Lutheran Marketing: Goth or Fluff

Issues Etc. was a show of substance that has been replaced by a Regis/Kelly Good Morning wannabe fluff program. We can argue the motives for this move until we are blue in the face, but what good would that do us...I don't know, but it sure appeals to my sinful ways and besides I look good in blue. So I would like to throw my theory into the virtual arena.

"Ablaze" is a specific aesthetic associated with marketing. Marketing is like our experience in high school, a good marketing program becomes the "cool group" in a subculture of many groups- some groups are "in" and some groups are "out". "Ablaze" is like the dance party put on by the math dweebs and band dorks, not too many people are going to show up. I watched the high officials of the Synod at work in Houston, like most Lutherans they are not "cool" or in the case of "Ablaze", we are not "hot". Whatever marketing firm created this campaign really didn't do their homework on who we are and how we communicate..."Ablaze" is a silly concept attached to the only hope for people...the Gospel Blimp has sprung a leak. I would like to argue who I think we are and how we should be "marketed".

There was a group in high school that most people rejected but everyone respected and listened to them. They knew who they were and what they believed in and were bold, confident and had a tremedous influence on the high school culture. As a dazed and confused jock that was considered on top of the food chain- my fellow athletes and I felt empowered when they would acknowledge us. Today, they would be known as the "Goths".

They wore black.
They spoke their philosophy without comprimise and didn't mind that it ran counter culture.
They did creepy stuff like eat bugs just to disturb the status quo.
They were in high school but not of it and the rest of the school knew this.
Everyone respected them and listened to them because they were commited to a specific philosophy (nihilism) and never hid who they were...they transcended the culture.

A friend of mine who was a math geek transformed himself into a "proto-goth" one summer. He sold out to the hard guys creed, wore black and stop caring where he was in the high school food chain. He won respect over night because "he became" a member of a group that didn't play the cultural game of fitting in...

I believe there is a parallel here, we tend to wear black, we follow a counter culture philosophy, we eat flesh and drink blood, we die and resurrect in water and we live by the word.

If we have to market ourselves, why not: "Body, blood, water & word."

We speak word and sacrament to an increasing Gnostic christianeese culture and we stand and fight through all the silliness and fluff.

We fight because the word instructs us how to fight, it gives us the first two moves- cheek to fist and the other cheek to fist as we continue to announce the good news: Christ and Him crucified.

I believe this aesthtic is biblical and therefore Lutheran. As a missionary in San Francisco, it passed the "Jesus prime audience test", hookers and drunks.

"Ablaze" is silly and contrived marketing which doesn't seem to be playing with the big boys. Honestly, name one semi-important cultural gatekeeper that doesn't ignore "Ablaze".
C'mon ST. Louis turn off the music, no one is coming to this party. We are not the "cool kids" with the slick new fad; we are the creepy ones who are very effective when we are ourselves standing almost alone with the word and sacraments-the means of grace. Let's get back on message and be the peculiar people we were meant to be.

The American church culture has cornered the market on soft, cuddly, muzak laden, therapeutic pablum. Don't look now but the masses are mediated with the supernatural, check out the top rated movies, video games and compact discs. For that matter look at their skin: tattoos and piercings are gothic...the harvest is ripe for the creepy message of the scandal of the gospel.

Pastor Scott Ganas
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church & School
sganas19@yahoo.com