A common theme in Spamgelism is The Lordship Clause, where the main thrust changes from ‘if you don’t believe in our theological construct of Jesus, you’re not going to heaven’ to ‘if you don’t do christian stuff, you’re probably not going to heaven’.

The content of spamgelism often follows like so:

Phase 1: The Problem and Solution

You’ve got an outstanding debt to God, and if you don’t pay it, you’re going to Hell. Unfortunately, you can’t pay it. Fortunately, Jesus can, and all you have to do is accept that payment, through having faith / trusting in Jesus, and you don’t go to hell!

Phase 2: The Lordship Clause

Oh, by the way, we kinda forgot to mention… in order to accept that payment, having faith / trusting in Jesus means becoming a christian, praying, going to church, and importantly, spreading the word through spamgelism. So you’ve also gotta do that.

Criticism

Some critics argue that such a method is dishonest, and pointing out the comparisons between spamgelism and unethical sales technique - salesmen often gloss over the fine print to convince customers how great the deal is, and once customers have taken the bait, they bring up the fine print. Once customers are feeling positive about the deal, the fine print doesn’t seem so bad; whereas if the whole package was presented at once, you wouldn’t get so many sales.

Comments

I think most spamgelists would tell you that you stop doing the bad things and start doing the good of your own accord; God convicts you/takes away your worldly desires etc. Also, most spamgelists are rabid salvation-by-faith-ists, and they’d probably take issue with the idea that you have to do anything in order to be saved.
I’d accept though that if you were converted via spamgelism, and joined a church, you would probably feel an underlying pressure to stop drinking/smoking dope/whatever and to start praying/worshiping/shaking and baking etc. However, this is no different to the conformity expected when integrating with any regular gathering of people- and frankly, many churches are among the most diverse and non-conformist groups I’ve encountered.
— Greg

The way I heard was “when someone has saved you from hell, you will act in response.” Basically, sure it’s all about faith, but if you don’t change the way you live in response you’re a Bad Person/Not Really Saved. That said, I don’t think the change in action is the problem (seems a good thing to me), it’s the selling magic words then people finding they’ve actually bought a lifestyle. — mattw

It’s still no different to, say, a rugby club: noone’s going to say ‘if you join, you’ll be expected to start drinking excessively’, but a person who joins solely to play rugby is still likely to feel an implicit pressure to start boozing with everyone else. (Generalizing here for the sake of the example) The difference is that churches tend to be more active in recruitment than rugby clubs.
I’m not saying the unspoken pressure to conform is good, just that churches shouldn’t be singled out for it. — Greg

You may be singled out a little if you don’t booze in a rugby club, but no-one is likely to tell you “you’re not a true rugby player” or “I don’t think you’re really a member of the club.” Swearing in church, however… (exaggerating a little maybe; I just think the church is rather more judgmental in that regard than other institutions.) — mattw

Why don’t you ask Brehaut? :p - fraser

Yeah ok, that might be the case in some churches, but not all. That sort of singling out would be unheard of at the most fundy church I’ve been involved in. — Greg

I don’t mean direct confrontation, I’m thinking of sideways glances and mutterings behind your back. I don’t think it happens much within young-people-church, but most of the churches I’ve belonged to I’ve been aware of it to a certain extent. — mattw

Ok, fair enough- I can accept that. — Greg

I was thinking of this video, where the guy goes through all the phase 1 stuff, talking about faith, etc, and then the evangelee responds that he does trust in christ, but doesn’t go to church. Cue movement into phase 2, where the paradigm from phase 1 is dropped completely, and a new one is introduced: “If you have accepted Jesus and aren’t going to church, that’s like being married and not living together”. So there’s the lordship twist in a gospel presentation. — nato