This past Sunday, a number of us watched an NFL game. This was perhaps something that we had not done since last year, perhaps even longer. And if you were one of the occasional NFL game watchers, it’s likely that you weren’t even watching for the game. You were watching for the commercials or the half time show.
I talked about the commercials in my sermon this past Sunday. But I had no idea what Rihanna was going to do for her half time show. No matter if you did or didn’t like it, something that you may not be aware of is that Rihanna was not paid for her performance – at least not in dollars. Instead, Rihanna was given the opportunity to put on the show for the exposure. In other words, Rihanna was betting on the millions of people googling her name, perhaps even asking if she was pregnant (the top google search question of the evening).
It brings up questions about how much exposure Jesus is getting in our lives. The “He Gets Us” ad campaign drew many criticisms because it spent millions of dollars trying to bring some exposure to a message about Jesus that might be more palatable to current non-Christians. The criticisms reminded me of this quote by D.L. Moody in response to one of his own critics: “It is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”
Perhaps we can take some pointers from half time shows, commercials, and D.L. Moody. If we really think, we bring enough curiosity to someone that they might just google up Jesus’ name.