Worldly and Sensational Advertising

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1916

Worldly and Sensational Advertising

THE loss of spiritual power on the part of the Christian church has always been attended by an appeal to the spirit of worldliness and to worldly elements. It required the employment of no sensational methods on the part of the Master to draw men to listen to the preaching of the word; and throughout the ages the heralds of the cross who have had a living message to bear could secure a hearing without resort to worldly or sensational advertising. It is admittedly a confession of worldliness when the church today must resort to such methods.

Recently a great church in the city of New York advertised a “baseball” service, resulting in crowding the church edifice to overflowing. The editor of Zion’s Herald, although dealing with a question which concerned a church of his own denomination, sounds this note of warning against the employment of such methods:—

“The first remark that we would make in answer to the query raised by this whole grotesque business, is that it must ultimately fail of doing the very thing which it sets out to do. It is like the drug habit. A little answers at first, then more and more, until it defeats its own ends. A congregation drawn together by thrillers will call constantly for new thrillers, and by and by will find its senses so jaded that no minister, however vigorous, will be able to satisfy the unnatural craving.

“The voice of warning must be raised in this connection. Not that this particular service that has just been held is any worse—or any better, for that matter—than any other of the kind that might be mentioned, but because, heralded from one end of the country to the other, it is liable to receive and lead others to think that that is the road to spiritual success. It would be a calamity unspeakable—whatever may be the case in New York—if these grotesque methods were to become at all dominant. They justly invite ridicule from the daily press, and they repel sober-thinking men and women. Let the gospel be made as attractive as possible, let the singing be of the best, let the atmosphere of the church be of the most cheerful, and in it all and through it all let congregation, laymen as well as minister, be devoted whole heartedly to the work, and it will not be necessary to drag the pulpit down to the arena of the clown with joke-telling ministers, or to turn the service into a vaudeville performance, with public entertainers talking platitudes on being good and playing the game on the square.

“We call upon our ministry and laity everywhere to rally firmly and squarely against the dangerous tendency toward the bizarre and grotesque that is threatening the church. It spells ruin. The gospel preached with the demonstration of the power, and the sane, intelligent use of modern methods in church work, will attract the people. Of that there can be no doubt. Moreover, success is not to be measured by the mere gathering of thousands. The purpose of their coming together and the message they receive are of importance.”