Thursday, January 02, 2014
The Product?
Todd Rhoades looks at KFC offering boneless chicken and then asks:
Now, you can argue that it is not KFC's job to transmit such secondary messages. But can the church enjoy such focused luxuries? The church should be so much more than simply the delivery of the "gospel message." And that is only if you are willing to accept the "gospel message" is something small and encapsulated like the Four Spiritual Laws.
I would argue that the gospel message is a life consuming, character,and society, changing thing. The problem in the church is not enough focus, but too much.
The church is more than a delivery vehicle for personal salvation.
church focus gospel
What would it look like if churches went boneless?Which leads me to ask a question - are bones "trivial?" In going boneless has KFC really only played around the edges? Well, if the idea is to deliver only chicken, then yeah, bones are trivial. But what if there is more to the product? What if the idea is not just to deliver chicken, but also to help people stay in touch with the fact that what they are eating is animal flesh? If you think about it, that is a pretty important idea.
Here are a few ideas:
1. Doing away with regular Sunday morning service times for a completely different delivery method.
2. Changing up the one hour fifteen minute service of nearly equal music and sermon.
3. Meeting in a church building at all.
4. Taking whatever your church is holding on to as tradition (we all have them) and changing it.
But all the while… keeping the chicken chicken.
Now, you can argue that it is not KFC's job to transmit such secondary messages. But can the church enjoy such focused luxuries? The church should be so much more than simply the delivery of the "gospel message." And that is only if you are willing to accept the "gospel message" is something small and encapsulated like the Four Spiritual Laws.
I would argue that the gospel message is a life consuming, character,and society, changing thing. The problem in the church is not enough focus, but too much.
The church is more than a delivery vehicle for personal salvation.
church focus gospel
