Christians Need to Learn How to Communicate

The election is over. The results show that most people hate the negative, attack ads that slime opponents and make us all squirm about their truthfulness. An article in the Wall Street Journal's free online version takes a look at the long term impact of attack ads. It is something that we Christians can learn from.


BY JOHN ELLIS Wednesday, November 8, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009213

Glad it's over? You're not the only one. Voters in six states with closely contested U.S. Senate races were recently asked by the Gallup Organization their opinion of the political advertising they'd seen this year. The vast majority, in every state surveyed, described it as either "somewhat negative," "very negative" or "extremely negative." Roughly a third of those surveyed in each state said "extremely negative."

According to Advertising Age magazine, the total amount spent this year on political advertising will reach $2 billion, a hefty increase over 2004. If one conservatively estimates that at least half of all political advertising can be fairly described as "negative," then 2006 will be the first year that negative political advertising expenditures reached the $1 billion mark.

Look through the list of the major advertisers in the U.S. and what strikes you is that all of them spend vast sums of money building and strengthening brands. The nation's leading advertiser, Procter & Gamble, spends over $4.5 billion annually doing just that. P&G spends not one dime on negative advertising because they understand that it is ultimately self-destructive.

We Christians have the Good News so why do we spend so much time attacking sin, sinners and people who need the Lord? Will we actually build our Good News brand by using attack ads? In Luke 10, Jesus gave us the best model for reaching the unconverted world. Here is a summary of his points.

The Jesus Model of Building a Brand

• Go into the harvest fielsd. They are waiting for someone to show up.
• Go as lambs among wolves, not wolves among lambs.
• Go with little baggage; travel light.
• Go proclaiming peace to the inhabitants.
• Go to those who receive your blessing and ignore those who mock you.
• Go eat with those who invite you.
• Go stay with the peaceful person.
• Go listen to the person who shares his troubles.
• Go pray for those who have needs.
• Go expecting Jesus to show up and heal the broken hearted and set the captives free.
• Go proclaiming that Jesus came to their house today.
• Go rejoicing not because of power but because your name is written in the Book oof Life.

It worked for Jesus so why not try it?

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