In His Name Devotionals
GOD’S MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE
In His Name Devotionals
GOD’S MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE
During the same week that the Wall Street Journal ran this headline: “Marketing Surprise: Older consumers Buy Stuff, Too”; the Cable News Network was discussing the buying power of younger consumers.
It should remind us of the timeless, indispensable role that God’s most important message plays in ministering to people of every age and walk of life—and why it is so wrong and shortsighted to allow trendy marketing strategies to drive how we minister to people.
It seems that a growing number of media-minded and growth-oriented church leaders are being tempted away from publicly proclaiming God’s most important message perhaps because it just doesn’t market well; isn’t sophisticated enough; or doesn’t fit our culture’s language. Proclaiming God’s most important message—the Gospel of Christ—just doesn’t have the same sizzle and appeal as pyrotechnics, current events, drama, or entertainment.
However, God’s most important message is timeless, powerful, always relevant, and doesn’t need our help to fit a particular cultural segment. Though foolishness to most, the Gospel of Christ—God’s most important message—is the power of God to save.
Actually, the moment we either omit or minimize God’s most important message to fit a particular audience and its tastes, we inject irrelevancy into our ministry—spiritually neglecting those we could be reaching. But, worst of all, we insult the character of God’s Holy Word—and God Himself!
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul wrote:
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified … and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God … which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
While we can and should think strategically and adapt to new technologies, we dare not back away from preaching and teaching God’s most important message or minimizing His main message to fit the market. How troubling and sad it would be to someday look back on our preaching and teaching, or on the ministries we supported, and wonder if we targeted the right audience or chose the right marketing plan.
The good news is that by staying narrowly focused on God’s most important message, we will, by the power of the Gospel, be able to have an amazingly wide impact. Worldwide, in fact.
