Westside church of Christ - Irving, Texas

Problems with the I Am Second campaign

by Mark Roberts

Their billboards are impossible to miss. A giant black and white picture of a celebrity’s face looks down at drivers speeding by. The words “I am second” in huge print beside the picture catches your eye and makes you curious. What does that mean? How can that famous person, first on the playing field or at the box office, be second? A website address printed on the billboard drives you to the Internet to check it out. If you look at www.IamSecond.com you will quickly find that it is an evangelistic effort, designed to help non-Christians become Christians. It specializes in appealing to folks with little or no religious background and offers a different perspective on Christianity, something different from the traditional “you become a Christian by going to church” thinking. While the program is gaining a lot of attention and publicity, it needs to be examined according to the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). Such an examination finds three serious problems with the I Am Second campaign.

First, I Am Second teaches faith only salvation.

This is the most critical and glaring failure of the I Am Second campaign. Whatever good may be said about any endeavor if it doesn’t teach people the Bible plan of salvation then nothing but “failure” can be written across it. Is it good to see celebrities participating in an effort like this instead of cravenly drawing more attention to themselves? Certainly. Should we be glad that people are being urged to think about Jesus? Absolutely. Is helping people get away from sinful degradation like pornography or abortion or homosexuality or drug abuse a good thing? Of course it is. Yet if the truth isn’t taught about salvation then despite anything else done well, I Am Second does not please God.

The I Am Second effort clearly teaches that faith only saves. When you click on “How can I become second?” the site presents standard faith-only and pray-to-receive-Jesus doctrine: “Maybe you could follow along in this prayer of personal commitment to Jesus Christ. ‘Jesus, I have been running my life … I resign. I have been putting myself first but now put You first in my life … I am putting all of my trust in You to forgive of my sins, to get me to heaven, and to give the relationship that I was made for…’ That commitment, from the heart, saves you from yourself, puts Jesus first in your life, and brings you into the family of God forever.”

This is simply not correct according to the Bible. John 1:12 says “to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Note carefully it does not say one becomes a child of God at the point of faith, by receiving Him. Instead the Bible says one who “receives Him” has the right to become a child of God. This means faith is an important beginning point but must not be the ending point. James 2:20 reminds us that “faith without works is useless” and James 2:24 goes on to say “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” The works James references are certainly not works that earn salvation, for such is impossible (Gal 2:16). But works that demonstrate an obedient faith are essential to “obeying the Gospel” (Romans 1:5; 10:16). Such would certainly include water baptism that washes away sin (Acts 2:38; 22:16), puts one in Christ (Romans 6) and is explicitly said to be the point of salvation (1 Peter 3:21).

I Am Second is misleading people about the most important matter: how to be saved. That is why this effort cannot be endorsed or used to any good effect. It teaches religious error of the very worst kind. I Am Second teaches a false plan of salvation that will not save, and only leaves people thinking they are saved when they are not.

Second, I Am Second teaches that the purpose of having a relationship with God is so God can make your life better now.

This is not as explicitly stated as its stance on faith only, but the more one explores the campaign and hears its message this is an overwhelming conclusion that cannot be missed. The I Am Second website primarily is about hearing what famous (and not-so-famous) people say about finding God and becoming a Christian. The site is dominated by a ribbon of black and white photos running horizontally across the computer screen. Click a picture and that person’s video testimony plays. Yet these testimonies do not speak of sin and the need for salvation or the need to serve God because of who He is. Instead, mainly the testimonies tell how the Lord changed things for the better, repaired life’s problems, or stopped the pains and hurts of life’s mishaps. I Am Second has no problem with this emphasis. The website says “I Am Second is a movement meant to inspire people of all kinds to live for God and for others. Actors. Athletes. Musicians. Business leaders. Drug addicts. Your next-door neighbor. People like you. The authentic stories on iamsecond.com provide insight into dealing with typical struggles of everyday living. These are stories that give hope to the lonely and the hurting, help from destructive lifestyles, and inspiration to the unfulfilled. You’ll discover people who’ve tried to go it alone and have failed. Find the hope, peace, and fulfillment they found. Be Second.”

That doesn’t say much about serving God or even turning from sin, does it? Norm Miller, the campaign’s founder, one of its chief financial backers, and chairman of Interstate Battery Systems, says “the best thing is we aren’t preaching to anybody, we are just putting these up (the billboards -mdr) and telling people how God helps them.” Is the Gospel message really “God helps you?”

As the I Am Second campaign has gained strength and moved beyond its initial focus in the DFW area it has been widely praised and rarely criticized. Yet even a denominational writer was troubled by this God-will-fix-life-for-you emphasis. David Westerfield wrote on his blog “Helps us, what? Receive pardon from the right-hand of God for the wrath and judgment we deserve through His suffering that very wrath on the cross in our place? No, it seems the ultimate message of this campaign is how God helps us from addiction, pornography, a reckless life-style, amongst a number of other things. Now of course, the benefits of the Gospel include all of the aforementioned things. He indeed frees us from the power of sin in our lives! But what is the main effect and message of the Gospel? Helping us out with our temporal, (mostly) self-inflicted suffering? Or being rescued from the objective wrath of God and bringing us into fellowship with Himself forever through the blood of His Son? Yes there are definitely side benefits of salvation. But what is the main course? That is what primarily needs to be preached.” Mr. Westfield is spot-on. The purpose of knowing Christ is to not to make our immediate life better. Jesus is not the Great Fix-it Man for all your troubles.

Yet I Am Second consistently pushes come to Jesus and life will get better, you will do better, and you will feel better. Daryl Waltrip (famous NASCAR driver) says in his testimony “I was never a winner until I won the hearts of people.” Need to feel like a winner? Need to win people’s hearts? I Am Second says become a winner with Christ!

A huge section of the site is devoted to “Struggles” where you can find the testimonies that fit your particular problem, including sex addiction, fatherlessness, abuse, prostitution, war and divorce. Got problems? I Am Second says the answer is Jesus.

The trouble with much of this is that this is not what Jesus said. Jesus often told His followers that life would get worse, not better, if they followed Him. In John 16:2 he warned his apostles they would be persecuted and even put out of the synagogue. Did that make them feel like winners? Acts 8:1 describes horrific persecution upon the early church. Did that make life better? I Am Second’s message of faith only salvation cannot be found in Acts and neither can its “life will be nicer if you become a Christian” message.

Finally, the I Am Second campaign teaches that where you go to church doesn’t really matter.

What happens if you choose “Connect” on the I Am Second website so as to find a church? Every kind of church is presented, from “Bible churches” to Baptist church to Methodist churches. Despite all of these groups holding far differing doctrinal stances none of that is mentioned or discussed. They are all presented as being equal. There is no teaching about the one church (Eph 4:1-4) or how to identify a church that is pleasing to Jesus or respecting His authority (Col 3:17). There is no discussion of how denominationalism is sinful and wrong (1 Cor 1:10ff; John 17:20-21) or that the divisions that exist among “Christians” are not pleasing to the Lord. All churches, regardless of what they teach, practice or their denominational affiliation are, evidently, the same. This is not surprising given what Norm Miller says about the effort: “The campaign isn’t intended to proselytize a specific denomination as much as embrace a broader spirituality.” But what kind of broader spirituality can one have without the church? Isn’t connecting with genuine Christians an essential and significant part of Christianity as demonstrated in Acts? Yet much of what is said by I Am Second’s founders and members indicates they are trying to reach people who are disenchanted with “organized religion” so they play down the church connection. Junior Nathan Lanham told the Oklahoma Daily that his I Am Second group “is not a group where you come and some guy preaches at you. We’re not going to point the finger at you and tell you what you have done wrong …. Instead, we will be meeting in small groups. We believe this is the most effective way of sharing the love of God with others.” The negative view of church (and preaching) the I Am Second group fosters is hard to miss.

Once again, the contrast to what we find in the book of Acts is just as clear. In Acts the church mattered, and was a vital relationship that helped the saved serve the Lord (Acts 2:42). Keeping it pure from false doctrine and wrong teaching was essential (Acts 20:29-30). No one was told in Acts to just go to any church. New Testament churches endured persecution and hard times specifically because they were unwilling to go along with the religions of the times (see Rev 2:9). The I Am Second campaign knows nothing of this kind of church and instead pushes the lie that every church (at least that enrolls and is presented on their website) must be fine. “Go to the church of your choice” is the message at I Am Second, a message that cannot be found in Scripture.

In conclusion, like the “I Found It!” bumper sticker effort back in the 1970’s the I Am Second is little more than another trendy campaign to draw people’s attention to Jesus and then offer them the denominational gospel. We do not doubt anyone’s motives associated with the effort, but the I Am Second campaign is a failure when measured biblically. It teaches error on salvation, makes the Gospel into a self-help program, and delivers unsaved people (who think they are saved) to denominational churches that practice and teach even more error. I Am Second’s “Christianity lite” approach is truly troubling and thoroughly unscriptural. Hopefully, the I Am Second billboards will provide Christians a genuine opportunity to talk with people about what it really means to serve He who is first, and how to do that according to the New Testament.

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Abundant Life: January 2010