For those of you who don't know, I have begun an internship with Refuge Community Church. Part of my job description is to help establish a presence on a few college campuses in the Denver metro area. Being that Colorado Christian University is closest, we decided to start there. On Friday, CCU had a church fair so that incoming students could check out some of the churches in the area and see if there was one they might like to attend.
On my way to the fair I called Chris (pastor of Refuge) because he was running late. I asked him what I should put on the table. He told me to just wear my Refuge shirt and put out my business cards, we should go for the minimalistic thing. When I walked in, I found glorious church info tables everywhere. Every church there had massive signs, pretty table cloths with their names on them, pamphlets, handouts, magnets, and catchy Christian phrases (my favorite). Many churches were even giving away candy or other prizes. Clearly, I had come quite unprepared. The whole thing felt very weird and dirty.
I found the lady who was coordinating the event and she lead me to our designated area. However, we were unable to set up at our table because one of the churches had brought so much stuff that they had overwhelmed our table and there was no longer any room for us! I found that situation incredibly illustrative and hilarious. I was shown to a different table. I sat down, put out my business cards and threw an extra Refuge t-shirt on the table, so people could at least read our name.
The results of the day were amazing. We were one of the most popular tables and people consistently told me that they loved that we didn't have anything out trying to woo college students over to our table. I even had a few people say that this was their favorite set up and that they were immediately drawn to it. I told people throughout the day that I didn't think Jesus would throw candy at people in order to get them to follow. Just about everybody agreed, smiling that they didn't think He would do that either.
Is the gospel not good enough? If it is, are American Churches living out the gospel? Do we need to sweeten the deal with some fun size crunch bars? (if that's your approach then get real, because snickers is where it's at). Jesus had a man come up to Him and say, "I want to follow you." The softball of church questions. Jesus said, "Then go and sell everything you have." The man left and was very sad. Perhaps if He had given Him some candy and said, "let me tell you about our mission," things might have gone a bit better.
