Church Sucks

In the ongoing shock and awe campaign that is church evangelism, the latest salvo has been launched by a church in Folsom, CA…..

The signs around Folsom, Calif., said “Church Sucks,” but the man who put them up said the message behind them is more complex than it seems.

“It’s just inflammatory enough to get attention and yet we have something to say,” Stu Streeter, the man who put them up, told ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento.

Streeter is the pastor of Disciples Church, a small storefront in a strip mall, and he said the signs and a newspaper ad campaign that carried the same message were created for people who don’t go to church.

“This campaign for us is just a simple way to call out the elephant in the room and say, ‘Hey, maybe you don’t go to church because you’ll think you’ll be an outsider or you think power will be abused,” Streeter said. “Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.”

In all he put up 200 of the signs around the city, and some he put on trailers that he drove around to get the message out.

The signs advertised the church’s website, which makes the pastor’s perhaps irreverent reverence a bit more clear.

“Church Sucks, sometimes. But we’re not content with that,” the website says. “Jesus didn’t suck, and neither should His church. And you’re invited to help!”

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Maybe it’s just me, but this whole “let’s see how superficially shocking and controversial we can be in order to get people to come to church” thing is getting a bit old. Not to mention a bit unnecessary.

I always found the gospel to be pretty shocking by itself. You’ve got: virgin birth, miracles, casting out demons, “eat of my body and drink of my blood”, “sell everything you have and give it to the poor”, crucifixion, resurrection, and a God that lets His people kill Him in order to save them.

I guess that stuff just isn’t as exciting as it used to be.