If you’ve flown recently, you have probably observed that no one pays attention to the pre-flight safety videos. There may be the occasional uptick in interest after a well-publicized crash or near-disaster, but soon old habits return—people stuff their AirPods into their ears and stare at their phones rather than watch the briefings.
The airlines appear to have responded to this apathy by trying to make their videos eye-catching and clever. Air Canada no longer shows passengers on a plane but actors outdoors in a variety of Canadian locations. Lufthansa does something similar, though with more of an international feel. United follows some strange Rube Goldberg contraption across a bunch of green-screened locations. The videos are longer than ever and rather abstract. And as far as I can tell, people aren’t any more interested in them than their predecessors.
Many Christians and many churches, and ministries to men, have essentially done what the airlines have done. Seeing that people are either not interested in the message or are not understanding it, they try to repackage it. They dress it up. Instead of delivering the plain truth, they deliver something that is attractive but opaque, something that is meant to catch eyes but actually leaves people further from actual comprehension. But that’s no solution, for the problem is not with the gospel but with the one hearing it.
As we share the good news with others, we all eventually witness the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” They don’t see because they can’t see and they can’t see because God has not yet removed the veil that keeps them blind.
Our task is not to dress up the gospel and not to change the message to make it more attractive or palatable. Sure, we can express that same truth in fresh ways and speak in words appropriate to a specific listener. But we cannot change the message and must not fail to speak it. Our God-given task is to preach and plead—to continue to preach the truth lost men and women need to hear and to plead with God that he would do what only he can do—that he would remove the blinders from their eyes and give them eyes to see the wonders of his beauty.
By Tim Challies is a pastor, noted speaker, author of numerous articles, and a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere. Tens of thousands of people visit Challies.com each day, making it one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs in the world. Tim is the author of several books, including Visual Theology, The Next Story, and, most recently, Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History. He and his family reside near Toronto, Ontario.
