The Social Gospel

 This Sunday our church showed a video from the national headquarters kicking off a 20 million dollar ad campaign aimed at  "18- to 34-year-olds who are seeking spiritual fulfillment".  Like all the other campaigns the United Methodist hierarchy dreams up, this one also is devoid of the central message of the Gospel as found in scriptures but instead presents the old "Social gospel" i.e. "another gospel" that most of serious Christiandom has seen for what it is;  Christless and human centered.  Not once will you hear the name of Jesus in these campaigns, but rather how the 'church' will fulfill their 'wantings' for spiritual things.  I have news for the hierarchy, the world doesn't give a (fill in here) about the church, other than blaming it for all the ills of mankind.  You can solve all their scourges and sufferings but if you don't tell them about sin, repentance and Jesus using real, understandable words from the scriptures, they will think Allah or Buddha or whatever deity or 'force' helped them out using you as the facilitator. If the United Methodist Church is going to survive, we need to get back to promoting Jesus as savior not the UMC.

I went to the trouble to make a transcript of the video ad since the home web site umc.org didn't provide one for us that need to examine the content more closely.  I would provide a link to the video but I'm not sure about the copyright issues with it yet.  Transcript follows;
 
"What if we rethink church.
What if church was less about Sunday, and more about the other days of the week.
What if church wasn't just a place we go, but something we do.
A menu of adventure.  An active verb instead of a noun.
What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors, each of them opening up to a different concept or experience of church.
So that whoever knocks might find a journey of their own.
What if church was the way church was in the beginning.
Outbound.  Unbound.  Active. 
Human beings from completely different worlds united by common purpose, experience and belief.
Creating real solutions for their daily lives.
What if church looked at itself with seeker's eyes, recognizing that even the smallest step through one of our doors is an act of courage.
A moment of vulnerability. 
That solving a secular need can lead to spiritual interaction.
That social relationships can offer opportunities for discussions of faith.
And provide inspiration for discovery.
And that for a skeptical world actions often do often speak louder than words.
What if church was more of a out of church experience, an opportunity to prove what we say we believe with our lives.
Then,  perhaps someday could be a day of rest and reflection on all that we have accomplished Monday.  through Saturday.
What if, we rethink church.  Not in terms of what it is, or what it could be.

And what if we can convince the world to do the same.
Together we can open hearts, open minds and open doors.
The people of the United Methodist Church."

Sounds impressive and has a good ring to it, but if you look more closely, you'll see the glaring omission and the substitution "spiritual" for Christ.  Notice "we can open hearts" not the Holy Spirit.  "So that whoever knocks might find a journey of their own."?  I remember Jesus knocking in the scriptures but I don't remember everyone having their "own journey".   I do remember only One Gate, One Path, One Faith, One Baptism, One God, One Church.  What good are the works if the doctrine is all screwed up?  You tell me.  This is fill-in-the-blank theology and it stinks to high heaven.  Maybe we all should "rethink" our position in this organization, stand up and say what needs to be said.