I recently posted a link on my Facebook page about a Dance Studio in Spring, Texas that was offering Pole Dancing for Christian women as a means of exercising. Seem they learn to do pole routines (I assume similar to those in strip clubs) to "Christian" music. That got me thinking about, as one friend put it, "the use of Jesus in Marketing."

The more I thought about it the more directions my thinking began to go. My first thought was, "How did we get here?" I remember growing up in a church tradition where singers and evangelists were not allowed to sell their tapes and records in the sanctuary or even to promote them, from the platform. In fact, the only words spoken about the availability of these products would be something like, "There is a table in the hall adjacent to the sanctuary where you will find some things our guest has available for you to purchase." Now we announce the availability of virtually any and everything including but not limited to DVD's, CD's, pictures, T-shirts, and almost anything else.

Later we began to see these things pop-up on the shelves of "Christian" book stores and now they are marketed through every conceivable outlet. In point of fact, for many of these people the sale of their "stuff" provides a major portion of their income. More than a few have become remarkably wealthy via this process.

Now we are seeing things like the afore mentioned "pole" dancing spring classes up in Spring, Texas and no doubt will beginning popping up elsewhere . . . . especially if it brings in a few bucks.

Now back in the "old days" we began justifying the sale of these essentially commercial products on the premise that it was a ministry extension. That is, the tapes, records, CD's & DVD's were a way to get the gospel "in song" out to a wider audience to enjoy. Sounds good to me. The more who can hear and enjoy "Christian music" and Gospel preaching the better . . . Right! Well, maybe.

It appears to me that somewhere along the line we changed from getting the gospel message out to promoting a product or a person. Now there has been an element of that all along in church circles. We have always advertised revivals, concerts, etc. by word of mouth or through newspaper ads and radio & television spots not to mention door to door flyer's and direct mail. Essentially we used good marketing techniques to get the word out about our product. In those instances our product was Jesus. We wanted people to come to our meetings, hear the gospel and become Christians. Somewhere along the line people began hiring publicists and others to promote not the gospel but their products. All of this was to get people to buy a product that in some form or fashion pointed to Jesus.

Having said all that let's get back to the "Pole Dancing" for Jesus stuff. I suspect that these folks have discovered that using Jesus as an advertising element will drive "Christians" to do business with them. Certainly there can't be anything wrong with this because we have been doing it through Christian book stores and the like for years. I heard the participants say that "Pole dancing" for Jesus was a spiritual experience . . . "that you could just feel the His presence as you danced." Besides, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you need to keep it in as good a shape as possible and pole dancing helps with this.

We have borrowed so much from the secular world to promote our faith and all its trappings and I am wondering if maybe we have gone too far. I remember an old preacher way back in the 1960's telling me one time that this kind of stuff was going to take us where we don't want to go so you best be careful with it. Well, the question is, "has it?" I wonder.

So, what do you think? Have we gone too far?