Meet the Pastor Behind the Jesus Christ Meme Page

Bored Panda spoke to Michael Schaffer, a youth pastor and founder of the popular Facebook page Memes For Jesus. The page focuses “always on challenging Christians to learn to laugh ourselves, but also look at the bigger picture, and keep our focus on serving the Lord, and sharing His Good News.”

“I started Memes For Jesus under the name of Christian Memes back in 2012 because anytime I saw memes about Jesus or God, they were always written from a negative perspective and I wanted to give Christians the opportunity to enjoy the best memes they could relate to,” Michael told us.

Do These Funny Jesus Memes Serve a Greater Purpose?

Funny Jesus pictures and memes have quickly grown into an incredibly useful and important means of communication. Their often amusing, easily shareable format uses cultural references to cleverly get a point across. Perhaps churches could use them more regularly to reach the younger members of their faith? 

“I don’t think Christian jokes and memes are a replacement for sharing the Gospel with someone, but if they can be used as a tool to spark a conversation that will lead someone to the Lord, that’s great!” Michael says.

“While the purpose of my page has always been to entertain Christians, I do love hearing about how non-Christians and Christians have been able to connect better through the content we make.”

What Kind of Feedback Do These Jesus Memes Receive?

“I don’t make a lot from M4J, but I make enough to justify being able to spend a lot of my free-time making memes,” Michael continues. “Most of the feedback I receive is positive, however there are moments where someone will get upset over something. I typically just ignore it, but I’ll intervene if all heck breaks loose.”

Funny Jesus Pictures That Bring People Together

Memes For Jesus with the Jesus meme pics on it now has over 500k followers on Facebook and has been viewed by tens of millions of people. Not bad for a small project set up by a youth pastor at a small church in central Pennsylvania! 

People from all around the world join in the fun sharing Christian memes with their friends, and talk about how the community brightens their days and encourages their faith. After all, these innocent memes aren’t about making Jesus funny; they’re about bringing people together. 

Check out the page for yourself here, as well as Michael’s Patreon to see his various other projects.

Interesting Facts You Might Have Not Known About Christianity I

Courtesy of Fact Republic, here are a few interesting little pieces of trivia about Christianity that you might not know about!

• Christian Atheism exists, in which followers believe in the teachings of Christ but not that they were divinely inspired. They see Jesus as a humanitarian and philosopher rather than the son of God.
• In the 7th century, Mohammed wrote an open letter to Christians that declared their right to self-governance, protection for churches and monasteries, and freedom to practice their religion openly in Muslim-controlled areas. Muslims are commanded to follow this until the end of time.
• Historians believe the fate of Christianity hinged on the Battle of Tours (732 A.D.), where an Arab invasion force was defeated by a Frankish force in present-day France, preventing the spread of Islam to all of Western Europe and preserving Christianity as the religion of Europe.

Interesting Facts You Might Have Not Known About Christianity II

• While we think of Christianity as a truly ancient religion, it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the scale of human existence. For example, there was more time between the start and finish of the Great Wall of China than between the start of Christianity and the present day.
• Vladimir the Great of Russia was confronted with the choice of converting Russia to Christianity or to Islam. He eventually chose Christianity because of Islamic teaching on alcohol, saying, “Drinking is the joy of all Rus’. We cannot exist without that pleasure.”
• The keys to the holiest site in Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, are held by a Muslim family that opens the church every morning. Meant to keep the peace between the denominations, this arrangement has been in place since 1187 A.D.

Interesting Facts You Might Have Not Known About Christianity III

• Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all worship the same Abrahamic god. Their religious texts also feature many of the same figures, histories, and places. Jesus is also a Muslim prophet.
• One of the scholars (John M. Allegro) who translated the Dead Sea Scrolls was convinced that Christianity was based on an ancient psychedelic mushroom and fertility cult.
• Christianity is increasingly popular among China’s youth. As many as 100 million people, or 7% of the population, have converted to the religion. The city of Wenzhou alone has more than 1,100 churches.

Interesting Facts You Might Have Not Known About Christianity IV

• While Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli criticized Christianity and the Church, he also strongly believed in the use of religion as a political tool. He thought that fear of God kept society in order and that while a leader shouldn’t be too religious himself, he should make his people as religious as possible.
• A man named Clyde Lott in Nebraska is breeding red cows and sending them to Israel in hopes of a pure red heifer being born there. Such an event will allegedly prompt Jews to build a Third Temple, which fundamentalist Christians believe will usher in Jesus’ Second Coming.
• St. Augustine, in the 4th century, wrote that Christians should not interpret Genesis literally because if science proved it otherwise, Christian witness would be gone.
• The bible mentions unicorns 9 times.
• Memes are now statistically more popular than Jesus in online searches.