Marketing Jesus? How Do You Measure Up?

What’s the first thing you did when you read the title, “Marketing Jesus”? Did your eyebrows have a meetup with the top of your nose? Did the wrinkles in your forehead pop out? Or maybe your eyes rolled around in their sockets. Trust me, I get it. When I first came across this concept, I was a skeptic. Though I’m a casual and very cool Christian, I am serious about preserving the sanctify of Christ and godly things. So, marketing Jesus isn’t normally a term I would use. If it were a college class, I probably wouldn’t take it.

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Tim Sinclair’s book Branded

On a recent trip to the library with my little boys, however, I came across a book called Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture. The title intrigued me as did the little 3D person wearing a hat with a cross and a fish necktie. Hilarious. So I checked out the book. And it is deep! I am learning so much and having some of my deep-seeded opinions challenged. If you’re a Christian wanting to bring others to Christ, I’d highly recommend this book. But this post isn’t an advertisement . . . not of that book anyway.

I wonder how many of us consider how we are marketing Jesus. What does our lifestyle say about the One we claim can change lives, heal, deliver, restore and bring joy?

My family and I are blessed to have an international student (our international daughter as I lovingly call her) live with us this school year. Every day I ask myself, “How am I showing her who Jesus is?” It’s one thing to be nice at church, it’s another thing to be nice at home. It’s one thing to throw your hands in the air in a worship service and sing praises, but what happens when someone cuts you off in traffic? Hands go up and what comes out of your mouth then?

We are Jesus’s Marketing Team

I recently walked away from my internet marketing business. The money was good, the people I met along the way were great, but I knew God had called me to write and speak full-time. Plus, my home-work life was off balance. I needed to spend more time with my family and more time pursuing the dream and vision for my life. However, I learned A LOT when I was a full-time marketer.

Many of us promote, sell and shout Jesus’s praises, but the fine print of our lives is sketchy.

I learned that people are bored and tired of catchphrases. They read the fine print. They want the real. The same is true for us Christians. Many of us promote, sell and shout Jesus’s praises, but the fine print of our lives is sketchy. Our marriages are falling apart at the same rate (or even higher according to some surveys) as people without faith. Our daughters are having abortions. Some of us are having abortions. We’re sleeping around, lying on our taxes, cursing out “the man,” you name it.

Where are the called out ones?!

If Jesus himself were to check in on our progress of “sharing the good news of the kingdom” with our culture, how would we measure up? Sobering, right?

Let’s make a decision to not only be Christians in word, but in the way we love, the way we treat people behind closed doors, in our godly example. No false advertisements here! Let’s “market Jesus” the way He deserves. We aren’t perfect, never will we be, but we can be better representations of a fail-proof “product” to the world–the One who redeems, makes all things new, restores and gives life. Are you with me?