Is the Message Relevant, Diluted, or Altogether Distorted?

One of my favorite professors in college, (Dr. Doug Dickey) used to say, "All great men are inconsistent." This is true on at least 2 levels: 1. Nobody's perfect, and 2. Great people stay on a learning curve that results in an on-going path of growth and change.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how easy it is for well-meaning Christians to give God a bad name - I include myself in this. I've had several (seemingly unrelated) conversations over the course of the last month with friends and family about this topic in one way or another.

I think it's important to regularly re-examine the messages my words and actions communicate. I also think I need to regularly laugh at myself and accept the reality sometimes I'm just totally off base. See the two video links below for some satirical examples of this with evangelism:

1. This one is friendly for all ages. I think we could call this the "Convert Hunter."

2. Since there's crass language in the next one, I don't recommend this one for everyone. (If you choose to view this one you probably also won't want to do so with children in earshot since there's heavy repetition of some crass phrases that young ears could easily pick up on.)

How often is God's value for genuine relationship (which loves us before we become lovers of God) tossed by the way side in search of a conversion? How often do Christians 'make like they value relationship' only to bail out when it doesn't look like conversion is probable? How often do circular logic and/or self-serving ideologies replace the true kerygma of the good news shared in a charismissional way?