What do you make of a huge statue of Jesus getting struck by lightening? I mean, if God is in control of that flashing light from the sky, why would he allow it to happen to a statue of his only son? Definitely stirs up conversation, huh?
That’s what happened recently in Ohio. I’ve driven by this statue what seems like hundreds of times while traveling that stretch of interstate on tour. Here’s what the news article had to say:
MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.
The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday, Monroe police dispatchers said.
The sculpture, about 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained Tuesday.
You can read the whole article here, on Yahoo! News.
Apparently, the statue cost about $400,000 to construct. Maybe it was allowed to be struck by lightening because God might not be cool with wasting a whopping $400k on concrete? For the record, I have no idea. Just wondering. I’m also not saying that God always causes natural disasters. But I’m not sure how you could deny that certainly “allows” them. Again, I’m just wondering…
They’re also already making plans to rebuild it, wasting that kind of money, plus more, all over again. I mean, I’m not God, so I won’t pretend to know or always understand what he does, or why he allows certain things to happen, but I do know of a whole list of better uses for a few hundred thousand dollars.
And, I’m not the only one. A lot of them are a book called the Bible….maybe this church should read it. If they do, they might learn a lot about Jesus, the guy they’re making statues of, and in the process, how he encouraged us to live.
What do you think?
Tags: "King of Kings" statue, Harris, illusionist, Jesus Statue Struck by Lightening, magician, Solid Rock Church, Statue of Jesus, Touchdown Jesus
Harris…I have been on this stuff for the past few months. Why is it that churches have to erect monuments to themselves. I drive by a church that has the nice sized glass and brick tower. Is there any purpose in it? No it actually is just a tall tower with no purpose but to look “pretty”. I have recently been in a church where they spent top dollar on sound, lights and video equipment and put an elevator on hold until funds are allocated. That elevator WOULD lead to a youth area. That youth area has a young lady in a wheel chair and not travels to the children’s department for bible study. She is terrified of being carried up stairs. I think we have our focus on the wrong things. If you remember there were times where Jerusalem was destroyed and the ark carried off. God wants us to focus on him not a piece of concrete, glass or metal. When Moses traveled down with the commandments in hand what did he see. People focused on the wrong thing…an idol. And if we are not careful the things God has blessed us with can become that type of idol.
Just being the devil’s advocate here—the article mentions that a walkway had to be built due to the numbers of people that stopped at the church. It’s possible that more people familiar with the statue yet unfamiliar with the true Jesus were able to hear about God when they stopped at the church to take pictures. I would at least hope that the leadership of that church would take advantage of the spectacle to reach out to the people and tell them of the true Jesus.
Are you really comfortable going down the road of assuming natural disasters are necessarily God’s judgment? Do you know enough about the church to publicly imply that they aren’t reading the Bible or following the teachings of Jesus?
Here are a few points to consider. I happen to know that this is a church that invests heavily in missions. I have been to churches that this church built on islands in the Philippines where there was previously no church presence at all. The lead pastors do not even take a salary from the church. This statue attracted a lot of people to the church.
Would I have built “Touchdown Jesus” if I were the pastor? I’m not walking in their shoes, so I don’t think I’m in a position to say. Since there is no clear violation of Scripture, I’m certainly not going to condemn them.
Emily – I can certainly appreciate your playing the role of devil’s advocate. That’s always healthy and needed. But I just don’t understand that kind of thinking. Maybe they know something I don’t, and maybe God asked them to do something I don’t know about. But when I read my Bible, and listen to the words of Jesus, there’s just something that doesn’t sit right about the idea that, “This $400,000 statue is going to help a lot of people, so it justifies spending the money on it, rather than use it to tangibly help others.”
Brad – No, I’m not comfortable with the idea of assuming that natural disasters are God’s judgement. I never once said that in my post. But to deny that God has to allow a disaster to happen? I can’t do that either. I’m not about to pretend that I know what God’s always up to. However, regardless of why this statue got struck by lightening, if God is God, then he without a doubt, to me, had to at the very least, “allow” it to happen. He most definitely could have stopped it, and I think that’s clear in my words.
Regarding your other points, I wouldn’t be surprised that the church invests heavily in missions. What does surprise me is how they wouldn’t determine that based on that, they could do so much more with this money in missions, rather than spend it on a statue. The very fact that the lead pastors do not take a salary from the church says that from somewhere, there is an abundance of money. And when there’s that, it’s sometimes followed by a warped value of money. I can’t say for sure that’s what’s happening here…this is simply my opinion, and one I feel compelled to share.
It doesn’t matter to me that the “statue attracted a lot of people to the church.” A huge statue of Jesus in Brazil attracts a lot of people to Rio de Janero. And there’s a million other examples of that. But what did those people do? Get down on their knees after seeing the statue? Did that statue initiate life change? Or did they just stop to take pictures? The lady in the article called it a “Beacon of Hope.” I can share a lot of hope with a lot of people in need, all over the world, with $400,000. We don’t even need to spend that kind of money to share hope, but gosh, there are people who woke up this morning without food, or shoes, or clean water. And we’re saying what? “Sorry. We decided to build a statue for people back home in America. They needed a beacon of hope.”
Jesus never called us to build statues in order to “attract people to our churches.” That’s nonsense. Instead, he called us to love God, and love people. It turns out, there are churches here and there that do that, and just can’t keep up with the amount of people plugging into their churches. Loving and serving others seems to attract people just fine. And when people decide to be the church, instead of building a building and finding expensive ways to attract others to it, beautiful things happen, and there is more than enough hope to go around.
If the only thing you know about a given church is that they invest a lot of money in their facilities, is that sufficient reason to question whether they’ve read the Bible or are following Jesus, as you seem to do in the last paragraph of your post? Who sets the standard for how much a church can spend?
My church has a multi-million dollar facility. Should we be condemned for that? We just did some remodeling and added a few video screens. That money could have gone to the poor instead. We recently expanded our parking lot. Again, we could have parked on the grass and sent the money to the poor. For that matter, why do churches have air conditioning? Think of all the money we are spending on our comfort that could be spent on people in need.
In your own ministry, you invest a lot of money in your show. You’ve also had recent troubles like engine failures and flat tires that God allowed to happen. An outside observer who knew nothing else about your ministry could conclude that these problems are God’s judgment for spending big bucks on an illusion show instead of helping the poor. Now, I don’t believe that for a second. I know you have a very powerful and effective ministry. However, someone could easily jump to that conclusion if all they know is how much you spend and that bad things have happened.
My point is, once you start down the road of deciding how much other ministries can invest in their own facilities, where does it stop?
There was a time when I would question churches that seemed to have invested too much in their faculties based on my own judgment. I won’t go there anymore. I have seen big churches with amazing facilities that are alive and doing great work for God. I have seen equally expensive facilities at churches that appear spiritually dead. I can say the same for dirt poor churches. Based on my experience, there is no correlation between money spent on facilities and genuine spirituality, for lack of a better word.
If a church or ministry is clearly violating scripture, such as teaching a prosperity gospel or liberation theology, I would have no problem in calling them out on it. But for something that is debatable, like how much is too much to spend on facilities, who am I to judge someone else’s servant? God will judge their actions.
Just want to say that I don’t read a bit of condemnation in your post Harris. (This is such a pet peeve of mine. When did questioning the sensibility of something equate to condemnation?)
I agree the statue seems like a waste… Certainly if it burned to the ground – and it did, the Sovereign God (for whatever reason) allowed it to do so.
I pray the church will prayerfully consider the best use of its resources as it makes a final decision about it.
My concern is that Americans seem to be so “entertainment” focused, the Church included. Like in the days of the Old Testament prophets, generally speaking, people just seem to want to have their ears (and in this case -eyes) tickled. All the while people near and far are dying– physically and spiritually for lack of the Living Water and the Bread of Life.
You have posed a great question. I pray all who have the power to make these kinds of decisions seriously seek God’s wisdom and guidance.
Sharmayn Stoves
Brad –
This isn’t really a question of how much money they’ve spent on their facilities. At least to me, a statue that significant in front of your church building, doesn’t really seem useful to me as part of a “facility.”
I agree that it’d be a dangerous line to start walking when questioning other churches regarding their projectors, video screens, and expensive lights. It’s a common debate, and one that I believe is valid. But I sometimes also see the purpose in those things, the same way I see a purpose and value in the production of our show. If this were a news article about a church spending a few million dollars on enhancing their venue with lights, sound, and video, I may naturally wonder if the American church is doing things right, but I certainly wouldn’t start up a debate about whether or not they’re being biblical. It’s just too big of a gray area.
But this, at least to me, isn’t that. A $400,000 statue, that’s purpose has been clearly identified, isn’t that. The builders of that statue have made their intent known, and it hurts my heart to read my bible, and recognize that building massive statues just doesn’t fall into any of the categories that scripture outlined as ways to “provide hope.”
If someone said, “Hey, we just spent 3 million on production gear for our building,” then went on to make their intent and purpose known by saying, “We just really wanted to impress people, and show them how cool Christians are.” Well, I’d be questioning that, too.
It’s not about whether every penny should go to the poor. It’s about having a clear purpose or intent that doesn’t go against the very nature and character of the God we’re trying to serve and show to others. This statue doesn’t have a valid purpose, plus, I believe it is unbiblical and contradicts with the Gospel. So by your standards, there is a right to question, and I’m certainly not the first. Countless authors have written books questioning these exact kind of things, and what it really meant when Jesus talked so many times about money and idols and poverty and injustice. But again, this is just my opinion, and I’ve been wrong before.
I have pondered this conversation and am still a bit speechless on some of the things stated. I believe it is ok to question where churches put their money. Do you think Paul would have candy coated it? I dare say he wouldn’t. What we tend to do is justify our thoughts of being cutting edge with the fact it will “reach people”. When I was part of the building campaign I was excited to see the top notch equipment coming in the door. I loved seeing it put up and learning how to run it. I thought wow this is great. Then one day as the lights were rolling and colored patterns hit the wall I couldn’t help but think. Is this what it takes? Is this what God intended? I have been on missions myself and seen poverty. Not just overseas but in the US. Will that million dollar sanctuary help them? I felt for a moment what I believe God wants us to feel. It is suppose to be about taking the Gospel to them. How many wells could be dug in Africa with that money? If our churches say…”well we give to missions” doesn’t mean we have given all we could. That concrete statue is one more bible for a person who can’t get one, one more mouth that is fed. One more home that is touched…etc. We have to ask ourself. Is this truly ministering how God intended? We all really know the answer to that…
Sorry if my last post came across as being harsh or negative. That wasn’t my intent. I was posting in a hurry because I knew I wouldn’t have time to get back here for a few days, and in my haste I may not have stated things as well as I should have.
Unity in the body of Christ is a hot topic for me. So, it bothers me when believers start pointing fingers at other churches/ministries/individuals for doing “X”, unless “X” is clearly opposed by Scripture.
It seems to me that it is possible that a big Jesus statue was within God’s will for that church. Here’s my thought process on that, for whatever it’s worth:
I think you can find verses that could support either side, so I don’t see a clear Scriptural argument either way.
Is it possible for God to so bless a church that it can donate every penny to missions and the poor that God wants them to and still have enough money left over for great facilities, including $250K for a big Jesus statue? God certainly has the resources, so it seems possible. (BTW-$250K is the amount they spent 6 years ago to build it. $300K is the estimate for the insurance company to replace it today. Still a lot of money.)
Is it possible that God could use the statue to impact some of the millions of people who drive by? Again, I don’t see why not.
Is it possible God could use all the publicity the statue has gotten over the years to accomplish something? Maybe.
Would it be possible for the church to turn a tourist attraction literally in their back yard into an effective evangelism opportunity to people they would never come into contact with otherwise? Again, it seems possible to me.
Questioning whether or not the giant ugly Jesus statue was God’s will seems perfectly valid to me. Questioning a lot of what the modern church and believers do is reasonable. It was the somewhat snarky closing remarks suggesting that Solid Rock Church is deficient in their knowledge of the Bible and Jesus that seemed unnecessarily divisive to me.
I guess it’d be unwise for me to say that those things are 100% not possible. However, I’d REALLY struggle to see and believe it, and would continue to have a strong opinion, as well as be adamant about sharing it.
But sure…I see where you’re coming from, appreciate your passion for seeing unity in the church, and can also admit that my comments were a tad bit “snarky.”
But, so were Paul’s.
Thanks for the great conversation, comments, etc. They’re always welcomed and appreciated, and I appreciate your willingness to share them.