Back in the '70's folks like Peter Wagner and Donald McGavran started a movement that is called the "Church Growth" movement. From multiple sources we received eager recommendations that the church start marketing itself much like the business world does.
Folks like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren took it to heart. They surveyed their "potential customers" with classic marketing questions -- "What don't you like in a church?" "What would you like?" "What makes church relevant?" -- you know ... standard stuff. Then they built megachurches with the results.
It seemed like a great idea, especially since it appeared to succeed. And "succeed" remains the measure of "great idea", doesn't it? If you raised a flag -- "Excuse me ... is this right?" -- you were just being contrary. You were old and stodgy. You just weren't willing to adapt. Look ... meeting "felt needs", making short, topical sermons, picking new music with catchy tunes and light lyrics ... marketing the church works. How can you possibly complain? What could possibly be wrong?
Odd thing ... statistics started suggesting that the "success" wasn't what they thought it was. Overall church attendance hadn't changed. They just moved. And the marketing techniques didn't seem to work for most churches. In the end, giving people what they wanted may have caught their interest, but it seemed to make churches that were a mile wide and an inch deep.
What went wrong? Well, while at first look it seemed to be wise, there really are serious differences between business and the church. Business leaders are managers; pastors are ministers. The first rule of business is "The customer is always right"; the first message of the Gospel is "all have sinned". In business you tailor your product to meet the customers' needs; the "product" of the church is God. Or put it this way: Business never asks customers to submit to their product.
What seemed like a good idea may not have been. It just may be that, in our aim to "redeem the culture", we sold out the Gospel.
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