San Mateo Church Uses Suggestive Headline to Tackle Serious Topic, Again
San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) September 24, 2013 -- Starting Sunday, September 29th, The Message Church in San Mateo will host a four week series designed to help attenders forgive those who’ve harmed them, beginning a journey towards full healing. But the church has sent out thousands of post card invites to San Mateo and surrounding cities using a headline that is evocative of just the opposite of forgiveness and of anything having to do with spirituality: "F$#(give) You! How to be Free From the Hurts of the Past"
The series will consist of Sunday morning messages and a mid-week support group for anyone struggling with past hurts, and those who miss the morning messages can subscribe to The Message Church podcast on iTunes.
Organizers highlight that helping people heal is what the series is all about, and that the use of a double entendre headline is an attempt to rise above the noise of every day life in order to reach those who need such healing. “Physical abuse, defamation, betrayal, they happen to all of us; and worse, sometimes we are the perpetrators of such things”, says Beto Carvalho who serves as pastor at the community, “If we are not intentional in forgiving the ones who have done us harm, the injury has the power to make the lives of all involved quite miserable”.
This is not the first time the church has set out to grab the public’s attention to a serious matter by using such a suggestive headline. Earlier this year, in their grand opening at the Century 12 San Mateo movie theater, The Message Church had a billboard on highway 101 advertising the series “Love, Sex and Dating”. Most people found it intriguing in a positive way, but the pastor did get some complaints. The same was bound to happen with the current theme. The original title was “From f-you to forgive you!”, but cooler heads prevailed. “The current title is a way of evoking the ‘dirty word idea’ without actually going there”, states Dan Youmans, a graphic designer and church attender who helped modify the original title.
Mr. Youmans says the series will use biblical stories and concepts, but emphasizes that it is intended for and open to everyone, regardless of being religious or not.
The Message church is a young church, started in 2007 with the specific purpose of working with people who may never have attended church regularly before. To this end they began holding services at the Century 12 movie theaters in downtown San Mateo in 2013 and use the motto, “Where nobody is perfect, beginners are welcome, socks are optional... but grace is required”.
Sundays, 10:00 AM
Century 12 Theatres
320 2nd Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
Contact
Beto Carvalho
The Message Church
http://www.themessage.cc
(650) 242-5919
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Beto Carvalho, The Message Church, http://www.themessage.cc, +1 (650) 242-5919, [email protected]
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