Heal Your Church WebSite

Category: Theology

  • Digital Marketing is about Vision, Strategy, Tactics and Activity – in that order

    Digital Marketing is about Vision, Strategy, Tactics and Activity – in that order

    Successfully marketing your church or charity in the digital domain is more than adding a “Like Button” to your blog.

    Social media icons galore!I’ve become aware of this after the popularity of my “Facebook Like Button Plugin for WordPress.”

    In the past year, I’ve received a number emails requesting features and implementation requests that seem to think that this Facebook service can solve all their social media marketing needs.

    So it pains me when I have to reply with a ‘no’ to some very nicely worded requests.

    I generally spare such a request of the technical limitations of Facebook’s API. I also spare them the bitter reality that there is no “magic bullet” when it comes to digital marketing.

    So to make up for the latter omission, I’ve written below what I believe it takes for a church or charity to survive their drive along the information highway – specifically in terms of online outreach and ministry:

    1. Vision;
    2. Strategy;
    3. Tactics; and
    4. Activities

    … in that order.

    Problem is, most organizations I’ve seen fail on the web do so because they jump into activities without understanding that success needs to have:

    • measurable objectives;
    • focused, targeted audiences;
    • feasible short, medium and long term plans; and
    • return on investment.

    I’ll blog later about these “haves” in a future post. For now, let’s define what I mean by Vision, Strategy, Tactics and Activities … in that order.

    Vision:

    1. Grow organization that …
    2. … serves their local community of Lutherans …
    3. … by feeding their faith; and…
    4. … equipping them to feed others.

    Strategy:

    1. Bring in more visitors.
    2. Get visitors to become members.
    3. Get members to become active participants.
    4. Get active participants to become evangelists.

    Tactics:

    1. Attracts more visitors through popular digital venues.
    2. Provide online content that allow visitors to comfortably explore your organization.
    3. Provide online tools that help members plug-in to programs and collaborate.
    4. Provide online training and services that help evangelists get the word out.

    Activities:

    1. Get the sermons, lessons online, videos and photos onine; and track it all with Google Analytics.
    2. Create a community presence via a Facebook and/or LinkedIn group, and don’t forget Disqus.
    3. Integrate tools such as BaseCamp for program management and Google Apps for document processing.
    4. Enlist tools such as SurveyMonkey and MailChimp to equip individuals in the field.

    If you’re finding that your organization is not getting anything but a passing interest from your online activities, then why not take a step back and consider the above?

    If you still feel that a rocking WordPress theme for your church website is the key to your organization’s digital marketing management, then I’d ask you to consider what measurable results you received from similar efforts in the past?

    As always, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome, so long as their couched in love.

  • 5 things we can learn from my 7:40 AM Thanksgiving wake-up call

    I believe it was the slam of a large piece of plywood falling 2 some-odd stories onto other lumber that rudely awoke me at 7:40 AM this Thanksgiving morning.  An no, I couldn’t go back to sleep as the hum of a noisy air compressor placed precisely next to the property line driving the pneumatic hammers were equally annoying. That was the scene at my home this holiday.

    trash next door
    trash heap at 5244 levering mill rd, apex, nc

    D&G Builders of Fuquay Varina proceeded to work on a new house.

    A house next door being constructed on behalf of PenfieldHomes.com.

    And after a few emails and phone calls to a project manager of construction who informed me that “Mexicans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving like us …”

    So after telling said project manger that I didn’t want a feud, I apologized if anything we said or did offended (though I’m truly hard pressed to think of any such word or deed) – and he in turn called off the work squad – and I began to think of how similar situations can impact the peaceful operation of our church and charity websites.

    In other words, just as noisy neighbors and/or construction are a nuisance in the real world, so too can the virtual home of our organization’s web presence can be disrupted by inconsiderate acts.  Here are some analogies that come to mind:

    1. Noise
    I had an experience lately where some blogs I run on a shared server were inaccessible due to the incoming noise from a bunch of spammers and ‘bots. This was because a neighboring domain sharing the same IP had put up a BBS in an unsecured fashion.
    2. Obstructions
    It’s only happened once, but a truck was recently parked that partially blocked our driveway. In the same way, access to your site can be obstructed in part and/or in whole when those working on and/ror running the website ‘next door’ with an improperly parked modules and/or run-away program that consumes all the server’s memory and ports.
    3. Trash
    Nobody like’s picking up someone else’s garbage. My wife is no exception, as she recently found herself picking up unsecured McDonald’s bags that had blown into our yard. In the same way, neighboring website projects can also leave rubbish in the form of temporary files, no-longer used compiler settings and the like.
    4. Boundaries
    The Wake County, NC ‘UDO‘  defines a minimum number of feet in which a new home structure can be built next to another, how much noise is acceptable and other fun stuff like that. However, just because these rules are on the books doesn’t mean they’re going to be enforced. Meaning, it is going to be up to me to look out for instances of encroachment. In the same way, don’t expect or assume the host of your shared server is going to have your best interest in mind. They don’t and won’t. It is up to you to be diligent be on guard for those times neighboring websites and/or webmasters wander into your domain – and to work within the boundaries of good citizenship and the rules to resolve such issues.
    5. Communications
    If possible, establish one point of contact and a protocol for those situations where you feel you’re on the receiving end of some inconsiderate instances or situations. For example, know the correct channels of communications for your web host, and if feasible, for your IP Neighbor. Similarly, understand that email, though convenient, can lead to a breakdown that leads to unnecessary and unfortunate bad blood. Especially true when individuals on the other side are already having a bad day due to some other unrelated inconsideration. In all cases, keep track and logs of all such communiqués as you never know when you’ll need them.

    Anyway, those are my thoughts this Thanksgiving morning as I ignore the slam of pneumatic hammer guns and the humming whir of the air compressor and set my thoughts onto some delicious Greek Chopped Meat Stuffing and football.

    Well that and all the wonderful ways in which I’ve been blessed, including my family, my friends, my job, my church, and also the hundreds of visitors to this site – many of whom have sent me private messages of best wishes. Thank you all. I’m very grateful for every remembrance of you (Philippians 1:3).

    And with that, here are some links to some other related articles I’ve posted in the past. These include some practical advice on “how-to” implement some of the safeguards, countermeasures and logging I’ve mentioned above:

    Now if you don’t mind me, I’m off to E-Bay and/or Craigslist to find an affordable ANSI S1. 2-1962 sound level meter to leverage. I’m hoping I don’t need it but one never knows.

  • Follow-up: bad church web design inspired by bad theology

    Judging from the feedback on my last post – I’ve either let you down or built you up. To those who were critical, thank you for your honest comments in love. It is always welcome. To those who sent private form-feedback, I’m glad I was able to encourage you. To those confused – I think I need this follow-up post to clarify some points.

    Augustine of Hippo Refuting Heretic

    While I never want to “go cheap” with gratuitous controversy, there’s no ignoring that I’ve touched some nerves in asking ‘Does bad theology induce bad church website design?’

    I am personally very intrigued that in both public comments and private email/form responses that I’m receiving not many communications that are “in the mushy middle.” So with that, I’m going to dig into this topic a little bit more and then move on.

    First

    It wasn’t my intent to start a raging debate over water baptism. It’s just that personally, I find it a bit of a contradiction that those who’d slap ‘cult’ labels on denominations for infant baptism would on the other hand hold up the physical act water baptism as a requirement of who is in and who is not.

    What I take from the Gospels was that Jesus was always impressed by those who demonstrated faith. Take for example the centurion or the thief on the adjacent cross. So too I’d think it is faith, and not a physical act that is what is important here.

    Moreover, of the three theological points I … um … pointed out, that was the one I had the least trouble with regarding the site … um … cited. That I received no feedback on the erroneous assertions that Seven Day Adventists are cultists or that man has no sin nature bother me far than the whole baptism thing.

    BTW, I was baptized as an infant, but later in life stepped out on faith and was baptized as an adult – demonstrating said faith as the person baptizing me quite literally, and accidentally, let go and let Jesus manage the event as I leaned backward into the baptismal pool. It was all I could do to keep from laughing underwater at the ironic prospect I might perish in the process of “dying to self.”

    Second

    I think I failed to make my point because I only presented one website as an example.

    My bad – in part because I think in part because as always, I wanted to present 5 things we could learn from the poorly design website in question.

    Ergo, I offer web sites 5 more examples of sites that demonstrate web design as questionable as the apologetics they espouse:

    1. All Men are Saved – asserting that everyone gets in by employing every font to every argument on one long page. Most annoying and unusable are those points of emphasis that are underlined – leading users down an errant path to thinking such text leads to hyperlinks – when they in reality lead to nowhere.
    2. The Robert Brow Model Theology Web – a webmaster who takes as much license with both semantic HTML as he does in various teachings regarding relationships that don’t involve penetration … while ignoring lessons learned in Matthew 5.
    3. Brother Jed Smock – claims to be the foremost campus evangelist in the USA, only no one will every know because not only does he hinder access with a splash page, but further hides his message under a basket by using graphics to represent text that’d otherwise get indexed by a search engine.
    4. Demonbusters – which not only asserts that all problems are demonic, but demonstrates how to “return all curses sevenfold” by abusing it’s readers by shouting at us in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME!
    5. Exposing Those Who Contradict – a site by L.Ray Smith that rails against the doctrine of eternal damnation, asserting that evil is a creation of God through a couple hundred articles that one must sift through by title all on the home page rather than through a much more usable mechanism such as a site search engine.

    Third and finally

    I think where I really let everyone down was not first providing why I often connect bad theology as a contributing factor to bad church website design. So here goes:

    Along with a Master’s in Computer Science, I hold a BA in Music. What the combination of both disciplines have lead me to think is that any good artistic or coding endeavor – or in this case good web design – is in part a matter of hearing good doctrine, and then doing it. Sound familiar?

    So I’m thinking how can we reasonably ask individuals engaged in lazy, misguided, and/or stubborn on points of Scriptural doctrine to act in a manner different in terms of practicing tenets of good church website design?

    Put another way, can we reasonably expect someone who might assert that something like … oh I dunno … um … speaking in tongues as the only proof of Baptism in the Holy Spirit to reasonably be hearers and doers of … oh let me think … semantic HTML or usability in navigation?

    Anyway, though I think I’ve exhausted this topic, I want to thank EVERYONE for their form feedback, public comments and/or email – both encouraging and critical. I appreciate it and hope everyone feels free to continue doing so in the future.

  • 5 things we can learn from the Winston-Salem Hampton-Inn Toaster Czar

    See why the Soup Nazi is a bad model for supporting users of your church and/or charity website .This weekend, I ran into an elderly gentleman whom appointed himself the ‘Toaster Czar’ in a fashion similar to the infamous ‘Soup Nazi‘ of Jerry Seinfeld fame. I made the mistake leaving my bagel momentary unattended to go get coffee while trying to enjoy the complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn Winston-Salem-I-40/Hanes Mall. Here are 5 things your church and/or charity webmaster can learn from this experience:

    1. don’t assume you know your user’s context;
    2. don’t assume you know your users work-flow;
    3. don’t assume you know what’s best for your user;
    4. don’t assume your user will appreciate your intervention; and
    5. don’t assume your user is stupid.

    Note that all 5 points deal with assumptions. For example, regarding context, one might assume that the individual pictured below is waving and saying “hellooo” – or they could be waving us off saying “noo.”

    bagels enjoyed in the public setting of the Hampton Inn Hotel lobby

    Another example, regarding knowing what’s best, thinking they are stupid and/or not understanding their work-flow, the aforementioned toaster czar possibly assumed that the unattended bagel in slots 1 and 2 of a 4 slot toaster were either:

    • done;
    • done enough;
    • abandoned;
    • in his way; and/or
    • there to annoy him

    Whether or not my opinion of his motives are correct, my view is that he potentially didn’t take into consideration the following user-centric scenarios:

    • some like to eat their bagels in the context of their coffee;
    • some like to engage in a work-flow that includes getting coffee while the bagel toasts;
    • some are confused when 1 slice of the bagel remains in the toaster while the other sits on the counter, replaced by some one else’s bagel half;
    • some lose their appetite when others not involved in food services touching their food; and
    • some don’t like being treated as if they are the problem when in fact all they wanted to do was toast their bagel and eat breakfast in relative peace.

    In the same way, you as church webmasters should consider that your users:

    • may like to consume your church website content in some other context other than initially planned – for example, aggregators and/or mobile phones come to mind;
    • may like to consume your charity website in an order other (work-flow) than initially imagined and/or programmed – for example, site navigation through search engines comes to mind;
    • may need more information when things operate outside of normal expectations – for example, more informative 404 errors for pages not found come to mind;
    • Click here to see a video about Nick Burns, a hilariously popular character of former SNL funnyman Jimmy Fallon.may get turned-off if they find content they contributed modified without annotation – for example, modifying a user’s comment on a church blog or bbs without noting it was edited by a moderator or admin will drive users away permanently;
    • may not want nor like the Jimmy Fallon/Nick Burns ‘Your Company’s Computer Guy‘ approach to web site support (let alone a communal toaster).

    Bottom line, don’t be a toaster czar.

    Treat users as you would guests in your house, not as idiot low-life’s whom annoy by making you wait an extra minute or two simply because they happened to get to the proverbial toaster 30 seconds before you did.

    In other words, you are not your users – so don’t assume you completely understand their interface to your system without collecting realistic and specific usage metrics and spending some time setting next to them while they demonstrate how they navigate your site the way they do, and why.

    What about you? Got a similar story or useful use case/test scenario to share? Leave comment in love!

    In the meantime I leave you with this aggregation from the above caricatures : “moooove … no soup for you!… was that so hard? … come back, 1 year … you’re Welcome “

  • Is Church marketing dead? Nope, just stuck on stupid!

    Bad church web design poster 007 - Stu·pid·i·tyThere’s no getting around it, despite the efforts of many to teach, rebuke, correct & train in righteous web design, there still exists a great cloud of witlessness when it comes to the Church’s presence online. A fact painfully corroborated by the persistent body of ‘kitsch‘ out there that distracts, annoys and otherwise drives-away people seeking and/or serving the Lord.

    WHOOOOSH – flame on!

    I should know, as I’ve been engaged in mental combat with these forces of evil web design idioms since the turn of the new Millennium, first in collaborating with Vincent Flanders on his second book, an act which lead to the eventually May 2002 establishment of Heal Your Church Website.

    But enough of my credentials, lest I start this post start sounding like a Pauline epistle, though I should probably mention that I do the software as a service thing for a living … but that’s plenty about me, as others equally qualified have since dashed headlong into the breach.

    This would include Cory Miller and James Dalman at Church Communications Pro (CCP), the latter of whom begged the all important question: “Is Church marketing dead?” Specifically, pondering aloud:

    There is something going on but I quite can’t put my finger on it. It’s a gut feeling that’s right more often than not. I think the church landscape is drastically changing and that church as we know it now is going to evolve (no, I am not supporting Darwin) into something much different. It’s just a hypothesis or idea I’m working on, whatever that’s worth.

    To which my response is: “James, let me save you a few steps. Church marketing isn’t dead, it’s just stuck on stupid!”

    If that weren’t the case, why would sites and services such as CCP, Church Marketing Sucks, For God’s Sake Shut Up, and a handful of others continue to, and with apologies to Vincent Flanders, offer weekly lessons in good church marketing by looking at examples of bad church marketing?

    I mean, how many examples of church websites adorned with the cliché gold lamé animated gif of a spinning cross that screams “everything I know about website design I learned from Strong Bad!“ do we need to ‘Fisk‘ to make our point?

    Or on a more serious note, how many of us seen all to many unique local churches dive through the porpoise-driven hoops of Warren-ology just to become different like everyone else?

    And that’s really my point, it’s not that church marketing is dead, it is that we’re stuck on driving down the wide and easy path to church marketing, rather than seek out a difficult path that includes:

    • Studying Scripture to see where marketing and evangelism intersect;
    • Teaching lay staff and church on what real marketing is and how it works;
    • Understanding that the Church didn’t start in 2000, but rather 2000 years ago;
    • Putting aside the need to agree 100% with everyone 100% of the time;
    • Initiating marketing teams as opposed the message controlled at a single point;
    • Daring to be different without amputating one’s self from the Body.

    Look, we have centuries of beautiful sacred songs, art and literature as the result of the artistry that was once the Church’s … why can’t we have the same for church marketing in the 21st century?”

    Or put another way, Franky Schaeffer was right when he asserted that Christians are no longer influencing society through various forms of media, but are instead influenced BY it. A neat trick when you think Francis Shaeffer’s son warned us about this as far back as 1981!

    WHOOOOSH – flame off!

    Oh, and before I forget, to my Eastern Orthodox friends … a belated Χριστός Ανέστη!

  • Signs and blunders: legibility and the marquee on the church front lawn

    Like Mark Pilgrim, I too live in Apex, NC; “the peak of good living.” I know this because that message is proudly and conspicuously displayed on both water towers. A lesson in good old fashioned marketing if ever there were one: make it large enough and simple enough so someone driving by can read it.

    Too bad not every church here in ‘the land of only one recent industrial fire‘ has yet to market the URL for their church website in a similar fashion via the obligatory marquee/sign that adorns their front lawn.

    Two cases in contrast – each taken at about the same distance one would see it approaching at the stated speed limit of their respective roads – both shown in the best daylight conditions possible:

    Calvary Chapel Cary

    Prince of Peace Episcopal Church

    As one can quickly see, the “living art project” for Calvary Chapel Cary looks great from a design perspective … but isn’t nearly as easy to read and memorize at 40mph as more utilitarian offering by the Prince of Peace Episcopal Church.

    Cleverly, the second church is using the simpler TPOP.org – an easy to render, see and remember url – as a redirect that’s more memorable when spoken “thePrinceOfPeace.org.”

    Too bad the website for “TPOP” isn’t nearly as carefully crafted and informative as the offering from Calvary Chapel.

    None-the-less, the point here is to get you to get you away from the computer for a few moments to consider how legible and memorable your hard copy URL is rendered.

  • 10 Things an Effective Church Website can do for You

    As I peruse the great cloud of witlessness that is the Body online, I find one of the primary problems afflicting many sites is vision. That is I often find those responsible for delivering the goods don’t really see their site as much more than an online color brochure. As a result, more often than not, very little staff and/or funds are allocated to the church’s web presence past the server, the domain name and perhaps a content management service.

    In no particular order, I’d like to offer 10 real-world examples you can expand your church and/or charity’s impact by expanding your vision past mere ‘brochureware.’ A list that perhaps will come in useful the next time individuals in the ways and means committee seek to slash your web site’s funding.

    1. Reach New Residents

      I actually like new resident door hanger campaigns, especially those that offer a slice of pie and/or a free Wednesday night dinner. An ideas I got from my last church who had such a program entitled ‘People Involved in Evangelism’ or P.I.E. … hmmmm … pie …. but I digress.

      Having a well-indexed, search-engine friendly website goes one step further in bringing those new residents to your doorstep … in some cases, even before they move to town.

    2. Convert Seekers

      Perhaps one the strongest arguments I can make for providing the text of your sermons online is how such materials can draw-in those seeking God’s answers to life’s questions.

      Even in cases where said individual came in casually and unintentionally through something of relevance that caught their eye while primarily searching for something else.

    3. Build the Body Online

      By adopting a blog-centric approach to sermons and events you can easily and electronically inform the right hand of what the left hand is doing; and visa-versa.

    4. Maximize Press and Ad Campaigns

      Sometimes you only have a six second soundbite to get your church’s name, slogan and/or domain out into a newspaper, magazine or radio station.

      In those cases, leverage your website to provide all the additional fun, times, maps & directions, costs and pictures that can’t be printed in a single line of newsprint.

    5. Save on Printing and Postage

      By utilizing email lists, RSS deeds and other online tools, your church and/or charity can become better stewards of congregational contributions by dispensing such information online.

    6. Minimize Dead Ends

      By having an informative and complete church website that clearly represents your organization’s purpose and personality – you can reduce and/or eliminate time spent on leads whose interests are better served within the arms of some other congregation.

    7. Communicate Across Boundaries

      By taking advantage of both an effective website and a variety of web-based office and/or presentation applications – boundaries such as differing operating systems and/or geography are easily overcome.

      Similarly, there are mind-mapping and crowdsourcing tools that can be leveraged to encourage thinking that’s not only outside-the-box, but also doesn’t all have to happen within the 4 walls of your brick-n-mortar buildings.

    8. Reduce Staff Support Loads

      While I believe that every church website should make it easy and inviting to call anytime – having an up-to-date calendar of events can help minimize the number of ‘just calling to are what time it starts’ calls that can nickle and dime away your church staff’s effective work hours.

    9. Support Lay Ministries

      Consider utilizing class curriculum tools such as Moodle to support Bible studies. Along with that, give that hard-working 20% a break from having to physically attend each and every meeting by using cool communication tools such as WiPeer to hold web-based meetings and/or webinars.

    10. Gauge Relevant Interests

      By implementing and monitoring statistical tools such as google analytics and the now free FeedBurner you can track which aspects of your church website are effective and which require a but more healing.

      I’d also suggest adding a separate site tracking mechanism to content-rich areas of your website so you can easily which sermons and/or Bible studies are hot versus those that are not.

    Point isn’t to freak-out already overwhelmed church webmasters, pastors and laypersons by enumerating all the things your church website doesn’t have …

    … but rather to get churches and ministries of all sizes to realize that our ministries have been provided several new tools over the past couple of years that properly leveraged can enhance our efforts and enable our volunteers to better fulfill the Great Commission to which we are all called.

    Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment in love.

  • Why Christians Should Have Nothing To Do With Snowmobiles

    7 reasons why snowmobiles are sinful, or a comic-serious example of foolish arguments often used to “prove” that certain things are “worldly” by Norman Street of Diaphero.org – reprinted with written permission:

    Before I became a Christian I went snowmobiling most winter weekends and thoroughly enjoyed it. But now I see the pastime in a different light. True, the church I attend is against snowmobiles and to teach a Sunday School class I had to sign a consecration pledge stating that I do not own a snowmobile and will never ride one. I think that I would have come to this conclusion anyway, because anyone ought to be able to see (if he really thinks about it) that the whole sport of snowmobiling is “out of bounds” and Christians need to think twice before they do anything “just for fun.”

    the devil's work in hot green

    Perhaps it will help others to avoid this form of worldliness if I present some facts and arguments.

    1. Snowmobiles are sinful.
    2. Snowmobiling is a waste of time. Christians are always pleading that they haven’t got time for Bible study. They are too busy to help in the youth work at the church, etc., but they have time to go snowmobiling. Anything which takes up time better spent in spiritual things is wrong for a Christian.
    3. Snowmobiles are harmful to those who ride them. Not only are they in danger of harming themselves, but they may do great harm to others. The finger of suspicion points straight at snowmobiles as the likely cause of increased incidences of ruptured discs necessitating spinal fusions and many other physical ills caused by being jostled and slammed up and down in a vehicle with scarcely any springs or shock absorbers.

      Those who ride them like to invite their friends to join them in the sport. Some of these not so experienced as the owners have suffered serious injuries in accidents such as broken arms and legs. We have heard of people travelling at high speed being decapitated by wire fences. Surely it is wrong for any Christian to endanger his life in a snowmobile.

    4. Snowmobilers have a bad influence. People who own snowmobiles and spend a lot of time with them influence others to get as glued to the sport as they are and Christians should not have such obsessions except in spiritual things things related to the Lord’s work.
    5. Snowmobiling Leads to Worse Things. In spite of all I have said you may not be convinced that snowmobiles are a great evil, but you cannot deny this: they could be the thin edge of the wedge of worldliness creeping in and we must guard against small beginnings.The thing may not be so bad in itself but if it leads to sin then what are we to say? In some places it seems that all trails lead to the tavern where you will see dozens of snowmobiles parked outside.Others go in for racing and of course bets are placed, so the sport brings the Christian into the company of people who gamble and drink. Some of the worst people drive snowmobiles. What part can a Christian have in this business?
    6. The Matter of Christian TestimonySnowmobiles are an annoyance to many people.  They roar up and down polluting the air with exhaust fumes and at night their lights distract motorists and flash into people’s houses. Farmers are afraid to go out at night on their own property for fear they would be struck down. Snowmobilers have no respect for other people’s property or privacy.

      Any Christian wearing a snowmobile suit is therefore a poor testimony. He is bound to be a stumbling block to others. People will say “If that’s what Christians do, count me out. I’ll have nothing to do with Christianity.”

    7. Snowmobiles are an invention of the devil. When the automobile, “the horseless carriage” was invented, preachers warned that it was an invention of the devil and they were laughed at. But no one can deny that the automobile brought on a weekend pleasure craze which kept thousands of people away from the churches.

      How many parents regret that they ever bought an automobile or ever taught their own children to drive? Parents, knowing the dangers were always careful about how and when they used their automobiles, but their young people were reckless. Some drove too fast, killing themselves and injuring their friends. Others parked the automobile down some lovers’ lane . . .The same will be true of snowmobiles. Mark my word. So now you can understand why I will never own a snowmobile. (The fact that I cannot afford one has nothing to do with it.) Nothing could be more worldly than riding snowmobiles and a Christian is plainly told “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”.

      Furthermore, I will not have fellowship or associate with snowmobilers or with those who do not own snowmobiles but are friendly toward those who do.

    Snowmobilers all sinnin' together

    We would like to meet with others who feel as we do with a view to stamping out snowmobiles. If we could get enough Christians to take a strong stand on this we could form a lobby and work to get legislation enacted prohibiting the manufacture and sale of these terrible machines. We could go from there to tackling other things which take people away from the church every weekend, such as camper and larger pleasure vehicles and private airplanes.

    – – – – – –

    You are not serious? Of course not! But I want you to think. These are the kinds of arguments Christians use to prove that certain things practices, or pastimes are worldly. All we do is prove that we are not very smart and we succeed admirably in looking ridiculous. Many things dogmatically stated here as fact are not even true. Fallacious arguments disgust thinking people. By such arguments as I have used you could strip yourself of everything even your body as the ascetics did. No matter how tired you may be, don’t ever lie on a bed. Wicked people do that. Don’t ever print anything. There’s a lot of bad stuff in print. So, of course, we would never print Bibles.

    Misguided Christians have carried this kind of twisted, illogical thinking to the point where any kind of game or sport or pastime became a sin. Piety was measured by the number of pleasures prohibited; to young and old alike, they had one answer. “You should find all the pleasure anyone needs in work. Enjoy your work. You must not indulge in the world’s foolishness. If you were the Christian you should be you would use leisure hours for Bible study and prayer. You would not be trying to fill the hours with empty pleasures.”

    If I should ask you what is worldliness, how would you reply? With a list of things to be regarded as worldly? Would that be your first answer? Would that be your full answer? I have been a Christian for 50 years and a Pastor for 40. I have learned that Christians whose definition of separation is in avoiding certain things, are likely to be blind to other forms of worldliness. In the sight of God these may be far more damaging to their souls and the souls of others than some of the taboos commonly held by certain groups.

    What do I mean? The spirit of Esau, who would not wait is the worldly spirit of many Christians. What they want, they want now and they get it now. This instant satisfying of every desire, this covetous, materialistic spirit makes Christians appear to be well-off. In reality they are painfully strapped with debt, very unhappy, and unable to give generously to the Lord’s work. That spirit of Esau is surely not of the Father, but of the world.

    Many Christians cannot be content with anything; car, house, furniture, clothing that is not either brand new or in “mint” condition. They knock themselves out trying to keep everything up to an impossible level of perfection. And what are all these things they are so “careful and troubled” about (Luke 12:15)? Temporal things that soon must pass away. Things of this world. That obsession with things and their perfection is worldliness.

    I have seen Christians totally worldly in these and other areas yet so completely unaware of the fact, that they felt themselves to be in a position to judge other Christians because they broke one of the separation taboos. Lest there be a misunderstanding at this point, we need to remember that there are some things which evangelical Christians have always felt should be avoided for the sake of one’s Christian testimony. We may not always agree on each debatable subject but we must respect oneanother’s conscience in these matters.

    Sometimes the list of things prohibited becomes very long because some items are clearly worldly and sinful while others are only considered to be, although it would be difficult to show biblical proof. Such things, in that case, are nothing more than the traditions of the scribes and pharisees in “Christian” guise.

    Happy are those who know the difference between truth and tradition! And happy is he who heeds our Saviour’s Word about removing the beam from his own eye before criticizing or refusing to fellowship with a brother who has only a mote in his eye.

    That thing in our hearts which causes us to set our brother at naught (Rom. 14) and judge him as not qualified to serve in this or that office because he does not agree with us in debatable matters; that spirit is infinitely worse than whatever the “unseparated” brother is doing. Nor will that attitude ever help anyone to deeper consecration, because it is not the spirit of Christ.

    “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” If only that could be our prayer each day. If it is not our heart’s desire to please Him, then what? Nothing else will really work. We can make up our consecration pledges for workers to sign, we can set down lists of things to be avoided by our members, but legal requirements are not God’s way of holiness. Church history clearly shows that those who will conform to legalistic standards inevitably become pharisees.

    True godliness, true consecration, true separation from worldliness and sin springs from only one motive: love for Christ in response to Calvary.

    Love so amazing, so divine,
    Demands my soul, my life, my all.

    That Christian who is constrained by such love, and no other, is free. Free to enjoy innocent fun; Free in testimony. Free in prayer. Free in witness. Free from fear. Free from bondage. Free indeed!

    note: this article was reprinted with written permission from Diaphero.org … thanks for letting us enjoy this here!