I know too many churches and individuals (me included, more often than I’d like to admit) that defend where they stand, how they’ve acted, out of pride. Instead of considering that we might actually have been wrong, we just defend ourselves and maintain our “screw you” mentality for those who disagree.

I’m encouraged that LifeChurch.tv continues to question itself, to entertain the idea that it might be wrong in its approach, to re-design the model. I think a church this willing to reach beyond the standard of what’s “normal” has to be willing to admit when they’re wrong and move on.

Keep on pressing the envelope and remain humble enough to listen to the complaints,
Greg

Thank you both for demonstrating how Christians can disagree — even passionately — and still show love for one another. That’s hard enough to do face to face, let alone in print.

Glory to God!

You are reading it wrong.
I am not being sarcastic in my response. I was wrong in thinking that people would not make that connection…clearly some do.

“Afterall, the website listed is ‘SatanHatesLife.com’ not ‘SatanHatesLifeChurch.com’.”

That’s not a bad point… however, one of the things being banked on is that a person will visit the website to get the whole message. On the site’s main page, the slogan “Satan Hates Life” shows up and is animated such that the word “Life” disappears and is replaced by the Lifechurch logo and the Lifechurch.tv logotype. So the visitor is left looking at the words, “Satan Hates Lifechurch.TV”… is that reading too much into it?

Even though many of those you’ve heard from didn’t make the connection, I’m willing to bet that most, if not all of these people are affiliated with Lifechurch or have a similar mindset. I doubt that the target audience of this ad is people who are already familiar with Lifechurch, certainly you’re not advertising to customers you already have? The point is, the perceptions of your target audience may be different than the perceptions of the people to whom you’ve spoken… In any event, I’ll agree that this is too much time spent on discussing a billboard ad.

However… the biggest reason for beating this dead horse is this response to AmericanChurch:
“…I am completely wrong in my assumption that some people are not making the ‘They are calling me Satan’ connection.”
Perhaps it’s a typo… but that’s obviously not the position being argued here. It’s hard to gauge tone in writing, but are you being sarcastic here? If so… don’t you think that’s a bit rude, especially after previously asking for criticism? I do hope I’m reading that response wrong.

There will ALWAYS be detractors, people that are offended by one thing or another. For instance, Walmart is so concerned about offending people during the holidays that they’ve directed their employees to use the salutation “Happy Holidays” and NOT to use “Merry Christmas”.

In years past, I spent countless hours talking and arguing with people (some of whom hated Christianity) because Christianity is “intolerant” and “exclusive vs. all inclusive”.

Maybe, instead of taking the same stance as the people you were referring to, you could take the high road and see it as an opportunity to open a dialogue with them about what the intention of the billboards was (the spirit behind it). If during the course of the dialogue it caused One person to visit a Christ centered church.. mission accomplished.

Given that at least two people have shared your perspective…I am completely wrong in my assumption that some people are not making the “They are calling me Satan” connection. It was certainly not our intent…if it was the campaign would have looked a lot different.

While I could invest some time responding to each part…I would not have enough time in my day to answer everything people say about it/us.

You are still welcome to your opinion though.

Just as I think that Christians are called to a different standard of actions, thought, money habits, etc. I think the church (including individual churches) should operate at a higher standard, because they consist of people. I don’t care for these billboards or this campaign anymore than the “we hate church” campaign of a few years back. That was one of the worst and borderline offensive campaigns I’ve seen a church parade in recent memory.

That being said, it is not flawed logic for some to feel that if they criticize something about LifeChurch.tv then they are somehow agreeing with Satan. Just as it is not flawed logic for someone to assume that LifeChurch.tv thinks it is somehow the only church that Satan ‘hate’ or wants people to ‘boycott’. I say this because unbelievers in my office and unbelievers I’ve been around when they see these billboards have said just that.

Sure its ‘cutting edge’ and ‘different’ … but I’m not sure enough of the people that “don’t get it” will visit the website and see why a church would endorse these types of messages.

Have fun.

I understand the distiction between intention and perception in your reply.

You are the first person I am aware of to draw that connection from the campaign. I do not see the logic, but the fact that the connection is so clear to you leads me to believe that it is quite possible others would see it that way. Hopefully not many will…and if they do they’ll take time to read the rest of it.

The “flawed logic” I was referring to is this:

Bobby likes the color blue
I like the color blue
Bobby has a daughter
Therefore…I have a daughter

Satan hates LifeChurch.tv
I hate LifeChurch.tv
Satan is evil
Therefore…I am evil.

If a person follows the campaign all the way through the purpose is even clearer since the website clearly makes the case for why Satan does not just LifeChurch.tv, but “life”.

The campaign is simply not designed to make fun of what “people” say about LifeChurch.tv. We could come up with a LOT better phrases than “I was robbed” or “Boycott” if that was the purpose.

Thanks for the perspective though.

If a person conscientiously thinks that “Lifechurch Sucks” then the billboards suggest that that person shares the opinion of Satan… and who wants to be lumped into that category? While Lifechurch is open to constructive criticism, the billboards can be perceived to contradict that. I don’t see how that’s a stretch… but if it’s flawed logic, I invite you to connect the dots for me. :)

Without question we make mistakes and are imperfect.

I was tracking with your comment until you mentioned the part about us equating peoples criticism to evil.

In fact…this post and the one I just posted are examples of looking for truth inside of criticism.

If you somehow think that the satan campaign lumps anyone who doesn’t like LifeChurch.tv into the same category with Satan…that is flawed logic.

If you are referring to Sam’s comment and not the satan campaign…I don’t know that we would seriously do such a campaign, but if we did…it would be with great thought regarding the specific messages we used.

That said, I don’t think the “Satan Hates Life” campaign is trickery. I think it’s fairly obvious that the ads are tongue-in-cheek… From a marketing standpoint, they’re clever. However, I don’t think they’re entirely appropriate.

Lifechurch is led by people. Normal people who are imperfect, just as we all are. Therefore, Lifechurch is bound to make mistakes. People need love and kindness… but they also need direction and correction. One of the hardest parts of love is correcting a loved one when he does wrong.

There are those who are critical of Lifechurch for no other reason than spite… however there are those who are critical out of genuine love and concern. Since Lifechurch is led by normal, imperfect people, it’s certainly possible that some of those criticisms are valid. I therefore think it may be a bit arrogant for a Lifechurch billboard ad to equate any criticism of the group to that of Satan. It’s prideful to think that any person who is critical of us is automatically evil.

Thank you for the feedback. I understand completely what you are saying. I just want to make sure that we are getting balanced feedback and that it is clear to everyone that it is OK to disagree with us. It has seemed like everything has been a bit one sided. I may being going a bit far with it.

It honestly does feel a bit strange receiving so much positive feedback since we are typically used to the opposite.

So…for the record…I do appreciate positive feedback. I also appreciate constructive criticism. Please feel free to give both.

Dave…thanks for the feedback. We used an open WordPress k2 theme on the last blog…can’t remember which, but you can probably find it if searching.