A Compelling Message

When my kids were younger, a Renaissance Faire opened up nearby. Like most parents, my husband had taught several of our kids to juggle. (Okay, most parents don’t teach their kids to play with fire, but mine did.) He had a harder time teaching me to juggle, so I put together a comedy show instead. In any case, this seemed like a great opportunity.

To say we suffered culture shock at the Faire is a vast understatement. Like saying “Beetlejuice” three times, we were transported into, what was for us, an alternate reality. We were good church-going types, you see, and suddenly we had to adapt to a lot of very different people – people with a range of experiences, beliefs, and alternative lifestyles.

What we learned about most was the audience. You see, we were used to performing in a theater, where people buy tickets, show up, and sit through the show. But that’s not how it works at a Renaissance Faire. Patrons come to the shows that sound interesting to them. But you have to keep their interest. By the seventh bad pun, they would think nothing of standing up in the middle of your show, announcing, “Dude! The Pickle Guy!” and leaving. And there went half the audience.

Oh, yeah. That happened a lot that first weekend – just part of the shock of adapting to an outdoor faire. Thankfully, some of the Rennies from the circuit were kind enough to show us the ropes. Otherwise our actors would have always outnumbered our audience. We were used to clear rules for shows at the theater, where everyone sits politely to the end. But here, you had to understand your audience in order to engage them.

It was quite a range of people: pagans, atheists, and religious people, costumed “playtrons,” musicians, families, goth, alternative, and Bermuda shorts. And quite a tall order to draw them in.

There’s a metaphor in that.

I think about the church in Jesus’ time where the rules were clear, and they expected everyone to follow those rules. When Jesus arrived, He took stock of the audience, which was not that different from today, really. There were people like Matthew the tax collector or Samaritans, who were effectively shunned from the community. It also included the respectable and unrespectable, men and women, the marginalized, Jews, gentiles, and Romans.

But the church of the time was speaking to one type of audience: respectable, rule-following, and Jewish. The audience Jesus saw, however, was much more. It was a messy world full of people with a wide range of experiences, beliefs, pain, and spiritual hunger. Somehow, Jesus managed to resonate with all of them.

I mean, talk about attracting a crowd. Even when Jesus tried to withdraw, “the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.” (Matt. 14:13) Later, He fed this large crowd with only five loaves and two fishes. According to Matthew, the crowd size “was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (21). I mean, that’s bigger than your modern-day megachurches. It wasn’t that He knew how to attract a crowd. Jesus knew how to speak to a wide range of people. Something about His words were compelling when the church’s were not. The church offered judgment and had conditions on acceptance while Jesus offered compassion, truth, hope, and love.

As I look around today, we still have an audience made up of people with different journeys, experiences, pain, and spiritual hunger. If someone on the outside were giving us feedback, what message would they say the church is giving to the immigrant, the poor, the queer community, the homeless, the unemployed, or anyone who falls under DEI? Is the church just speaking to one type of audience? Is our message one of judgment and conditions?

Because if it is, that message is not compelling, and I’m not sure how we think we’ll attract the crowd. If the church continues to respond with judgment, or worse yet, silence as others are marginalized, then the crowd is going to stand up and walk away because they are just not interested in what we have to say.

Let’s be the church who looks out at the audience and sees much more. Love and grace to a hurting world. That’s a message that resonates.

The Odd Christian is written for those of us who don’t fit neatly in the church, yet we are doing our best to do what Jesus taught and live out the Gospel. To support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.