Friday Fodder

I read church growth articles in several publications - even publications that are entirely devoted to church growth. There are many things that come across my desk claiming to be the "next best thing" to win people to Christ - oh, if I just had 40 days! Church growth companies call from time to time and offer something that will benefit my local church. (These groups are 500-1000 miles away. How do they know what the people need here?) "Everything is included for the low price of $999.99. It's guarunteed to have people beating the doors down to get into your place of worship."

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So here's the fodder? Lately, many churches have been accused of "selling out" all in the name of reaching people for Christ. In other words, church leaderships have bought into the secular idea of having the newest, freshest, or shiniest whatever. And when the church has the newest, freshest, or shiniest, it just makes sense to tell everyone about it. Paul said, "I have become all things to all people." But did he really mean selling out on the Gospel?

Isn't the Good News still good news? Doesn't the power of the Holy Spirit still work today? And if this is true (I believe that it is!), surely marketing the vision of a local church should still be acceptable. The question is how so?

What's a healthy balance between trusting the power of the Gospel and marketing? Any thoughts?

The North American Church

From time to time, I check out church research "guru" Ed Stetzer's blog. You can find it here. The most recent trend Stetzer points to is evangelical churches in North America forgetting their mission of sharing the Gospel message and replacing it with a "twelve step program for inner peace." The results have been a lack of importance for evangelism in the North American church.

Stetzer's biggest concern is Christians have lost confidence in the Gospel. In other words, we've moved past the good news of Christ providing restoration, hope, and love to a dying cosmos. We've begun to see salvation more as a individual blessing and for that reason, the challenges in people's lives and meeting those challenges (recovery groups, benevolence ministries, etc.) have taken the lead over the power of the cross. For that reason, the church in North America in is decline. Those "outside our walls" become complacent, apathetic, or skeptical about what goes on inside the church - that is, until a practical problem arises in their lives. The North American church has become a therapy center rather than a place to understand the Gospel.

What are your thoughts?