I was reading(-ish) a pull-out supplement from a Christian publication and saw an attention grabbing headline that really annoyed me:

"The [Evangelism Resource] more than anything else in the world has enabled people to follow Jesus... And we're not going to stop"

It annoys we because it is humanly wrong - the vast majority of Christians through time have never even heard of this resource and I suspect even in our own time it accounts only for a small fraction of conversions/commitments

It annoys me even more because it theologically wrong - last time I looked it was the Holy Spirit who enabled people to follow Jesus

It annoys me because it as arrogant and in the language of marketing, 'new Raz washes whiter; improved action Bosh kills 99.999% of germs, etc

It saddens me because I know people who have faithfully delivered this brand and seen no tangible results

It saddens me because I know people for whom this brand has been incredibly important in their own story, but was recognised not as 'the thing' but 'a thing'

It saddens me because it reduces Christian experience to a formula, as if one size fits all (or at most has adaptations for awkward traditions like Baptists and Catholics).

It also saddens me because the person being interviewed is evidently fulfilling a great and important mission and pastoral role yet a slant in reporting appropraites this for some other goal (or so it feels to me)

So, at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, a short rant!