Here’s a novel idea that might shock some church growth proponents.
What works is not always what is best.
For example, advertisers know that sex sells products. If they can create the impression that using their product will enhance your sex life, they know we may be induced to purchase it. This is an easily recognizable ad strategy, but we still fall for it. What may not be so easy to discern is when local churches adopt methods designed to prey upon our human fleshly tendencies. It may be nearly impossible to see clearly how our own culture impacts the church because we think our culture is normal.
Modern churches are more greatly influenced by consumerism than we imagine.
How we measure success also may be culturally driven. Since the advent of the church growth movement, success is largely measured in numbers of people in attendance. Secondary success factors may be facilities, income, and internet presence and reach. Using these metrics, leaders are under intense pressure to draw and keep ever increasing numbers of people in attendance.
If our goal is simply to draw people to our meetings, we may (must?) adopt the strategy of providing what people want, perhaps at the expense obeying Christ and giving them what they truly need. Let that sink in…
Modern American Christians have been conditioned by the culture and by the church itself to view the church experience through the eyes of consumers. We “shop” churches using consumerist criteria, sometimes looking for the one that provides the best value in exchange for the least commitment. This is how consumers are trained to think. Consumers tend to measure a church’s desirability or value by the main speaker’s abilities, the worship experience, the programs for children and other social sub-groupings, and the general presentation, which includes facilities, audio-visual, and professionalism. Attenders of smaller churches are not immune and may also be consumers looking for a different product. They may put experiencing a sense of family near the top of their list.
Consumerism begs us to adopt an attractional model for our churches.
Of course, none of the above are “wrong.” In fact, we hope that all of our churches do their best to be attractive, but never in subservience to consumerism. However, none of the criteria listed above is actually a “right” reason for joining a church.
Logically those who come in this way must be kept in this way, unless they can be moved away from consumerism to a discipleship orientation to life and ministry. If we allow that church leaders who use consumerist strategies have the best of intentions, we can believe that their reason for doing so is to simply have the opportunity to speak into a great number of people’s lives. Their thinking is that if they are not attracted to church meetings, they will never hear the truth and be changed. Some people use this strategy to gain a great number of conversions. Bringing a person to Christ is only the first step, however. After a fish is caught, it must be cleaned. This brings us to discipleship.
The opposite of consumerism is discipleship.
The message of discipleship actually tends to sift people out of the local church because it requires us to count the cost before advancing on the journey.
A disciple making church must adopt an equipping model for ministry, the goal being to equip the people to do ministry on their own outside the four walls of the building. Adopting missional strategies to equip and launch followers of Christ into evangelism and disciple making ministries will run counter to what our consumer culture wants, but it will satisfy Christ’s Great Commission mandate and bring glory to God. The next several articles will look at ways to develop a missional culture in our churches.
