I used to feel that image doesnt matter. I would have agreed with Hugh who said in his book that when considering which blogs to read one shouldnt really bother too much about what they look like. After all its what they say that counts. But Hugh is wrong on this. Image does matter, but not more than substance.

The truth is that if someone takes the time and effort to make their blog look nice it is a mark of respect to their readers and makes the consumption of what they have to say more pallitable. If someone takes trouble in their design then they are showing respect. I wonder if more people will listen to the sermons available at the redesigned jubilee church site. Certainly a massive spike in my blog visitor numbers and a consistent hike in my TLB ecosystem rankings seems to have co-incided with my own blog redesign. Maybe if Hugh revamps the look of his site and gets the other bits working he will see a similar hike.

Which brings me back to the which should you eat chocolate flavoured poo or poo flavoured chocolate question. Amazingly to me, the vast majority of readers seem to go with the chocolate flavoured poo. Thus the experience of consuming is more important to them that what they are consuming. As one reader pointed out eating poo whatever it may taste like is a health risk and could kill you from the bugs contained in it. But such is our concern with image we would rather eat the poo than chocolate that tastes like poo.

Sadly too many Christians fail to make the gospel appear palitable we almost take pride in the fact that we make the chocolate of the gospel look feel and seem revolting to the outsider. But if no one wants to taste our chocolate we blame the hearers.

We must learn to serve up chocolate that tastes like chocolate. We shouldnt change the substance of what we teach, but we do need to make sure that people who see it want to consume and not run the opposite way. To be honest much of what I see in the church today puts me right off and I was raised a christian. I often wonder if I would have joined the ranks of the unchurched christian if I hadnt been so fortunate in the type of church I grew up in.