Spread the Word

February 1, 2007

By Greg Ebie

Good retailers focus on quality customer service because they want to maintain satisfied clients. Businesses want their customers to tell friends and family about what they have to offer because of the power of “word-of-mouth advertising.”

Retailers understand for every three people who will go out and tell their family and friends about how well they were treated, 33 will let people know if they were unhappy. To continue operating merchants know they need to do everything possible to silence those who would talk about a bad experience by simply not giving them anything to discuss. If businesses manage to do that, then they will earn the reward of positive word-of-mouth advertising from the few who will recommend them to others.

“Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, ‘We’ve found the Messiah’ (that is, ‘Christ’). He immediately led him to Jesus” (John 1:40-42, The Message).

Jesus didn’t start an advertising campaign to recruit disciples. John the Baptist told Andrew about Jesus; once Andrew found out for himself about Jesus he went and told his brother, Simon. In the next few verses Philip goes and tells his friend Nathaniel about Jesus. People were coming to see Jesus by “word-of-mouth advertising” spreading throughout Judea.

Are we willing to tell our family and friends about Jesus? If not, why not? If you are not willing to tell others about Jesus, then how has God disappointed you? How has Jesus been untrue to His Word in your life? The truth is, Jesus will not fail to do everything He has promised us.

So why don’t we talk about Him more? Could it be we confuse having a personal relationship with God through Jesus with the church or religion? I think that’s the problem many people have. Why? While you may not hear a lot of negative talk about Jesus, you certainly do hear people say all kinds of bad things about “the church.”

Jesus will never disappoint us; He is worth talking about. We need to do all we can to generate some positive “word-of-mouth” advertising.

D. Greg Ebie is senior pastor of Praise Assembly of God in Garrettsville, Ohio, and an author of Daily Bread devotionals.