Church Advertisements on the Radio

Recently I have been thinking of church ads playing on local radio out of Marshall, Texas. Two in particular come to mind. One from an unnamed church (for reasons to come) and the other from Trinity Episcopal Church in Marshall.

Both ads feature the voice of the pastor offering a word and an invitation. As for the unnamed church the ad ends with the pastor saying "Follow me as I follow God." That has always made me a little queasy. It's just the reformed nature of my soul, but I would rather follow God. I would rather have a pastor who would have us all follow God together. In this case I get a sense that the pastor is a Sergeant in the Army of the Lord and we are buck privates.



By the way, this analogy allows me to post this video, Love it!

As for Trinity Episcopal, Father George begins his ad with this question: "Do you know that you are the beloved of God?"

Now I 've heard this ad thousands of times, literally. But one day, after an especially difficult day in the field, I heard this and it hit me in a brand new way.

So, based on 60 seconds of radio advertising where would I go? Honestly I'd go with the one who reminds me I am loved and makes me know I follow the Lord and not another man like me. I know Father George and have never met the other man. I judge the ministry they present based only on what they share on the radio here, what I share with you. Then I go with Isaiah, as for me and mine we will serve the Lord.

So when you're in Marshall, Texas tune in to ESPN 96.9 and judge for yourself.

Storytelling

My family is a family of storytellers. My sisters and I learned this from our parents. My mother's family, the only extended family we know, are notorious storytellers. For some odd reason I was reminded of this story...

About ten years ago Marie and I lived in Northwest Arkansas, about 40 miles from Branson. We were up there for some reason I don't remember and decided to have dinner at Red Lobster. We were seated pretty close to the kitchen which provided the inspiration for this ditty.

We were about half way through the meal a server walked by and I asked him this question:

Excuse me, is this the Red Lobster with the Twister board painted on the floor of the walk-in?

For those who don't know, a walk-in is a large freezer or refrigerator. To suggest that someone, somewhere would paint a Twister board on the floor would be weird. To fall for it is just plain fun, at least it is for me.

The man (blonde sure, but a man-put away your gender based stereotypes!) stopped in his tracks and asked what I was talking about. So I spun a little yarn about the legend of a Red Lobster restaurant somewhere having a Twister board painted on the floor of the walk-in. He was enthralled by the story.

I loved it. Marie was marginally amused and preferred her shrimp.

I didn't take it too far, letting his imagination run wild was far better than making the story so big he would figure out I was weaving a tale. Still, we had a lovely chat about the restaurant and he said he would have to keep an open ear to the "Legend of the Walk-In Twister Board."

Ah storytelling. My sisters are so proud. My mother would have been appalled.