Creating a video, billboard, and web message in order to show the love of Jesus to the guy(s) who stole your stuff.......Ballsy!

Derek

peter what does ballsy mean.

“Ballsy?” That’s a rather crass word.  At least, “That takes guts,” would be more proper.

Better yet, why not instead put something up there like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and capitalize the key word like, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor THIEVES, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Oh, wait.  I know why churches wouldn’t do that.  It could convict people of their sins.  (Tongue-in-cheek.)

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CS

Remarkable.  Makes me wonder what kind of other remarkable things this church does.  And a heck of a lot more (can I say “heck” here?) penetrating of the “joints and marrow” than a 30-day sex challenge.

Kevin:

“People are getting more concerned about the word “ballsy” then the love, grace and forgiveness this church is displaying.”

I admit, I didn’t watch the video until after making my first post here, because my eyes skipped over that spot thinking it was an ad, so I based my point of view solely on the billboard pic and the header Todd posted.

The pastor showed immense grace in his invitation to the thieves, and responded as we should for any similar situation.  That is wonderful compassion.  I didn’t care for his statement about how his church caters to people who don’t like Christians, because that usually shows other flaws in theology or fellowship, but I am willing to discount that for the kindness the pastor demonstrated.

However, I would have liked to see this sort of message on the billboard, instead.  How about on it, instead of “ballsy,” the billboard could have said, “Church trailer thief: You won’t believe this, but we forgive you.  Really.  Call us or hit our website so we can take you out and feed you.”

But the angle they took went halfway between showing God’s authority and judgment and being rude.  That’s why I responded in my first post as I did, with the absence of knowledge of the video.  If we’re going to convict people of their sins, let’s go at it.  If we’re going to show grace, do it full-bore.  But don’t use modern coarse words in either case.

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CS

I probably wouldn’t have used the word myself.  But I’m at a new church start on the other side of Charlotte from Kinetic.  I know how devastated we would be to lose 75% of our resources.  I think they were trying to get the attention of the thief.  The message is powerful about grace, love and forgiveness.  That is what Jesus taught us to do. 

Also, what is wrong with going after those who are turned off by church?  That is the lesson of Luke 15.  There are 1000’s of people dying and going to hell right here in Charlotte.  We need more Kinetic Churches, Elevation Churches and ours because they aren’t going to the existing churches.

CS,

That mailer isn’t building up the body and I agree with you. But from what I know about Kinetic they aren’t talking bad about other churches.  They just are going after the unchurched.  We say the same thing.  We tell people from existing churches to stay there and serve because you probably wouldn’t like our style.

Doesn’t it seem like the billboard and the video are the opposite messages?  One is saying, “Hey punk, you have a lot of nerve to steal from God.  We’re mad and so is He” The other, “Hey, we’ve all done bad stuff like stealing, and worse.  We’re not mad. We forgive you and want to know you and love you.”

I affirm the latter but not the billboard, because I don’t like the term “ballsy” or the message it’s sending.

Wendi

A lot of you are missing the message here.
This is a great modern example of a church laying its collective heart wide open for the world to examine.  I don’t care if they said any one of a number of coarse descriptors, what matters is that they said the truth, in a very compelling way.  Be offended if you have to be, but DON’T miss the message or try to think that the message changes because of one word you don’t like.

CS - what do you think the unfortunate person said when he found out the trailer was gone?
“Oh mercy me, our trailer has been purloined!” But seriously, you’re still missing the message and getting caught up in one single word, which is immaterial to this church’s message to the thief.  Too often, we Christians can’t accept a message if it’s not written or spoken exactly to our liking.  Jesus said a few things about this, I think.

I think it “might” be okay to drop the F-Bomb. We’d be talking about it internationally - that’s for sure!

I wonder about the time Jesus called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers”. And he did it publicly.

Was “brood of vipers” an ancient equivalent of using profanity to describe people? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect so. I don’t use language like that in my church (or in my life for that matter) but I don’t have a very successful ministry with people who steal church trailers either.

The immorality of profane language has nothing to do with some inherent badness in the word and has everything to do with the spirit (anger) in which it is said and the purpose (to hurt someone else) for which it is uttered. That can be done with profanity or with flattering words.

The billboard is not angry or hurtful. I think it communicates something more like “We’re hurt. You got us good. (insert sheepish smile here) That took guts.” It’s kind of showing respect for the thief. Sort of like the parable Jesus tells of the shrewd manager. He was ballsy.

I am a member of Kinetic Church and I can tell you that we were really hurt when the trailer was stolen, but seriously- who are we to condemn them for doing something wrong when we all sin daily.  We can’t cast stones because we are not without blemish.  If you think it is ballsy to use the word “ballsy,” then fine.  Move past it, please.  The billboards are to get the attention of the people that stole the trailer and get our message across that we forgive them.  If we wrote “We forgive you” on a sign, would it make as big of an impact?  Also, our church does not cater to the people who do not like church.  We just have some people that attend church because somebody dragged them out of bed one morning and made them go.  They realized that they might actually like church, so they keep coming.  What is so wrong with being a progressive church?  There is nothing wrong with our theology.  Our beliefs come directly from the Bible itself.  We may do things that are out of the box, but how can we reach those that don’t know him if we don’t think this way?