Part Four: Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Part Four: Quantity vs. Quality

For parts one through three, see the posts directly following

Church consultant Thom Rainer studied the fastest growing churches in America and determined that there is one common denominator between these churches: prayer is the cornerstone of their ministries.[1] Prayer is a sign of spiritual health, and according to Rainer, churches that are growing numerically also report a higher level spiritual health among their members than churches that are stagnant in numerical growth. Correlating the numerical and spiritual growth of a church, he believes that churches must place an emphasis on increasing attendance numbers in order to have spiritually effective ministries.[2] Barna concurs with Rainer, believing that it is impossible to “secure quality without quantity.”[3] Numerical growth is an important measurement tool for churches. If church attendance increases weekly, the church must be accomplishing its goals. Barna believes that numerical growth is “an indication that something exciting and meaningful is happening.”[4] The size of the church is becoming the measuring rod of success. Church marketing techniques work well at boosting attendance. The question is not whether these techniques work, but if the “something exciting and meaningful” that Barna identifies is truly biblical. Are Rainer and Barna correct in their conviction that quantity and quality are directly correlated?

Whenever Jesus’ teaching attracted large crowds, He reminded His audience that there was a cost associated with following Him.[5] The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke recounts a time when a “great crowd” gathered to hear Jesus teach. When Jesus looked into the faces of the fascinated group, He unapologetically spoke the hard truth of the Gospel: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”[6] Scripture does not record the reaction of the crowds, but most likely, many turned away in disgust at His “abrasive” message. His approach was hardly “exciting and meaningful,” but it was truth.

This is not to imply that all growing churches are compromising the Gospel message. The apostle Paul testified that he “planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”[7] “But churches do need to recognize the enormous pressure they face to soft-pedal the Gospel in order to attract and appeal to increasingly demanding and discriminating consumers.”[8] Market-driven churches compartmentalize their methodology and their message, failing to perceive the interconnectedness between the methods they use to draw people into the door and the explicit or implicit message they preach by using those methods. A church desiring to attract people into their building at all costs may offer events and programs that are based on meeting psychological needs and never point individuals to the truth of the Gospel. The message becomes distorted when it is driven by erroneous methods. In these instances, it is not the Gospel that is being preached, but a church event that is being sold to interested consumers eager to have their psychological needs met.[9]

Additionally, a focus on quantity over quality encourages church-shopping, an attractive and acceptable option within the American church. Trying to determine which church best meets their needs, church-shoppers visit various congregations until they settle on one that “feels right.” The market-driven church appeals to these individuals. They are allowed to window shop without being asked to make a commitment. Treated like customers, they are promised the fulfillment of their felt needs.[10] They are eventually lured in by the attractive packaging of the message, unable to resist the God who satisfies their desires. At this point, the church that has drawn people into its building by promising the fulfillment of perceived needs is in a quandary. How will it handle the plethora of felt needs that contradict Scripture? The individual’s desire to feel validated living out the American dream of success, wealth, and popularity is a felt need. Does the church explain that it cannot meet this carnal desire that is birthed from pride and egocentrism? Does it draw people to its doors using one method, only to preach a message that decries this same approach? The church must decide whether or not it will take a bold stance and proclaim that not all human needs are legitimate. It must choose whether it will declare God’s calling to the Christian to “deny himself and take up his cross” in order to follow his Savior.[11] Unfortunately, “since such a strategy of bait-and-switch will likely be met with incredulity if not anger and resentment...most churches will [not] have the courage to actually follow through.”[12] Those who do follow through and maintain doctrinal purity will detract many visitors who are seeking a church “that will be less judgmental and more user-friendly.”[13]

Footnotes:

[1] Thom S. Rainer, The Book of Church Growth: History, Theology, and Principles (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1993), 177.
[2] Ibid., 174.
[3] Wells, God in the Wasteland, 78.
[4] Barna, Marketing the Church, 157, quoted in Philip D. Kenneson and James L. Street, Selling Out the Church: The Dangers of Church Marketing (Eugene: Cascade Books, 1997), 124.
[5] Kenneson and Street, Selling Out the Church, 126.
[6] Luke 14:26
[7] 1 Cor. 3:6
[8] Kenneson and Street, Selling Out the Church, 126.
[9] Wells, God in the Wasteland, 82-3.
[10] Kenneson and Street, Selling Out the Church, 67.
[11] Matt. 16:24
[12] Kenneson and Street, Selling Out the Church, 83.
[13] Ibid.