The Gospel, Now With Added Freshness

I’m a sucker for big brands on a budget, so when I saw ‘Toni & Guy Deep Cleansing Shampoo’ for a third off in my local Boots, I snagged it up!

It was when I was in the queue that I finally read the tagline, ‘guaranteed added freshness!’ After a pointed cough behind me I’d noticed I’d been staring at this exclamation on the bottle for quite a few uncomfortable minutes without moving.

Guaranteed added freshness? What is that supposed to mean? How can you guarantee ‘added’ freshness. Is freshness an ingredient you can add after the mixing of the bottle? Would I miss it so much with another brand that forgets to add the freshness at the end?What was it that made the nice people at Toni & Guy feel that they needed to reassure me: ‘don’t worry Tim, we didn’t forget to add the freshness!’

Isn’t freshness a state of an ingredient, rather than a piece you can independently add to a mix? How fresh something is is how recently it was picked. Adding freshness would be like adding arrogance to someone – it’s just something they are, permeating through all their bits! Or, “this car comes with free ‘piece of mind!’” Really? What does piece of mind look like? What other products feature that ingredient?

I sent a tweet to Toni & Guy asking them to elaborate, but they – probably wisely – didn’t take the bait.

Selling the intangible

We’ve really mastered the art of selling the intangible and the immeasurable haven’t we? We market everything from our guaranteed extra care to the added vitality of flavoured water.

I remember someone once trying to ebay their undying love and affection. I don’t think they got a lot for it before ebay said it broke the rules somehow and took down the listing.

That begs the question though; If ebay can notice when we’re selling a load of tosh, what makes us think young people don’t notice when we do the same to the Gospel.

I see this all the time at youth events. The speaker will invariably try and sell an intangible as a tagline to the Gospel. “Come to Jesus and get peace!” “Give your life to Christ and know life to the full!”

This generation of young people know when they’re being advertised to. They recognise the sales pitch – but you just missed the mark because they can smell the rat.

Jesus is tangible!

We don’t need to be intangible about the Gospel. We don’t have to be fluffy. We don’t have to colour in a sales pitch. We have evidence, experience and specifics that we can give people.

We need to get into the habit as youth leaders of teaching the tangible Gospel:

“Come to Jesus and get peace…. that is the presence of an all powerful God with a proven track record giving you wisdom, guidance and spiritual comfort when you go through the storms of life… Here’s how he did it for me.”

 “Give your life to Christ and know life to the full…. as you discover the purpose for which you exist and live in satisfaction as you make choices with God guided aims…. Here’s how it looked for Paul”

The Gospel affects life, we don’t need to sell pretend intangibles like shampoo. I’m not sure that drinking certain water brands will add to my vitality over other brands – but I know and have real evidence that Jesus offers us tangible change for our lives.

If Jesus doesn’t work in real like then He doesn’t work. Period. If we need to sell him with intangible tag lines we haven’t seen Him work yet and no one will be buying!