CA Church’s Robocall Campaign: “You Are Going To Hell If You Are Not A Member Of Our Church”

(Credit: screen grab from Fox40 report)

Confession: I didn’t realize robocalls were still a thing.

It’s probably because I haven’t had a landline in years.

I think I do recall a robocall a while back that started off with the sound of a ship horn and continued with the promise of a free cruise if I just listened to a brief presentation, but I hung too quickly to claim my prize. It was the last robocall I’ve received.

And it was way better than the robocalls some folks in Lodi, CA are getting from an area church.

According to a report from FOX40, pastor Ramon Wilson of The Right Way To Follow Christ Church, thought the best way to attract new members to his church would be a robocall campaign informing everyone in his community that they were going to hell if they don’t become a member of his church.

As crazy as this story is, I do love the lead in from the news anchors….

Anchor 1: …words used to recruit new church members. So, is it intimidation?

Anchor 2: Or is it an innovative way to get people interested in one local Christian church?

Lol “an innovative way to get people interested…”

Bless their hearts. They’re trying to treat this ridiculous seriously. They even go on to call it a “spiritual marketing campaign. But there’s nothing serious or creative about what’s going.

It’s Robocall Damnation™ for crying out loud.

Anyway, I suppose if you’re going to call your church “The Right Way To Follow Christ,” this sort of campaign kind of makes sense.

But I can’t imagine it being very successful.

I mean, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there are some folks our there who answer the phone, hear a robot voice damning them to hell if they don’t become a member of a church that’s not interested enough in them to have a actual human being call, and think, “Well, they seem like nice people. I can’t wait to visit their church this Sunday!”

Maybe people like that exist.

I just can’t imagine there being too many of them out there.

Of course, there are plenty of folks for whom the “turn or burn” scare tactics are highly effective. So, maybe that was pastor Wilson’s thought process. But has a robot voice over the phone ever actually scared anybody into church attendance?

I guess pastor Wilson is the only one that knows the answer to that question.