Bumper Sticker Christianity

I read a book review in The Christian Century Magazine this week about preaching. Will Willimon states that Christian Preaching: A Trinitarian Theology of Proclamation criticizes much of modern preaching as being reductionist. "Everything is reduced to 'the message'-the gospel diminished to a slogan that fits on a bumper sticker." I used to say that I was going to write a book one day about bumper sticker theology, because bumper stickers try to reduce the mystery of a relationship with Jesus Christ to a catch phrase or pithy slogan. I use to work in a Christian bookstore and I would literally laugh at how cheesy some of the stickers were when we didn't have many customers. The gospel, although so simple a child can understand it, takes a lifetime of faith to explore. It cannot be reduced to a 6 word sticker on the back of your car. I wonder if we have learned to much from bumper stickers and not enough from God's Word. Alistair Begg, a Scottish Baptist preacher, once said, "American Christianity is sloganeering at its worst."