In their own words, “He Gets Us has an agenda.”

“How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love, peace, and kindness; who spent his life defending the poor and the marginalized; a man who even forgave his killers while they executed him unjustly—whose life inspired a radical movement that is still impacting the world thousands of years later—how did this man’s story become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people? And how might we all rediscover the promise of the love his story represents?”

Such questions motivate those behind the ministry called He Gets Us and, if you haven’t seen their ads or billboards yet, the Super Bowl this Sunday night will offer the perfect chance to change that.

What is He Gets Us?

But what is the He Gets Us campaign? And why are they spending roughly $20 million for ninety seconds of airtime this weekend—with plans to invest about a billion dollars over the next three years in similar efforts? Surely, some argue, there are better ways to use that much money.

It’s a question people like Hobby Lobby co-founder David Green and the other—largely anonymous—donors behind the He Gets Us ministry have asked themselves on multiple occasions. Yet, as Lora Harding, an associate professor of marketing at Belmont University, noted, outside of major events like the Super Bowl, “There just aren’t ways to reach an attentive, engaged audience that size anymore.”

Their short videos are certainly attention-grabbing and engaging.

However, they’ve also been somewhat controversial

With taglines like “Jesus was a refugee” and “Jesus felt alone, too,” He Gets Us leans heavily into the human side of Jesus’ story. In so doing, they invite us to engage with the Christ who stood beyond any of the stereotypes and preconceived notions with which people—Christians and non-Christians alike—have often attempted to define him for the better part of two thousand years.

But, as Religion News Service‘s Bob Smietana described, while they hope to help everyone encounter that Jesus, their target audience appears to be “spiritually open skeptics, which are people who might be OK with religion but aren’t really excited about Christians.” And that description fits an increasingly large percentage of the population.

He gets us because he became one of us

Phil Boone, the Director of Generosity for the He Gets Us campaign, recently mentioned on the Denison Forum Podcast that research shows as many as 150 million people—58 percent of the American population—are either skeptics or cultural Christians.

Boone was quick to point out, though, that “skeptic” is not a negative term. Rather, it refers to people who are “just not sure about all this, but they want to know more. They want help in raising their children. They want help in having a healthier emotional condition. They want help in providing for their family.” And the cultural Christians “have a lot of those same desires.”

These are practical issues, and they require a practical response.

That’s why He Gets Us doesn’t start with topics like human depravity or deep, theological truths. They start with the story of Christ and, in so doing, help people meet a God who gets us because he became one of us.

They understand the other stuff is important too, which is why anyone who engages with He Gets Us is eventually pointed toward resources that can help them go deeper and, if they choose, connected with one of 6,500 partner churches that have signed up across the country to help people find a local community of faith.

But they don’t start there, and that’s all right.

As Boone pointed out, it’s often “people’s expectations to have the whole thing presented and wrapped up in a nice package. And that’s the problem.”

Instead, He Gets Us is more focused on introducing people to Jesus and then partnering with the body of Christ to help them dive deeper into that relationship.

It’s a strategy that has already borne fruit for more than 115,000 people over the last nine months, with countless more sure to come given that roughly two-thirds of American adults are likely to tune in this Sunday.

Are you a skeptic?

While He Gets Us may target religious skeptics, it is often the skeptics who are already part of God’s kingdom that can be the greatest impediment to its advance.

What was your first reaction upon hearing about the strategy and financial decisions of the He Gets Us campaign? Did part of you share the concerns of those who question whether that money could be better spent in other ways? Did you want to push back against the idea of starting a presentation of the gospel without any mention of sin, hell, or repentance?

If you answered yes, that’s all right. I’ll admit, part of me was a bit skeptical when I first encountered the videos and began researching the campaign.

But in the time since, I feel like God has used their ministry to remind me that I’m not immune to trying to put him in a box either.

Videos that might not appeal to me could be exactly what the Holy Spirit will use to lead others into a saving relationship with Jesus. And theological questions that I consider essential to a right understanding of the Lord can easily be irrelevant to those who do not already have a relationship with him.

So the next time you pass by a billboard or see an ad aimed at helping people identify with the God who loves us so much that he left heaven to become one of us, make sure your first response is to pray rather than judge.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will work through those images and videos to break down barriers and call people to take a fresh look at Jesus. Pray that the Lord will guide the believers who are engaging with the lost that reach out as a result of what they’ve seen. And pray that God will help you and your church know in what ways you might be called to join them.

Helping the lost know Christ requires strategies as diverse as the humanity he’s endeavoring to save.

Are you doing your part today?

Denison Forum

According to American intelligence officials, China’s spy balloon program is part of a global surveillance effort to collect information on the military capabilities of countries around the world.

Surveillance balloons, like China’s spy balloons, have advantages over satellites: they can fly closer to the earth and drift with wind patterns that are not as predictable to militaries and intelligence agencies. They can also hover over areas and their cameras can produce clearer images than those on orbital satellites. We now know that Beijing has used such airships to probe American airspace in the past—one other time under President Biden and three under former President Trump. China’s spy balloons have been spotted over five continents in total.

Did China’s spy balloons break international law?

Unlike satellites which travel in space, balloons are like other aircraft in that they are subject to international aviation law. According to such law, a nation’s airspace is sovereign territory that cannot be entered without express permission. As a result, surveillance balloons are clear violations of national sovereignty when they enter another country’s airspace.

In other news, Dutch prosecutors said yesterday that it was likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a decision to supply missile systems to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The long-range anti-aircraft missiles were then used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July of that year, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

This attack was an obvious violation (PDF) of international law, one for which individuals and states are both responsible.

“If everybody got their time from somebody else”

These stories illustrate this fact: laws do not have the intrinsic power to change character. For example, America has more laws than ever, but murder rates are 30 percent higher than they were in 2019; other kinds of crime, including thefts and robberies, increased last year as well.

Laws can prevent illegal activity so long as they can be proactively enforced, but they do not by themselves alter human nature. Individuals and nations will still do what they consider to be in their best interest. Most will adhere to laws that prevent or alter their intentions only when they must.

Do you obey speed limits because you have an intrinsic desire to do whatever the authorities advise or because you don’t want to get a ticket for speeding?

Of course, the alternative to laws we feel to be arbitrary and invasive is to have no laws at all.

In my sermon last Sunday, I quoted Dr. Paul Powell: “Man needs some authority in his life. Without duly recognized authority, chaos would soon result in every realm of life.” He cited the Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC, without which we would have no objective measure of weights and measurements. Without these standards, he noted, “inches and pounds would soon shrink or expand according to the wishes of the person doing the measuring. It would not be long until daily business could not be transacted.”

He then pointed to the Naval Observatory, also in Washington, DC, which gives us the correct astronomical time every day at 12 o’clock. What if we did not have such a standard? Dr. Powell answered: “If everyone got their time from somebody else, pretty soon we would have no idea as to what the time really was.”

Is this where our culture is morally?

Four transforming facts

David prayed, “O Lᴏʀᴅ, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psalm 39:4). From his prayer we can discern the following facts:

1. We do not know how fleeting our lives really are or how dependent we truly are on our Maker.
2. Only God can reveal this to us in a way that transforms us, which is why David’s words are a prayer rather than an observation.
3. If we will not ask God to show us our need for his help, we will waste our time and our lives.
4. If we will make David’s prayer ours, we will use our time and lives well in response.

For example, as a result of his prayer, David could say to God, “I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers” (v. 12). This is a powerful metaphor for life on this transitory planet. We are all guests here. Accordingly, we must not invest our souls where they will not live permanently.

I often note that self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. The contrary is true as well: Spirit-sufficiency is spiritual victory.

“Never interpret your numbness as his absence”

When Abraham offered Isaac (Genesis 22), God intervened and Isaac became a progenitor of the Jewish nation. The theologian Origen (c. 185–c. 253) noted: “Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die; God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us.”

Will you trust such a loving God with your life today?

In Revelation 3, Jesus tells his people, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (v. 20). Commenting on this transforming promise, Max Lucado writes: “The world rams at your door; Jesus taps at your door. The voices scream for your allegiance; Jesus softly and tenderly requests it.

“Which voice do you hear? There is never a time that Jesus is not speaking. There’s never a room so dark that the ever-present, ever-pursuing, relentlessly tender Father is not there, tapping gently on the doors of our hearts—waiting to be invited in.

“Few hear his voice. Fewer still open the door. But never interpret your numbness as his absence. He says, ‘Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20). ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). Never” (his italics).

Will you open your life to his lordship today?

Denison Forum