So an unitarian, universal, all-faith, inter-space, catch all, no holds barred 'church' is offering to give away free ipod shuffles. They are trying to fill their shrinking pews by holding a raffle for free iPod shuffles.
"What we really want to do is we want people to know that we want them to come, we want them to possibly shuffle in and soar out," the Rev. Julianne Lewis said. Lewis said whether someone wins the Shuffle or not, she hopes the church's message sticks with people and they continue to come back after the promotion ends
I can't say that I am surprised that a church would go this far to attract people to their services. To be honest, when I first read headline, "Church gives away iPods to draw new members," I was a little worried that the church would be and evangelical mega churches church. That is not to I have any problems with the large churches, but we all know churches who have pulled "stunts" in order to fill the pews.
This all brings up an interesting question as to how far should a church go to attract people? Are videos, high tech sanctuaries, any different than free ipods? And how Machiavellian can church be? If the truth is being taught, then does it matter what sort of devices are used? If for instance that the church giving away ipods was a highly evangelistic bible driven church, would it be any different? Would we accept this as an interesting way of drawing in people or find it purely lazy an ineffective form of evangelism?
Tell me what you think, write your thoughts below in the comment section.
1 comment:
Well, my knee-jerk reaction would be that it is wrong. But, after thinking another 10 seconds, it's not bad but their implimentation isn't good. A bit too much like gambling.
But you're right, giving away an ipod is not different from other "free" promotions churches offer. My thing about this church is that there are root issues why people leave and no ipod can resolve that.
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