Friday, September 12, 2008
Funneling
The WSJ looks at Willow Creek It is old news to people that follow this kind of stuff:
To continue with the marketing analogy, a church does not pick a depth on the funnel, the church IS THE FUNNEL! - ALL OF IT! The churches mission is to bring in seekers, take them deeper and then meet them at that depth. There is another key graph:
This kind of thinking is, I believe the result of two fundamental mistakes. The first is confusing evangelism with the church's true and whole function. The second is coming to view the church as an extension of one person's, or a staff's, ministry. The church is the place where ALL have a ministry. For some that is evangelism, for others that is training evangelists, for others it is studying scripture, and the list goes on. This has been written numerous times before - try I Corinthians 12 for starters.
Having been to Rome this summer, I have gained a certain appreciation for the Roman Catholic church. They have their problems, to be sure, but they do have an understanding of the complexity and breadth of what the church should be. Mainstream denominations have tried to hold this vision, but are largely sacrificing it to the idol of filling the pews.
We need to relearn what the church really is.
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Religion, like marketing, has its funnel. And many evangelical megachurches have spent the past quarter-century focusing on the rim, attempting to get spiritual "seekers" just to sample a service -- and hoping that they will at some point join the faith. These churches have grown by staying away from hard-core biblical teaching and instead have lured the curious with slick multimedia presentations and skits, sermons with the cultural relevance of "Saturday Night Live," and maybe an iced cappuccino for the trip home.What strikes me most in seeing this conversation whittled down this way is what a limited vision this is for the church.
But now the leading exponent of this approach, Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, has plunged its Sunday-morning services much deeper into the faith funnel. More music is provided for worship, not just ambience; and more messages target "mature" believers, not just new ones. One recent sermon challenged listeners to publicly show their commitment as Christians, an appeal that would have seemed strange a year ago. For a business owner, that might mean talking about Christ with employees, it was suggested; for a teenager, it might involve risking status with peers.
To continue with the marketing analogy, a church does not pick a depth on the funnel, the church IS THE FUNNEL! - ALL OF IT! The churches mission is to bring in seekers, take them deeper and then meet them at that depth. There is another key graph:
And the surveys -- designed pro bono by a McKinsey partner -- showed that believers who reported themselves "close to Christ" or "Christ-centered" were actually better evangelists than the often enthusiastic, but thinly prepared, new faithful.The church is an organism with many, many functions - hence Paul's repeated "body" analogy.
This kind of thinking is, I believe the result of two fundamental mistakes. The first is confusing evangelism with the church's true and whole function. The second is coming to view the church as an extension of one person's, or a staff's, ministry. The church is the place where ALL have a ministry. For some that is evangelism, for others that is training evangelists, for others it is studying scripture, and the list goes on. This has been written numerous times before - try I Corinthians 12 for starters.
Having been to Rome this summer, I have gained a certain appreciation for the Roman Catholic church. They have their problems, to be sure, but they do have an understanding of the complexity and breadth of what the church should be. Mainstream denominations have tried to hold this vision, but are largely sacrificing it to the idol of filling the pews.
We need to relearn what the church really is.
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