of somebody else is easy to do, and can often leave you the only acceptable candidate when everyone else is discredited.
I hate negative marketing. Sure, its funny sometimes. “Hi, I’m Mac” was brilliant, and a part of me likes poking at someone else’s weaknesses. But, it isn’t good. It isn’t good for me. I get cynical and sarcastic too quickly, and need to watch myself carefully.
In the church its even less attractive. Jesus calls out the pharisee in Luke 18 who prays, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men…” Who, in reality, isn’t praying to God at all, but only engaging in a form of negative marketing to all those around him. On the other hand, we have the positive example of Paul who, rather than engaging in mudslinging, when his name was being slandered, instead writes to the Philippian church, “What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice.”
There is a time and a place to recognize the mistake of another church, or to warn against error. Or even to speak up about a foolish pattern. But, it seems that as the church, we’ve come to define ourselves by what and who we’re not. We’re so busy pointing out those that are different than us, that we’ve forgotten to proclaim what we’re about. And I think a watching world has written the church off as entirely irrelevant. Not because they don’t need the message of the cross, but because they haven’t heard us proclaim that message. They’ve only heard us proclaiming, “We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
Marketing the church is easy. Take an incredibly powerful story, coupled to a called out group of unique people that are passionate about that story, and use creative ways to communicate it to a world that needs it. We’re already behind in this task before us. Who has the time to communicate a message wrapped solely around who we’re not like, and what we’re not going to do?
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