Why buy the cow if the milk is free?

“Why buy the cow if the milk is free?” 

I actually heard a song with those lyrics on the radio today.  Okay, it was a spoof on country songs, but it reminded me of what our adult leaders said to us as teens when they talked to us about S-E-X.  They usually spoke in DaVinci-like code — all mysterious and whispery — while never actually saying the word…well, you know…

Fast forward to 2007 — now churches are using sex as a church growth strategy.  A Tennessee church drew a lot of heat (pardon the pun) for advertising a sermon series on Red Hot Sex!!!    Man, have we come a long way.  If sex sells, maybe it sells religion, too.

The pastor of this congregation said, “The bottom line is, if I would have put holiness here or I’d have put have a good marriage, no one would have showed up!”

So, the end justifies the means.  If it works, it’s okay.  If it gets people into the building, that’s what we’re after.  As they say on Sesame Street, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

I googled “church series on hot sex” to find the specific link to the Red Hot Sex church.  I was astounded.  Google came back with — are you ready? — “about 6,440,000 for church series on hot sex.”  And it only took 0.28/seconds.  A lot of churches are doing the red hot sex series.  The next question is — Can we get the video?  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Folks, let me tell you something:  we can’t compete in the sex-as-marketing-tool arena.  We’re not that good at it, plus it’s all over the internet, on the radio, and in most of the ads we see.  Maybe what our youth leaders said to us years ago had some truth after all — Nobody’s gonna buy our cow, ’cause the milk is already free!