As churches reach out to the communities that surround them, the passion is to share Jesus and to most this seems obvious! Reflecting on this however, the main way this might be done is in posters, alpha courses and other events, that might well include a symbol of a cross – to people on the ‘inside’ this carries: ‘Metaphor, story, mystery and image’ but to those who don’t know – it might mean nothing and in terms of church communication this is hard to understand.
Evangelism then in images and logos is important as people need to understand what a church is saying. For example, my old church had a sign with a picture of a vine and a message saying: ‘All Welcome’. As I critically reflect on this, most people would have thought we were part of a vineyard, selling wine!
Evangelism can only succeed (I believe) when a church carries Metaphor, story, mystery and image in and through its people. In this way the people embody the message and are living epistles and hopefully image bearers of Christ.
Yes it is the people that are the embodied word. Your comment about the picture of the vine is really to the point. The problem is that often the metaphor we think fits so well with our internal church audience has no resonance with the audience we are aiming for or like your example it suggests something quite different
ReplyDeleteI too agree that church symbols which would normally have a specific meaning accompanying it, doesn't necessarily serve the gospel. For example some of the most satanic rock bands would come on the stage with a huge cross around their necks! This obviously could not serve our Christian faith.
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