In today's marketing-saturated culture, it takes a lot to get people's attention. But in suburban Detroit, one church is doing just that by using a traditional marketing tool—signs—and an unconventional marketing "partner": Satan.
Metro South Church, a nondenominational congregation in Trenton, Mich., recently posted thousands of signs throughout the area using the devil as its poster boy. Created as notes from Lucifer himself, the variety of posters jokingly tout that Metro South Church "makes me sick," "sucks" or "is killing me." Church leaders say the campaign isn't meant to offend believers, but is purely a way to grab people's attention.
"There's so much noise out there that if you don't do something that's a little bit more on the edge, people just ignore it," says youth pastor Adam Dorband.
According to lead pastor Jeremy Schossau, the strategy is working so far, as the campaign Web site, SatanHatesMetro.com, received more than 7,000 hits within its first two days of going live. Once on the site, visitors learn that the devil apparently despises the congregation for helping people connect with God and actually changing lives—something the site says most churches have sadly failed to do.
"We think one of the biggest barriers to getting to know God has been the church itself," the site states. "It's predictable and cold at best." To change that, Metro South's leaders say the purpose of their church isn't to scold people for all the ways they've messed up, but to offer a place where believers and nonbelievers alike can investigate Christianity by hearing the Truth—without all the finger-pointing.
"In short, we're doing all we can to be the same kind of church described in the New Testament," leaders say. [AP, 9/1/09; satanhatesmetro.com, 9/3/09]Download Video: HTML5 Video Player by VideoJS
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Until ALL hear!
Terra
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