Cleverness or Christ?

Drving to school today I encountered yet another one of those clever
church marquee signs; you know the ones I'm talking about--the catchy
little slogans churches use to draw in prospective members. I don't
know why but these usually bother me; and today the unseen reason
became very apparent to me.

As I said, while I was on the road today (I won't mention where for
the sake of anonymity incase any of you have been to the church) I saw
a slogan that read, "If you don't have Jesus your hopeless". Now
sometimes these signs have an underlying message that isn't as
straightforward but tends to rub me the wrong way. This church
apparently decided to skip the clever subtltey and wratchet up the
pressure.

Now I know that in all actuality this sign, in some sense, was 100%
correct--without Christ we have nothing; but be honest, if you were an
unbeliever, does this sign encourage you to step foot in that church?
In essence, its as if this body of belivers is collectively (yet
another qualm I have with these signs) screaming "don't bother--since
your not a Christian yet what hope do you have in finding Christ now",
as if to effectively declare the Great Commission null and void now;
you've had your chance.

So I must ask: what purpose does this sign truly serve. What ever
happened to putting scripture up and meting God's word speak for
itself? Can't we just announce the weekly prayer meeting and be done
with it? And the best question of all-- when did we become so clever
as to undermine the awesome saving grace God extends to ALL of us at
ALL times? Read it, digest it, then come comment on it.

Until next time,
Geoff