djchuang.com - Latest Comments in market-driven church, market-driven election

Re: market-driven church, market-driven election

Steve — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 05:09:30 -0000

It's tragic that churches - who have been given the ultimate counter-cultural message - end up buying the entire cultural package.

Now I'm not saying that marketing your product is wrong - I've seen lots of churches use multi-media, the web, direct mail, etc., to get their message across. But when the message is shaped by the market, that's why the three words often used to describe Christianity are "boring, irrelevant, and untrue."

Re: market-driven church, market-driven election

rick — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 11:19:30 -0000

I just posted tis on another blog:

Hmmm. How about, "You are invited to Die?" as a headline. I said that to a group the other day. We are invited to die to ourselves and everything that gets in the way of the reign of God. If I really want to live, I must first die. That sucks. I much like motivational sermons and life in the suburbs. Too bad that is not the message that Jesus proclaimed by his life. That is why I say, I don't have the guts to follow Jesus, so I settle for being a Christian.

Peace. Great post!

Rick

Re: market-driven church, market-driven election

Chris Elrod — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 23:48:41 -0000

Natala:

Not only do congregations accept it, they PROMOTE it! As a former Associate Pastor of a large church in Lakeland, Florida, there was the constant pressure from the deacons, leaders and congregation to "perform" - or illicit "results" if you will. Unfortunately church members and leaders (as do many pastors) based success on the same thing as the world - growth and numbers. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a pastor's normal life-span in a church is two years. If the pastor hasn't created numeric growth in that time, in most established "old school" churches - they are sent packing. Therefore, "marketing" for results is largely to be blamed on the congregation itself. That's not to say that a pastor's ego doesn't drive it also! :-)

Re: market-driven church, market-driven election

natala — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 07:16:00 -0000

I am wondering how as the 'congregants' can we encourage pastors to not use the marketing...

And how as citizens we can encourage politicians to not use negativity to win. I think partly it's our responsibility as citizens and congregants, the longer we accept it, the more they (pastors and politicians) will continue to use the same tactics.

Re: market-driven church, market-driven election

The Dying Church — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 01:57:36 -0000

The market-driven church
DJ Chuang on the market-driven church: For the pastors, they'll use the methods that grow the attendance at a church. If people respond to a carefully explained Bible teaching, that would be more common for more churches; people apparently respond...