I am all for creative ways of reaching people with the Gospel, but what the “He Gets Us” campaign is promoting is anything but truth.
He Gets Us is best described as an American religious advertising campaign. It was founded in 2022 with seed money of over $100 million. Their objective seems to be to reintroduce Jesus using allusions of his teaching and modern-day social issues. According to a Christian Index article in February 2023,the group expects to raise $1 billion over a three year period.
Would Jesus approve? If Jesus had a say in how $100 million or $1 billion was spent, would he spend it on a marketing to soften his image and make it more palatable to the masses? Or would he spend it on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and housing the homeless. If you don’t know the answer to this, you shouldn’t be running a “Jesus marketing campaign” in the first place.
Here, I outline some observations I noticed after watching their videos and reading their articles. The end of this article expounds on what I think they could have better spent the money on to make it more effective.
Here is what is missing from their message.
- The Gospel. There is zero mention of Jesus’ brutal death, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, accession and second coming. How do you spend $100 million on a campaign promoting Jesus and not mention these key components to the Christian faith?
Repentance. Through a search of all articles on the site the words “Repent” and “Repentance” are never mentioned. NOT EVEN ONCE.- Faith. A search through the site found that the word faith was mentioned seven times. Almost all of those instances are to describe people of “various faith traditions” or “faith journeys.” There are zero mentions of Biblical faith or repentance being essential for salvation.
Here is what is promoted on the site.
- An article titled “Jesus was a refugee.” This includes a one-minute video comparing refugees from war-stricken countries to Jesus’s flight to Egypt. The comparison is uncompelling and irrelevant to the Gospel message that the group should be promoting.
A video outlining how Jesus was an influencer because he went against the establishment of his time. Apparently, Jesus was an “influencer” because he spoke against the leaders and ultimately, he was “canceled.” One problem here is that Jesus wasn’t “canceled.” He rose from the dead and is alive today. Where is that part of the message? You won’t find it on www.HeGetsUs.com
An article dealing with Jesus addressing injustice. Only the article doesn’t actually address any Biblical examples involving Jesus.
What a missed opportunity. As I sat watching the videos that had been produced by the campaign and read their extremely short snippets (can’t really describe as articles), I couldn’t help but say to myself “what a missed opportunity.”
This group had the chance to share the gospel with millions of people, and this is the route they took. Over $100 million spent since 2022. To what end? What has been achieved? Are there any success stories of people coming to faith from the campaign? If there are, I can’t find them.
Ecumenicalism can be dangerous.
Ecumenicalism is a fancy theological word for Christian unity. The church was supposed to be unified from its inception. There seems to be a big movement among various groups all over the world to unify Christianity behind one banner. “He Gets Us” is one of those movements.
While unity is great and should be a goal, we must understand that it is not achievable. People will always have different theological opinions, and we shouldn’t bind them all together for the sake of unity. The result would be chaos and disorder. Division is necessary.
Let me explain.
Catholics believe that Peter was the first pope and authority flows through Peter to popes throughout all of history. The Catholic doctrines of the Church that flow from this belief are abhorrent to Protestants. It is a doctrine that Protestants of all tribes will never get behind and accept. Ecumenicism is not possible between Protestants and Catholics for that reason alone, even though there are many more.
Many groups lean towards reformed theology, infant baptism and a structured ecclesiastical hierarchy. Others lean towards non-reformed theology, baptism by immersion and independent church governance.
Both sides of the argument can have fellowship and agree on many things related to the Gospel, but they can’t or won’t affiliate corporately because of their differences. That separation is OK because each of the groups will serve a different purpose and mission in the function of the “Global Church.”
“He Gets Us” seems to be more interested in making Jesus relevant to a young generation rather than presenting a bloody and sometimes offensive Gospel. The Gospel message is offensive in some places. It is bloody. It condemns those who don’t believe. It is exclusive.
The ecumenicism being promoted by this series throws out biblical truth and the opportunity for presenting the true gospel in return for trying to make Jesus relevant or hip.
Finally, I would never describe Jesus as a refugee or influencer. How about describing Him as holy or righteous. Instead, say that he is the Son of God and is coming back next time with a sword.
Instead of saying Jesus dealt with injustice, explain how he dealt with sin.
Jesus wasn’t canceled. He was crucified.
Jesus isn’t just an example. He is the savior.
Don’t talk about Jesus being fed up with politics. Talk about how he was fed the lack of faith and repentance.
