Christian Ads
One of the things we tend to be slightly paranoid about here at Matthias Media is going overboard in our advertising, and making statements about our resources which, in the end, don't reflect our theology.
Fortunately, many of our ministry friends/customers are quite sensitive to this issue as well and give us prompt feedback when they think we've strayed too far.
I remember once I used a headline for an ad for evangelistic Bible studies which said “Let God speak through his word”—meaning to point out to people that studying the Bible with non-Christians was a good way to evangelise them. No sooner had the ad arrived at one friend's house, than I had an email from him pointing out that “we don't let God do anything”—God will do what God wants to do, whether or not we ‘let’ him. Quite so. The ad was expressed poorly, and didn't reflect what I believed.
It is an issue that Christian people in business need to be conscious of. What we believe should be reflected in what we say in our advertising and how we say it—especially written communication.
I saw recently in a catalogue an ad for a Christian book which explained the benefit of the book in the following way: “Learn how you can release the ability of God by the words of your mouth.” Like my own faux pas, I think I know what they meant, but they expressed it in a way that sounded like God is powerless unless we act, which I hope is not what they believe.
It can be more subtle than this though, can't it? I recently noticed an ad for a (Christian) mortgage broker. I guessed that they were Christians because of their name and because they were offering a free copy of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ DVD with every mortgage. Clearly, the culture clash of middle class Christians borrowing money to buy their nice comfortable home and then watching a portrayal of the sacrifical death of the Son of Man who had no place to lay his head, was not something which bothered them. (Perhaps the ad on the opposite page for another mortgage broker, with the headline ‘God wants you to prosper’ partly explains the Christian culture that can let such a clash go unnoticed.)
So let me appeal to all of us who have to write ads. Let's strive harder to reflect a Christian understanding in what we say and how we say it. And to all of you who read ads, please keep us on the straight and narrow by pointing out where we have failed, and perhaps we will slowly learn from our mistakes.