Churches are not business. Businesses are marketed.
Therefore churches should not be marketed. Churches are business in the sense
that they have bills to pay, but once the bills are paid the church stops being
a business.
The goal of a church should not be to have better
technology, newer carpet and more members than the church across the street.
Too many churches are trying to recruit new members and forgetting about the
amazing people that already belong to the church.
When I was looking for a church to join, I wasn’t just
looking at the materials used to build the church I was also looking for a
community to join. I was concerned about how the church treated the
marginalized populations of our society. I was not looking for a church that
looked like a commercial for Apple.
I am a firm believer that if someone wants to go to church
they will go. I am a firm believer that if a church has a strong community they
will be the church that grows exponentially. I firmly believe that if a church
is more concerned about technology than it is about community, it will grow
exponentially, peak, and then drop.
In their book Jesus
Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell and Don Golden talk about the dangers of
a church that is more concerned about technology than community.
“…the Eucharist is not a product . Glossy brochures have the
potential to do great harm to the body and blood. Church is people. The
Eucharist is people. People who have committed themselves to being a certain
way in the world. To try to brand that is to risk commodifying something
intimate, sacred, and holy. The church is not a center for religious goods and
services, where people pay a fee and receive a product in return. A church is
not an organization that surveys its demographic to find out what the market is
demanding at this particular moment and then adjusts its strategy to meet that
consumer niche. The way of Jesus is the path of descent. It’s about our death,
It’s our willingness to join the world in its suffering, it’s our participation
in the new humanity, it’s our weakness calling out to others in their weakness.
To turn that into a product blasphemes the Eucharist.”
The church that I walked out of had amazing technology,
super comfortable seating, and awesome coffee. But it had no sense of community.
In fact it helped further marginalize the marginalized members of our society.
The church I attended after that had some pretty awesome
technology, not so comfortable seats, and iffy coffee. But they were concerned
about building a community that embraced the margins of our society.
The church I eventually joined has horrible technology, not
so comfortable pews, and decaf coffee. But they rock at creating a welcoming
community.
The group I hang out with on Saturday nights has almost no
technology, hard metal folding chairs, and really good food. Most importantly we
are concerned about building a community that welcomes everyone.
Technology is a wonderful thing when it is not used for
marketing. Technology is a wonderful thing when it isn’t used to have higher
attendance than the church across the street.
When a church forgets that is first and foremost a
community, it eventually forgets about God and in doing so forgets about doing
justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly.
go in Peace. live Peace. be Peace.
