Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Market driven church reboot?

Churches these days are hamstrung by many things. Among these are an innate sense to compare and compete with fellow churches for "nickels and noses". The question for me is how and why and I am resolved that I may never get an answer.

In a "saturated" market where 99% of people have heard the message of the gospel, outreach becomes about competition via staff, programs, and even facilities. Yes, I said the word "market" to describe the population of my region of VA. Churches are forced to compete to survive and support/sustain those very things with which they compete. This is no different from any business. The only difference is that most churches are terribly inefficient at it.

  • What if a church suddenly went on a "Jubilee" and gave up everything. No more big choirs, big trips, building programs, staff members to "do" things, and started focusing on partnering to deliver needs.. reliant on congregation for actions, partnering organizations to deliver programs, and lay leadership to deliver the message?
  • Would your church be different?
  • Does your church already do these things?

I'd love to hear stories of success as well as opportunities for improvement..

I'm just saying, I don't think it is all that crazy. Perhaps, just perhaps, we all need to completely reset our approach and start from scratch regularly.. to maintain perspective..

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