Jesus - The Bad Marketer

Jesus was one of the worst Marketing guys who ever walked on planet earth. 

You might ask "Why do you say so?"

I have my reasons for making that statement. The reasons are given below.

Jesus never utilized an opportunity to promote himself
  1. Once Jesus was walking in the city. He saw a man with leprosy. Jesus just touched him and he was instantly healed. Jesus ordered him not to tell anyone; instead asked him to go and show himself to the high priest. (Luke 5:12-14)
  2. Once a small girl died. Jesus went to her house and brought her back to life. He said " Go and tell no one".(Luke 8 :52-56)
  3. Once Jesus went into a house and many blind men came to him. He touched them and they all got sight. Jesus said to them "See here, Let no one know about this". (Matthew 9:28-30)
  4. Once Jesus healed a deaf and dumb man. He told the people not to tell anyone about the miracle. (Mark 7:33-36)
We see in Jesus's earthly ministry that he was telling people not to testify about physical healing. Jesus could have  indeed asked his disciples to make big banners and wall paintings about his wonderful miracle ministry.  He could have made it really big.

His business model was bad

Jesus could have preached sermons on how he healed people; but sadly he did not even preach a single sermon on healing and miracles. Instead of preaching how to heal people, he demonstrated it. He could have atleast written some scrolls on topics like "Seven ways to heal yourself" , " Five points for successful living", "How to be healthy, wealthy and happy", "purpose driven Christianity" etc... His writings would have sold out for greater amount of money. He could have sold these scrolls to different parts of the globe through his disciples. But he did not do that. This is because he had a poor business model and hence failed to promote his ministry for business.

He could have made a world Tour

Jesus could have used his twelve disciples to go to the ends of the world and they could have made arrangements for Jesus to make  a world wide miracle crusades. He did not do any of that. Instead he sent those 12 disciples to different nations. Jesus never wanted to use his miracles to attract people. Jesus always preached the gospel  (Repent, Believe, Get disciplined, Continue growing in God).  If he only made announcements through his disciples that he was going to different parts of the globe, he would have reached the ends of the world in no time. But sadly, he just walked around Jerusalem and Galilee like a wanderer with the same Jewish crowd following him. If only he had learnt a lesson from the present day preachers that only disciples are only to be used for administrative,logistic work where as preaching was reserved for the main preacher of the organisation, Jesus would have made world tours.

His PR approach was pathetic

Once Jesus drove away the legion away from a man. (Mark 5). In this story, the man wanted to go along with Jesus after he was set free; but Jesus asked the man to go back to his HOME and tell them about God's mercies (Mark 5:19). Jesus did not take the man along with him to all the places he went and he never used that man to promote his ministry. Instead he asked the man to be a testimony in his own hometown.

Jesus always expects us to hide behind the cross and do His ministry. John the baptist made this amazing statement "He must increase and I must decrease". But today preachers have this statement  "He must increase and I must also increase along with him".

Jesus was poor in delivering quantified results
Those who advertise their ministry by telling that 45 million people have tasted the lord through their ministry can teach Jesus a lesson on how to market themselves. Jesus would have reached thousands of people too. If only Jesus had learnt this trick from the present day ministers, he would have constantly said that he brought 2000 people in Galilee, 1500 in Capernaum, 2000 in Nazareth and so on. Such numbers would have been recorded in the bible and we could have boasted about it. But we just have a couple of instances of 3000 and 5000 odd people being included to church and that too as a result of Pentecost. Instead of 3000 people, Luke should have recorded it as 3 million. That number sounds really huge.

Jesus did not know how to make money.

Jesus had the capacity to earn money through his preachings. He could have made entry tickets for his crusades and an offertory collection in his healing crusades would have made him a multi millionaire. But instead of passing baskets to collect money, he passed the baskets to distribute bread and fish to people who came to one of his public preaching.

On another occasion he went into the temple and drove away the money changers who were using God's name to earn money. This was really bad behavior on Jesus's part. If he was not smart enough to earn money, why did he have to poke his nose in the business of others who were cheating and earning money? I am happy that Jesus is not roaming around in our churches and christian books stores today. He would have behaved like a maniac in all these places.

Jesus did not even know how to evade taxes. If he had taken a lesson or two from the present day preachers, he would have learnt how to convert black money to white money.

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From the above points it is very clear that Jesus was a very bad marketer who did not even know how to project himself well. If only he was with us in flesh and blood, he could have been subjected to an intense training session on how to be a great business man with wonderful marketing strategies. 

[Those who understood the concept of this article, do ponder over this article and give a thought on what you learnt from this. Others can ignore this]

Shielded in God's love
Watchmen

How (Not) to tell your testimony?

Off late it has become a common practice in Christian Television channels to interview a christian celebrity. One of the common questions asked is "Please share your testimony". The celebrity then goes on and shares his testimony. These testimonies can be seen /heard if you tune to a christian TV channel or  Christian FM channel.

Most of these testimonies are exaggerated to make it appealing for the audiences. Some testimonies truly bring glory to God but many don't. Let us analyse the following testimony that I saw in a TV channel recently. The interview went on like this

Interviewer : Praise the Lord brother. It is a great privilege to have you with us on our show. 

Celebrity : Praise the Lord. I greet you in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Interviewer : Can you please share with us about your testimony.

Celebrity : I was a notorious sinner. I used to be one major rogue. People were scared of me. I was the hit man of my place. My hands used to do the talking and I used to settle disputes with my power. During those days I was a big drunkard too. I used to get drunk every night and some nights I would be lying down on the road. Some one would take me to my house. I was a disgrace to the family. I used to smoke 50 cigarettes a day and I taught many college friends to smoke. This is how I was leading my college life.

Interviewer : Oh No! Then what happened

Celebrity : Then when I was in final year of college, I started taking drugs and I became a drug addict. I was always high on drugs. I started stealing money from my home, friends to buy drugs and I had contacts with all the drug peddlers in town.

Interviewer : That was really bad.

Celebrity : Yes! It was really bad. Then one day I was so depressed , I decided to smoke some weed. I ran out of rolling paper . So I searched for a paper that I could use to roll the weed and I found a small bible in the corner of the room. The paper in the bible is soft and I decided to tear a paper to roll the stuff and smoke.
I opened the bible and I saw John 3:16. Immediately tears started flowing from my eyes and I surrendered myself to Christ. I confessed all my sins and submitted myself to God. I even took the decision to become a pastor and lead people away from sin. If Jesus can cleanse a great sinner like me, He sure can cleanse anyone.

Interviewer : That is one of the best testimonies we have heard in a long time Pastor. Now tell me how your life is after you accepted Jesus as your personal savior.

Celebrity : When I was in sin, I was a complete loser. People hated me. Now everyone loves me. God has blessed me too. I used to be a pauper who did not have any penny on me. But now I own a BMW and God has poured his blessings on my family. When we put God first he will bless us and prosper us. His plan is to prosper us and give us a hope and a future. I was once without any hope. Now Jesus is my Hope and Joy.

Interviewer : Praise God for that. Dear Viewers, I am pretty sure that this testimony of our dear pastor would have inspired you to accept Christ. We will meet again with yet another testimony next week. Till then, Good bye; Stay Blessed.

Did anyone find anything wrong in this testimony?

The celebrity talks about his past and also about his present life. In the past life, he talks about his defeated sinful life; but when he talks about his present life, he talks about the earthly blessings. He is not talking about how he is overcoming sin in his day -to-day life.  Earthly blessings  does not fit into the picture at all because if earthly blessings are equated as blessings from God then all the non believers in the Forbes top 100 richest people in the world are the most blessed people in the world.

When we share our testimony, let us not tell lies. It has become a fashion to say "I was a drug addict in the past". Some one who smoked weed in college doesn't become a drug addict. Drug addiction is a different department in itself. Just to attract audiences let us not exaggerate our past life. Some of the testimonies that we hear really make me think that those celebrity preachers should actually be behind bars.

Testimony is all about showing it through our life. 
Testimony is all about praising him.
Testimony is not about trying to portray myself as a good man.
Testimony is all about Truth.
Testimony is not about Lies.
Even a single ounce of Lie in a testimony make it a whole Lie.

How is your testimony?

-Shielded in God's Love
Watchmen