Church Inc.
So, I see others are blogging about the recent Business Week article on church. I didn't notice anyone mentioning (sorry if you did!) my biggest WHAT THE? moment from the article, so I thought I'd throw in my 2cents...
The article starts out talking about Joel Osteen, the guy smiling that wildly large grin from the huge stack of "Your Best Life Now!" books down at Costco. Joel's church has gotten so large that they are buying the local sports arena in town and renovating it to meet the needs of their huge congregation.
I must be careful here.
This presses so many buttons for me, I hardly know where to begin.
So let me just get straight to the "I can't believe he actually said it" moment.
A quote from Osteen (he's speaking of their intention to see 100,000 people at their weekend services after they open their new "campus"): "Other churches have not kept up, and they lose people by not changing with the times."
What the ?!?!
Did he actually say that? Let me go back and read it on more time. Just a sec.
.................
Yup. He said it. Joel actually said that as other churches have not kept pace with the "new generation of evangelical entrepreneurs transforming their branch of Protestantism into one of the fastest-growing and most influential religious groups in America" they have lost people.
So... it really is a competition isn't it?
What Joel has said here is this- We are out to steal your customers. Keep up or die off. It's a race- a race for technology and flash and exciting new ways of doing "ministry."
Again, I want to be careful. I don't know Joel Osteen, and I never will, so it would be foolish of me to impugn his character or relationship with God. I think the issue is simply that he has bought into a particular church philosophy and he is taking it to its logical conclusion. No mind that that logical conclusion also happens to be absurd...
For the record, this is why I got off the evangelical church growth hamster wheel. It becomes a business with market-share concerns, it becomes less about introducing people to Christ and not even at its worst- at its everday level- it becomes a competition with the church down the street. They put in a multi-thousand dollar lighting system. So should we. They build a big giant auditorium, we build a bigger one. They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. (Okay, just kidding about that last part... )
I knew a large, suburban mega-church who spent (and borrowed) milions to buld a nice new facility under the premise that "the last time we built, more people came. When we build this sanctuary, more people will come." Again, not wanting to impugn the hearts of leadership there, because they are good folk, but my question was always "Which non-Christian is sitting at home thinking they'd go to church this week if only there was a seat for them?" My point is that growth may come through building, but probably not conversion growth (show me how one translates into the other)... most likely it's transfer growth. By the way, transfer growth is church talk for what happens to mom and pop stores when Wal-Mart moves into the neighborhood. They die, because all their customers are lured away by rock-bottom prices and a bigger selection.
And so it goes with churches. And just as ugly as that metaphor is, and just as real as market forces are, so is the idea that we should be different.
It's kingdom, not competition, folks.
I don't know what the answer is to this. The Joel Osteens of the world will continue to mine the business world for their principles, build bigger and bigger and ever more elaborate set-ups, the entreprenuers will continue to trek towards multiple campuses where they have franchised their communities and people they have never met and yet call them pastor watch them on a screen from miles away...
And we'll continue to plant churches- small communities which grow constantly, but remain knowable and intimate through continually planting other church communities.
I don't know if our way is more "kingdom." But, at least right now it feels simple, it feels sustainable... and it feels sane.
[emerging church]
The article starts out talking about Joel Osteen, the guy smiling that wildly large grin from the huge stack of "Your Best Life Now!" books down at Costco. Joel's church has gotten so large that they are buying the local sports arena in town and renovating it to meet the needs of their huge congregation.
I must be careful here.
This presses so many buttons for me, I hardly know where to begin.
So let me just get straight to the "I can't believe he actually said it" moment.
A quote from Osteen (he's speaking of their intention to see 100,000 people at their weekend services after they open their new "campus"): "Other churches have not kept up, and they lose people by not changing with the times."
What the ?!?!
Did he actually say that? Let me go back and read it on more time. Just a sec.
.................
Yup. He said it. Joel actually said that as other churches have not kept pace with the "new generation of evangelical entrepreneurs transforming their branch of Protestantism into one of the fastest-growing and most influential religious groups in America" they have lost people.
So... it really is a competition isn't it?
What Joel has said here is this- We are out to steal your customers. Keep up or die off. It's a race- a race for technology and flash and exciting new ways of doing "ministry."
Again, I want to be careful. I don't know Joel Osteen, and I never will, so it would be foolish of me to impugn his character or relationship with God. I think the issue is simply that he has bought into a particular church philosophy and he is taking it to its logical conclusion. No mind that that logical conclusion also happens to be absurd...
For the record, this is why I got off the evangelical church growth hamster wheel. It becomes a business with market-share concerns, it becomes less about introducing people to Christ and not even at its worst- at its everday level- it becomes a competition with the church down the street. They put in a multi-thousand dollar lighting system. So should we. They build a big giant auditorium, we build a bigger one. They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. (Okay, just kidding about that last part... )
I knew a large, suburban mega-church who spent (and borrowed) milions to buld a nice new facility under the premise that "the last time we built, more people came. When we build this sanctuary, more people will come." Again, not wanting to impugn the hearts of leadership there, because they are good folk, but my question was always "Which non-Christian is sitting at home thinking they'd go to church this week if only there was a seat for them?" My point is that growth may come through building, but probably not conversion growth (show me how one translates into the other)... most likely it's transfer growth. By the way, transfer growth is church talk for what happens to mom and pop stores when Wal-Mart moves into the neighborhood. They die, because all their customers are lured away by rock-bottom prices and a bigger selection.
And so it goes with churches. And just as ugly as that metaphor is, and just as real as market forces are, so is the idea that we should be different.
It's kingdom, not competition, folks.
I don't know what the answer is to this. The Joel Osteens of the world will continue to mine the business world for their principles, build bigger and bigger and ever more elaborate set-ups, the entreprenuers will continue to trek towards multiple campuses where they have franchised their communities and people they have never met and yet call them pastor watch them on a screen from miles away...
And we'll continue to plant churches- small communities which grow constantly, but remain knowable and intimate through continually planting other church communities.
I don't know if our way is more "kingdom." But, at least right now it feels simple, it feels sustainable... and it feels sane.
[emerging church]
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