Listen Up, Rappin' Crew, Come On In And Take A Pew... Church Tries To Appeal To The Young

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | September 14, 2009

[Steelfish]

Listen Up, Rappin' Crew, Come On In And Take A Pew... Church Tries To Appeal To The Young

By STEVE DOUGHTY 15th September 2009

Taking the rap? Will the 'rap-style poem' in a radio advert tempt young people to go to church (posed by model) In the beginning, the elders gathered and set up a mighty cry: How are we to get young people into church? And, lo, they decreed: Let there be rap.

In a move which risks ridicule, the Church of England has turned to street culture in the hope of attracting new blood.

A radio advert will appeal to the lapsed faithful to 'stop, turn around, walk back' to church on Sunday.

The spoken message, voiced by a series of actors, is described by the Church as 'a rap-style poem'.

The ad is the latest in a 15-year campaign by the C of E to use advertising to boost church attendances and attract the attention of those, in particular the young, who have no interest in Christianity.

Past efforts have met with mixed success. One mid-1990s slogan that declared Christmas to be a 'bad hair day' won universal mockery.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Last gasp of a dying church.

[SamiGirl]

Oh yea, that will work. I’m sure it will.

England, what happened to you? How did you give up your Christianity, history and culture in such a short time?

[SoConPubbie]

Best way to dis-invite the Holy Spirit from your church service, is to imitate the World!

Come out from amoung them and be ye separate!

[hinckley buzzard]

Yes. They never learn. They think by imitating the ways of the fallen world they will attract its inhabitants. Churches in the US were sucked in by this in the sixties and seventies.--"Gotta be relevant" they cried--and the exodus became a flood, with much weeping and gnashing of teeth and carnage at the exits.

I once tried to teach a Sunday School Class for junior high kids in the late seventies. The book provided me to use had a chapter on interpersonal relations that began "Suppose you see this groovey chick..."(I'm absolutely certain the morons who wrote it had no idea where "groovey" came from!)

It went downhill from there, and I couldn't finish the term.

[Steelfish]

This demonstrates the final absurdity of the Reformation! No wonder Cardinal Henry Newman converted to Catholicism.

[hinckley buzzard]

When Great Britain ceased to be proud of its imperial stature, and ceased acting like a great empire, its fate was sealed.

Perhaps it was inevitable, as the tide of history is no respecter of nations. Nevertheless, the world is much the poorer for the loss of the British Empire, standing with only ancient Rome as one of the great civilizing forces in the history of the world.

[hinckley buzzard]

It's wider than that. There have been plenty of guitar-slapping Masses around, too. Vatican II was used to abuse and devastate the Mother Church. Only the gift of JohnPaul the Great followed by the eminent B16 have secured the faith and rebuilt the church on the Rock.

[SamiGirl]

It really pains me to see Great Britain in such decline. It contributed so much to our Western culture and, yet, it capitulated so quickly to savages.

[Steelfish]

Yes- I must agree.

[SoConPubbie]

This demonstrates the final absurdity of the Reformation! No wonder Cardinal Henry Newman converted to Catholicism.

I would disagree, since I am an adherent of the Gospel that John Wesley preached.

The fault is not in the Reformation, but in those who would water down the Gospel to put butts in the seats.

Fidelity to the gospel of "Repent and Believe" and "Ye must be born again!" no matter how many people are sitting in the pews should be the clarion call of those whose true calling is the delivery of the Gospel!

These days, we have preachers who have walked away from the weightier and meatier subject of Repentence for a Gospel of "Loving them into the Kingdom".

Without Repentence, there is no Faith. Without Faith, there is no Salvation. Without Salvation, there is no Heavan!