His cherry wood office near the top of a bank tower had a spectacular view of Vancouver harbour and the north shore mountains. His well-cut business suit and immaculate grooming proclaimed success. He was polished, persuasive and professional-but he failed to convince me to buy his services.

This was odd because I was very interested in what he was selling. He was a consultant for a career management agency and was offering to save me from unemployment by teaching me how to market myself. I wanted what he said he had, but my wife and I ended up walking away.

We left because we didn’t think the techniques the consultant could teach me would convince employers to hire me, any more than his techniques had convinced me to hire him.

We left because he wanted to turn me into a clone of himself, and I didn’t want that. I realized that even if his manipulative techniques did succeed in getting me a job, the only way I could keep it would be to maintain the same false façade for the rest of my working career.

And yet, as I walked away, I was feeling uncomfortable. It was not because I had doubts or regrets about my decision, but because the whole experience seemed far too familiar. You see, I had run into the same approaches too often in church.

1. Image

The expensive office, the spectacular view, the man’s immaculate appearance and his polished, professional approach were carefully calculated to impress. And they did impress me, at first.

In the long run, however, these accessories were counter-productive because they aroused worrisome questions. I worried because I suspected that somewhere down the road I would be asked to pay for all of this opulence, that eventually its cost would be included in the bill.

The opulence repulsed me because it left me feeling that I didn’t fit into this world, that, even if I had wanted to, I could never achieve the level of wealth, polish and sophistication necessary to thrive in this man’s world.

Christian churches can also expend a great deal of money developing beautiful buildings, perfecting music ministries, performing professional Christmas musicals, etc. Pastors and other church leaders dress well and polish their manners. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Such things are tools to gain attention and attract people. They can honour a God who is deserving of the very best that human beings can offer.

However, we should beware of over-reliance on such tools. They can equally drive away the poor who don’t feel comfortable in opulent surroundings, and they may create (often justifiable) fear that those attracted to such churches will eventually have to pay for them. In early modern Europe, beautiful cathedrals full of gold artwork and stunning rituals inspired widespread contempt for the church rather than devotion to God.

2. Over-emphasis on technique

Although the consultant’s cheerful, encouraging manner was at first attractive, I was eventually turned off by what I came to conclude was an over-emphasis on technique.

Even though we were sitting one-on-one in a private office, it soon became obvious that he was leading me step by step through a polished, memorized presentation. I had the sense that it could have been given in identical form to a room of 1,500 people-even though he had promised to devise a marketing approach that was geared to my unique strengths. In fact, he demonstrated very little interest in my abilities, skills and experiences.

In the end, I concluded that he was not really offering techniques that would help me to market my skills. Instead, he was offering techniques that would help me get a job regardless of whether I had any skills to offer. His techniques were presented, not as an aid to the substance of my abilities, but as a replacement for that substance.

As never before, the church today is awash in technique. Canned programs promise instant results. Seminars from a variety of agencies teach us “how to do church.” Such tools can be very useful, and they are not new. When the apostle Paul came to a new city, he looked for methods to gain a hearing for the gospel, making use of statues to the unknown god (Acts 17:23), references to Greek poetry (Acts 17:28), Jewish synagogues and non-Christian places of prayer (Acts 16:13).

However, when these tools become our primary focus, when we spend more time studying technique than we spend studying theology and the Bible, when technique becomes a substitute for substance, we betray the gospel we are trying to promote.

3. Manipulation

It did not take me long to discern various subtle and not so subtle ways in which I was being manipulated during my visit to the consultant. Our time together began with me filling in a form about my abilities, experiences, interests and desires. Since this information was never used in any specific or useful way, I eventually understood that this survey was not designed to collect information but to get me actively cooperating, to get me involved and committed before I even knew what I was committing to.

Similarly, the requirement that I come back for a second appointment-involving a second trip into downtown Vancouver, bringing my wife along-served no apparent useful purpose. The career consultant did not provide us with new information that he could not have given me at the beginning of the first appointment. Rather, the point of the second appointment was to get me to the place where I had already invested so much time and effort in the process that I would feel obligated to see it through to the end.

Toward the end of the second interview, when it became obvious that I was not buying, the consultant huffily withdrew his offer to help me. I recognized this as a technique designed to pander to the common human desire to obtain what we cannot have. The expected reaction was that I would beg him to put his offer back on the table so that I could accept it. Instead, I almost laughed because I had experienced the same shabby technique from used car salesmen and vacuum cleaner salesmen. It had not worked with those salesmen, and it did not work with the career consultant. As soon as I realized I was being manipulated, I backed off even more.

Never say never

We may think that we would never use manipulation or sales techniques in the church-but experience convinces me otherwise. For instance, the temptation to use music or atmosphere to create a purely emotional response to the gospel can be overwhelming.

When I was in university, I was part of a group planning a college and career church service. The suggestion was made that if we would just use candlelight and the right music, the impact of the service would be far greater. Our advisor wisely warned us against relying on such techniques to achieve something that only the Holy Spirit can properly achieve. We put on the service without candles, and it had a powerful spiritual impact.

I know of a woman who was troubled by over-eager evangelists who kept coming to her door and insisting that she could be saved if she would simply repeat a written prayer. Instinctively, she felt uneasy about this, and confided to another Christian, “I think there is more to it than that.”

Some time ago, I also heard of a church that had spent thousands of dollars building an elaborate youth center.

A considerable number of young people came to Christ in that community-but their testimonies revealed that most of them were initially attracted to Jesus, not by the elaborate youth center, but by another movement that consisted simply of students meeting together to pray.

4. Lack of integrity

When I told the consultant I was a Christian, he told me that the cornerstones of his business were integrity, honesty and sincerity. Perhaps he thought those values would appeal to a Christian.

But this stress on integrity did not square with his attempts to manipulate me, or his willingness to teach me to be manipulative in order to get a job. Nor did it square with his promise that his work was guaranteed-when in fact it was not. I later learned that affiliates of this career management agency had been taken to court in various places for deceptive business practices.

Ultimately, a reliance on technique and manipulation speaks of a lack of integrity. When we present a false image of ourselves or our church in order to convince people to accept the gospel, we are setting ourselves and others up for ultimate failure. When we present ourselves as anything other than sinners saved by grace, we force ourselves and any followers we might attract into the uncomfortable position of having to maintain a false façade for the rest of our lives.

The church has far more often won people to Christ when it has dealt straightforwardly with problems such as divorce, alcoholism, sin and brokenness than when it has pretended it was an immaculate institution beyond sin and beyond criticism.

5. Hidden costs

It was only at the end of the second meeting, and only when we flat-out demanded to know what it would cost us, that the consultant admitted that the fee I would be charged for his company’s services would amount to several thousand dollars, paid up front. Until that point, for all I had been told, his services might have been provided at no charge to me.

If I had thought his services were worthwhile and they would have provided me with a good-paying job, I might well have been willing to pay the price. His reluctance to tell me the price led me to think that his services were not worth what he was charging.

Similarly, we do a disservice to people when we try to make the gospel seem more attractive by hiding the true cost of accepting Jesus.

I always feel uncomfortable when church planters say that in order to attract people they will never ask people in their church for money. Being a Christian is not ultimately a question of paying tithes and keeping other laws. But it is a matter of the heart. Jesus told the rich young ruler that unless he gave away all his possessions, he could not be saved. He warned His disciples that following Him would mean persecution and sacrifice. As a result of Jesus’ difficult teachings, many “turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). But the people who were willing to follow Him at any price turned the world upside down.

Give it all

The world will not be turned upside down by people who are willing to receive but never give. Unless we are willing to give our entire lives to Him, we cannot be followers of Jesus.

I walked away from the career management agency because I was convinced that I had some very real skills and abilities to offer to the employment market and that phony, overdone promotional techniques would cheapen rather than enhance what I had to offer. Time will tell if I was right.

What is absolutely certain is that the substance of the gospel is so inherently worthwhile that it does not need phony techniques to commend it. People need what we are offering because only faith in Jesus can save them from their sins.

While we should make the most of every opportunity to present the truth of Jesus, we should beware of relying on approaches that will undercut that truth rather than enhance it.

James R. Coggins (www.coggins.ca) is a freelance writer and editor, author of Who’s Grace? and the other John Smyth Mysteries (Moody Publishers).