CHURCH-MARKETING
What the
church lacks today is not quantity but quality in her pulpits. A strong case
can be made that we presently have too many men in pastoral ministry; too many
who have taken the mantle of leadership upon themselves without having been
selected and formed by God for that purpose. They preach, but not with power
and often not with truth; they lead, but not from the platform of a life of
godliness, holiness, and prayer; and slowly these men are changing the face of
pastoral leadership. What once was a ministry of humble dependence upon God and
his Word is more and more becoming a position of power and influence dependent
upon marketing strategies, programming innovations, and an increasing
infatuation with technology and culture. The image of a pastor as a
servant-teacher is fast being replaced with that of a Chief Executive Officer
whose knowledge of modern organizational theory and communication technique is
more highly prized than his commitment to praying and preaching.
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach,
Christian Focus Publications, 1999, p. 22.
Today, the
pressure to fill auditoriums and services has driven many pastors to place the
felt needs, or tastes, of the people above their duty to Christ. On every hand
we hear of the Gospel being molded into a non-confrontative
message intended to meet felt needs and impress the sinful heart. And, by most
standards, this new philosophy of church life is working, as more and more
auditoriums are filled with people hungry for a message that will affirm that
they are actually on fairly good terms with the Almighty. But the biblical
message is the message of the cross. It cuts right across the grain of the
modern age's preoccupation with pride, tearing down the façade and exposing the
wretchedness of the human heart… Unfortunately, while the modern “un-gospel”
may fill seats, it is the true gospel of sin and grace that is “the power of
God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach,
Christian Focus Publications, 1999, p. 46.
Within
evangelicalism is a distressing drift toward accepting a Christianity that does
not demand a life-changing walk with God. Many evangelicals [today] do not
realize that the church has always been an island of righteousness in a sea of
paganism, but as a result they turned the world upside-down.
Erwin Lutzer
The
absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to
secular standards in language, thought, and way of life. If members of a
secularist society turn to religion at all, they do so because they are looking
for something other than what the culture already provides. It is
counterproductive to offer them religion in a secular mode that is carefully
trimmed in order not to offend their secular sensibilities.
David Garland
The danger
for us is that we will want to keep up with our entertainment culture and its
focus on the eyes by turning our worship into a religious stage show. We must
walk a fine line between offering worship that is appealing and engaging
without becoming simply a splashy performance, and worship that has depth
without becoming tedious and flat.
The early
church was most useful when it preached the meaning of Christ through the lens
of the whole of Scripture. It was most powerful when it maintained integrity with
God and other human beings. It was most evangelistic when it understood that
adherents of other religions, whether Jewish or Greek or Roman, faced eternal
judgment without Christ.
Paul House
Conservative
churches will stop growing if they do not awaken. Mouthing traditional
platitudes will not suffice. A return to the theology of the Bible we rightly
call infallible and inerrant is needed. Biblical definitions of evangelism,
conversion, baptism, and discipleship must be recovered. Worship of numbers
must cease. Courage to be God's remnant must emerge.
Paul House
Paul R. House &
Gregory A. Thornbury, Who Will Be Saved?
Crossway Books, 2000, p. 166.
The supreme
test for them really is whether they have found the hour in church enjoyable,
whether the music being good, the singing hearty, the decorations no offense to
the eye, the curtains the right shade, the building beautiful, they come away
"feeling" better. The sense that truth, saving truth, the truth that
liberates, is at once infinitely valuable and infinitely difficult to come by
is almost completely absent.
Herbert Farmer
Many of those
whose task it is to broker the truth of God to the people of God in the
churches have now redefined the pastoral task such that theology has become an
embarrassing encumbrance or a matter of which they have little knowledge; and
many in the Church have now turned in upon themselves and substituted for the
knowledge of God a search for the knowledge of self.
David Wells
Contemporary
Christian literature is awash with the notion that, in order to be effective
and successful, we must respond to market forces. In earlier generation, such
an approach was unheard of. The tactic employed by Paul in Corinth was far
closer to the model of the day. “Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.” That was his message. Even though the Corinthians we demanding
miracles and wisdom, Paul did not give them what they wanted. Indeed, he
continued to supply the one thing they clearly did not want – preaching. He
rejected the style and content that was most acceptable in his day… It is not
possible to give people what they want to hear and proclaim the message of the
Cross at one and the same time.
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 178-179.
Whatever means you use to get people into the church is precisely
what you must use to keep them. If you get them with a “religious circus”, then
you must keep the circus going--keep up the entertainment. If you get them with
biblical preaching and teaching, then that will keep them
and you will not need the entertainment.
Ernest Reisinger
When
amusement is necessary to get people to listen to the gospel there will be
failure. This is not the method of Christ. To form an organization and provide
all kinds of entertainment for young people, in order that they may come to the
Bible classes, is to be foredoomed to failure.
G.
Campbell Morgan
If the aim of
the church is to grow, the way to do it is to make people feel good. And when
people discover that there are other ways to feel good, they leave the church
they no longer need. The relevant church is sowing the seeds of its own
irrelevance, and losing its identity to boot. The big question today has become
how to get the baby boomers back, what techniques and methods will do the
trick. Polls are taken on what baby boomers want and churches are competing to
make sure they get it.
Carl Braaten
The Gospel for a Neopagan
Culture, Eerdmans, 1995, p. 19.