The last 'last one'... (prepare for the next! ha)

No stuffing around, I'm going to rip straight into it. (these are my thoughts from the long list of comments)

On the JAAL web site I saw this quote “We need to engage with our culture” I could not agree more. I wonder though which culture we are engaging with when we put on an ad campaign. I also wonder if that is the best way to engage a culture. What about all the sub-cultures? Yes, it is possibly an effective way to get a message out, but I think in our media savvy culture, people come to expect 'fine print' from anything. In addition, (unfortunately) all an ad can present is often a watered done glimpse, possibly why people expect fine print because it’s just about raising some level of excitement/need.

Positives:
It's a great way to give a general wide spread coverage.
Negatives:
The content is often regarded as having 'strings attached'.
The content can often be watered down, just to fit in the choice cuts.
(Does anyone else feel like it is time we start something like a Christian style of GABBA? Because it seems to me that too often, people talk about the crazy provision of God when he just gives good things, but it stops there, few people talk about the God who my prefer us to follow him into poverty to preach his message. It sounds like classic compulsive behaviour to me; we only discuss God when he ‘pays out’. If you think I am wrong then question why the prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10) (and similar things) are so heavily pushed, come to God the big pokey machine in the sky, and he will make everything alright.) However, that is a complete side.

I would like to see initiatives that instead of sucking people into our self appointed sacred spaces; actually encourage people getting a little dirty while actively engaging in our culture/sub-cultures, and becoming part of the fabric of that particular culture. Rather than just making more visual noise.

Also another comment and the last I plan to pull directly from the JAAL** website. **(this is intended to just be a general laugh at ourselves, but has anyone else noticed that if a program, church or otherwise has a name, it has to somehow involve an acronym?)
“The statistics from the Australian census has shown that the Christian church is losing membership and is in danger of "slipping off the landscape". As well‚ recent National Church Life Survey (NCLS) results indicate that while in some areas the church is growing‚ in others it is stagnant and aging.

The church has lost numbers‚ influence and presence.”

I worry about statements like the above, just because I’m not sure what the concern is. The ad campaign and the above ‘reason’ for the ad campaign seem to contradict each other. Is it that the Christian Church has lost it’s place within society and that is what we need to re-advertise because the church is the key element in society? Alternatively, is it that Jesus is in danger of slipping off the road map?
I know what the above statement intends. However, it is worrying to me when the church and Jesus are regarded as synonymous. For to long the Church has taken Jesus’ message and taken choice cuts, and turned God into the God of the Jabez prayer, rich business men, and arrogant egotistical people interested in only their own little perfect worlds. Maybe I have gone to far, maybe I haven’t.

And again thanks Martin for having the rocks to try something. I may point out things that do not sit with me (I do not want you to feel like the finger is on you); but regardless of my criticisms, thankyou. Not because I agree, but because you are trying, you are standing by your creation, and you make this discussion have some depth (for lack of a better word). Maybe soon you can do the same to me, and help flesh out some of my blind spots. Thanks for being gracious.
cheers