A Texas church is tired of Christians being prideful, judgmental, and hypocritical. The Christ Covenant Church in Beaumont Texas is using a giant billboard to describe itself as a “bunch of jerks,”.



The billboard is meant to direct people to their website and then to the church which will be featuring a teaching series titled “‘What a Bunch of Jerks’ – Teachings of Jesus Christ too Often Ignored by Christians.”

Here is the statement from their website, also a link to their website. At the bottom of this page is a handout for you to print out and share with your youth ministry on this whole subject, I bet you get a lively debate and group conversation out of this one!

The church has failed.  That’s right; we’ve messed up, big time.  The church was SUPPOSED to be a reflection of the God it claimed to serve.  The church was SUPPOSED to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.  But, for the most part, the church has failed.

Our failure has left a bad taste in people’s mouths.  Our mistakes have led to a lack of credibility.  Our messes have caused people to seek answers for this life elsewhere.  And really, who could blame people for giving up on the church?  Ghandi had a very good point when he said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

What a bunch of jerks.  Prideful, hypocritical, selfish, judgmental jerks.

At Christ Covenant Church, do you know what our response is?  Guilty as charged.  We are fed up with it just as much as you are.  We’ve failed.  We’ve failed you, we’ve failed each other, and the worst part is that we’ve failed to act like Jesus.  And it’s time to own up to our failure because only then can we turn it around.  So no more sugar coating it, no more pretending.

That’s what this is all about.  We’ve decided that we want to turn it around.  We may not be able to change the past, but we can sure change the future.  And we want to. We want to be a reflection of the God that we serve.  We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Starting on October 10th, we will be starting a series of lessons called “What a bunch of Jerks! – Teachings of Jesus too often ignored by the church.”   We are committing to stop ignoring these teachings and actually putting them into action.  We are hitting the reset button and restarting with the basics.   And we want you to join us!

We want you to join us because we think that in these lessons we will all be reminded or perhaps even learn for the first time about how great Jesus is.  We will discover or rediscover some of the core teachings that Jesus shared so that we can make this world a better place.  And we want you there because we believe that when a church stops being a bunch of jerks, and starts acting like Jesus, great things can happen.

Answer for yourself and use for group discussion:

Group Discussion

1. What are your initial reactions to this billboard?

2. Do you agree or disagree with the statement from the church? Why or Why not?

3. Do you think that Christians can be “jerks”?

Download the handout directly from the link below: