Monday 24 August 2009

The Image among Images

The "Jesus - All About Life" media campaign is about to launch in Sydney, and other regions in NSW. Adapted from Campus Crusade's "Power to Change" campaign (which ran in Canada, Ireland, etc.) the purpose of the campaign is to present a positive image of Jesus to the community and, hopefully, to enable the average, quiet Christian to be able to share their faith.

A couple of comments I have are:
1) I have been fully supportive of the campaign in principle since I first encountered the idea. I am convinced that the average Australia has no regular contact with the gospel or with genuine Christians, and that most of their impressions of the gospel, and Jesus, are derived from the secular media. A campaign like this will help raise the issue of who Jesus is and what he taught for everyday Aussies in a culturally relevant way. It's measure of success is not conversions or church attendance, but how it changes the environment in which Christians and local churches do ministry. Conversions and church attendance will be determined by the effectiveness of the efforts of individual believers and local churches. The context in which we are labouring in Sydney is one where there is little importance attached to spiritual beliefs, and this campaign is an effort to influence that.

2) Some Christians will object to this campaign on the grounds of its cost. Their argument will be that the millions of dollars that will be spent over the course of a few weeks could have been spent helping the disadvantaged or on some other worthwhile ministry. And that is true. But the church is responsible for both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We are responsible for demonstrating God's love with our actions and proclaiming it. And this campaign is a communication campaign.

The church already spends millions of dollars each year on communication - especially the training of preachers, evangelists and, occassionally, lay people. Yet, for all that expenditure, the church does a remarkably poor job of communicating its main message with those outside of the church. The vast majority of the population of Sydney do not encounter the gospel on a weekly, monthly or, even, annual basis. A study showed that 60% of university students dont have a friend who goes to church. With church attendance (of any kind) running at about 8%, relationship evangelism is not going to connect with the majority of people in our city. A mass media campaign, such as Jesus - All About Life, will be one approach to communicate the message we have been entrusted with to significant numbers of people we would not otherwise touch.

Some Christians will object that this campaign fails to communicate the gospel clearly. I would also concede that. A 30 second TV ad is never going to encapsulate the gospel. In fact, to try to do so would be counter-productive. The purpose of a campaign like this is to communicate an element of the gospel message that strikes a chord with the population of Sydney. By striking a chord I mean it must challenge the preconception that Jesus is irrelevant to their life. It should create an openness to hearing more. It may even stimulate sufficient interest to cause them to go looking for an answer.

This campaign is not about "Bible-bashing" people. It is about trying to surface latent interest in a real issue.

3) Some non-Christians will object to this campaign because they see it as an intrusion. But many issues could be labelled as intrusions that challenge contemporary societies' values. Other issues that could have been included in this category are: famine in Africa, global warming, the effects of drink driving. As Christians, we have a message which we believe has universal relevance and which everybody needs to be aware of. We refuse to sit in a corner and be quiet. The issue, as we perceive it, is too important and it is worth using the best resources we can muster to make it an issue that everyone has thought about.

4) Finally, this media campaign will be vastly different from the majority of media campaigns launched in Australia. We are not trying to sell anything. We are presenting a person. We are not trying to create an image for a celebrity, but highlight the truth about Jesus' image. I was shown a poem today written by Brian J. Walsh and Slyvia Keesmaat, from their controversial commentry on Colossians, that helps explain this:

In an image-saturated world,
a world of ubiquitous corporate logos
permeating your consciousness
a world of dehydrated and captive imaginations
in which we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted
to be able to dream of life otherwise
a world in which the empire of global economic affluence
has achieved the monopoly of our imaginations

in this world
Christ is the image of the invisible God
in this world
driven by images with a vengeance
Christ is the image par excellence
the image above all other images
the image that is not a facade
the image that is not trying to sell you anything
the image that refuses to coopt you
Christ is the image of the invisible God
the image of God
a flesh and blood
here-and-now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
image of who God is
the image of God
a flesh and blood
here-and-now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
image of who we are called to be
image bearers of this God
He is the source of the liberated imagination
a subversion of the empire
because it all starts with him
and it all ends with him
everything
all things
whatever you can imagine
visible and invisible
mountains and atoms
outer space, urban space and cyberspace
whether it be the Pentagon, Disneyland, Microsoft or AT&T
whether it be institutionalised power structures
of the state, the academy or the market
all things have been created in him and through him
he is their source, their purpose, their goal
even in their rebellion
even in their idolatry
he is the soveriegn one
their power and authority is derived at best
parasitic at worst

In the face of the empire
in the face of presumptuous claims to soveriegnty
in the face of the imperial and idolatrous forces in our lives
Christ is before all things
he is soveriegn in life
not the pimped dreams of the global market
not the idolatrous forces of nationalism
not the insatiable desires of a consumerist culture

In the face of a disconnected world
where home is a domain in cyberspace
where neighborhood is a chat room
where public space is a shopping mall
where information technology promises
a tuned-in, reconnected world
all things hold together in Christ
the creation is a deeply personal cosmos
all cohering and interconnected in Jesus


And this soveriegnty takes on cultural flesh
And this coherence of all things is socially embodied
in the church
against all odds
against most of the evidence
In a "show me" culture where words alone don't cut it
the church is
the flesh and blood
here-and-now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
embodiement of this Christ
as a body politic
around a common meal
in alternative economic practices
in radical service to the most vulnerable
in refusal of the empire
in love of this creation
the church reimagines the world
in the image of the invisible God

In the face of a disappointed world of betrayal
a world in which all fixed points have proven illusory
a world in which we are anchorless and adrift
Christ is the foundation
the origin
the way
the truth
the life

In the face of a culture of death
a world of killing fields
a world of the walking dead
Christ is at the head of the resurrection parade
transforming our tears of betrayal into tears of joy
giving us dancing shoes for the resurrection party
And this glittering joker
who has danced in the dragon's jaws of death
now dances with a dance that is full
of nothing less than the fullness of God
this is the dance of the new creation
this is the dance of life out of death
and in this dance all that was broken
all that was estranged
all that was alienated
all that was dislocated and disconnected
what once was hurt
what once was friction
is reconciled
comes home
is healed
and is made whole
because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
everything
all things
whatever you can imagine
visible and invisible
moutains and atoms
outer space, urban space and cyberspace
every inch of creation
every dimension of our lives
all things are reconciled to him

And it all happened on a cross
it all happens at a state execution
where the governor did not commute the sentence

it all happens at the hands of the empire
that has captured our imagination
it all happens through blood
not through a power grab by the soveriegn one
it all happens in embraced pain
for the sake of others
it all happens on a cross
arms stretched out in embrace
and this is the image of the invisible God
this is the body of Christ

Tuesday 11 August 2009