c. 1999 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ There are Christians, it seems, who fear the church isn’t relevant anymore. So irrelevant, in fact, that one Baldwin County (Ala.) congregation is airing a series of television ads hoping people will think about God and eternity _ and the possible temperatures in hell.

While unorthodox, the commercials airing locally aren’t an anomaly.

Nationwide, congregations eager to reach unchurched Americans are turning to media savvy para-church organizations for help. “The message hasn’t changed. Jesus is still the answer to all people’s needs,”says Kyle Thompson, a man who markets God for a living.”What is it about us that’s keeping them from seeing it?” That question and its myriad answers are what keep Thompson in business.

General manager of media outreach at Impact Productions in Tulsa, Okla., Thompson works with others to create Christian commercials, films and TV programs.

The approximately 15,500 subscribers to AT&T Cable Services in Baldwin County may be familiar with Impact’s evangelistic efforts.

About a month ago, some of Impact’s ads, simultaneously stark in their simplicity and trendy with their jerky, MTV-esque production, started showing up between programs on the A&E, USA, TNT, ESPN and Lifetime networks.

The commercials portray unchurched individuals asking questions about the realities of hell, salvation and the world’s end.

Part of the “What if it’s true?” campaign, the ads were purchased for about $3,000 by Belforest Baptist Church in Daphne, Ala. According to Belforest’s associate pastor, the Rev. Mike Parker, the congregation raised an additional $5,000 to pay for the air time. “Our target is people who are outside of church,”Parker said.”All these commercials are definitely from the opposite point of view.” Take the”hell lady,”as Parker describes one commercial’s narrator. A young woman stands alone in an empty yellow room and sarcastically says:”And it’s really hot. And there’s, like, torture going on. And you can’t bear the heat. And you can’t ever leave. Because you’re in hell. All alone in this hot, humid, scorching, hot, burning, hot, fire.”I don’t think so,”she sneers.

The commercial’s signature question, “What if it’s true?” then flashes across the screen, followed by Belforest’s name, address and phone number.

The ads, as far as Belforest member Tom Farmer of Fairhope is concerned, are”must-do”evangelism.”It reaches out to a community at a time when church just seems to be the same old thing,”said Farmer.”This seemed like a way to reach people and say, `God is real, he’s not asleep, he never has been, and he cares.” Parker concurs:”We want to go where people are at. We know that we have to relate to them. … They already have these negative impressions of church anyway. We go right up front and address them.” Still, in congregations’ efforts to reach the unchurched, some churchgoers find the methods somewhat off-putting. “Most church people don’t like `What if it’s true?’ It doesn’t speak to them, which is fantastic,”Thompson said.”It’s so not churchy.” The ad campaign, launched in January, is running in more than 400 markets nationwide, Thompson said. Congregations purchase rights to run at least five of the eight commercials in the campaign and retain market-exclusive privileges to”What if it’s true?”for two years.

During its first several months on the air, Thompson said, the “edgy” campaign, based on a series of sermons delivered by a Tulsa, Okla., pastor,”has really caught the eye.”One Oklahoma City congregation noted a 20 to 40 percent increase in the number of its visitors during the first few weeks of the campaign, he said.

The Rev. Scotty Jernigan, pastor of Belforest Baptist, said he only knows of a few visitors who’ve been spurred by the ad campaign to attend his congregation but says it’s still early to gauge the commercials’ long-term effect.

Religious commercials, of course, are nothing new.

But the style of such messages, as well as the medium used to transmit them, mark changes from evangelistic methods used decades ago, reports Lyle E. Schaller, author of “Innovations in Ministry: Models for the Twenty-First Century.””There was a day,”said Schaller of Naperville, Ill., “when denominational systems produced a variety of ads … typically for print, later for radio, and then later for television.” In today’s image-driven generation, however, the rules have changed.

Many contemporary advertisements are produced by para-church organizations and are broadcast on television and radio. Some ads, Schaller said,”tend to focus on … the viewer’s questions rather than `Shut up and listen and watch and we’ll tell you what we have to offer.'” Now, he said, ads begin with”`Where do you hurt?’ and `We believe we have an answer to the questions you’re raising.'”In other words,”You begin with the consumer’s agenda; you don’t begin with the product you’re pushing.” The method has its critics, who believe the job of the church is to proclaim the gospel, not ask people how they feel,”he added.

But he said Jesus used both methods in his ministry.”The printed word ain’t working as well as it used to,”he said.”It’s increasingly a visual communication world.” Still, he acknowledged, something can be lost on the airwaves where the subtleties and complexities of Christianity can be more difficult to communicate.

Jernigan, too, says there’s more to Christianity than the”What if it’s true?”ads convey.”What we want to do is use the commercials as a connector”by getting seekers”to the door.”

DEA END CAMPBELL