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I am learning a valuable lesson today. I am writing this on Ash Wednesday. If your intention is to get loads of people viewing your blog then DON’T POST NICE STORIES. Today the number of people looking at the happy posting was down 50% by midday and I had lost two followers.
Don’t get the wrong idea, I am not hovering at the screen waiting eagerly for updates about follower’s n stuff, but I do keep an eye on it out of interest.
One might conclude that bad news sells. If I rip into a Bishop or have a juicy piece of news about an Archbishop’s behaviour, the graph goes up and up and up. Today I told a nice story about a saintly priest and it seems to be struggling to break surface! Bad news sells, and this got me thinking.
What sort of sermons do people sit up and listen to?
I wondered if people preferred a sermon that was ‘fire and brimstone’, or uplifting and affirming’. There must be at least two views on this amongst clergy because I have heard both of these types of sermon, and more.
So in the spirit of chasing the ratings, here is today’s ‘bad news’ story.
It was coming up to Christmas and I popped along to an evangelical parlour. It was great, a brass band and microphones, plush seats and balcony view. The Carols were fab and the place was toasty warm. Then came the bloody sermon.
If you wanted a sermon to cut your throat to, this was the one. I was a terrible sinner and was going to hell. What amazed me at the door was the fact that the doe eyed regulars were congratulating the miscreant preacher and patting the silly sod on the back. He almost fell backwards when I asked if he was the one who preached. He grabbed my paw and put a big grin on his face and said oh yes; then I explained to the moron that his sermon was bloody awful and had not told us what Jesus came to say. I reminded him that Jesus came, not to condemn the world, but that, through Him, the world might be saved. His sycophantic groupies came to his rescue and I, and my rather embarrassed friends, left the building.
Well least-ways his ‘bad news to all men’ sermon was remembered.
MrC
