Burger King Christianity...

So the last post about the church giving away the house has me thinking a few things.

First, while I'm sure many people reading this understand what I mean when I say "attractional" church, but many might not, so briefly...
Attractional church is that model where we see the work of church and of evangelism as getting people to come. If we tink enough with the seats, if the music is rocking enough, if the kids program high energy enough, if the parking is plentiful and the coffee sweet, non-Christians will magically develop a desire to come to church. And when they come, Pastor can take a whack at 'em.
For better or for worse... no, scratch that... for worse, this has become the dominant model in American evangelicalism.

Second- what's wrong with it? If it gets people to church, why should we not do anything possible, short of something immoral or illegal to get people there?

Because the goal is not to pack a room, and it's not the Pastor's job to get your friends saved. And shame on any pastor whose model allows people to think it is.

This is the phrase that has been going through my head recently: What you win them with, you win them to. The problem with the attractional model is this: We bring people in on the basis of consumeristic impulses and when they fail to make the transition from church consumer to servant of all, we scratch our heads and wonder what's wrong with them.

There's nothing wrong with them (well, there's something wrong with us all, but that's a different post). As Peter Senge says, your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting.

Have a church filled with spoiled, selfish people who "want it their way?"
Well... guess why.

The attractional model of church is perfectly designed to create consumers of church rather than covenant community.

But people are getting more and more individualistic! The trend is towards people wanting to customize their experiences! They want choices! They want options! They want pizzazz!

So give them choices and options, but do it in a way that produces community, not consumers. And do it in a way that makes them think about others as much as they think about themselves.
Put the burden of creating the church they want on the community itself. Tell them coming in, "This probably isn't the church you are looking for, but it could be with your help. You can create whatever it is you feel is missing."

Refuse to do for your community what your community should do for themselves.
Give them the option/responsibilty of creating a community that makes sense to them, that works for them. Still individualistic? Sure... We're not saying that church should just be "This is what we offer- take it or leave it." But when we make allowances for individualism in healthy ways like creating open source community and allowing people to have a hand in shaping what happens, rather than the unhealthy ways of trying to figure out what it is people want and then working like crazy to give it to them, I think we end up creating more covenant communities and less consumers. And when we call people to create a community that not only works for them but for those around them as well...

But back to our original question... Let's not just offer criticism of churches that give away big ticket items as bribes to come hear a sermon.

Let's do a little thought experiment. Let's say a little old lady in your church has died and left you $120,00. Your buidling is in fine shape, all the programs you have are fully funded, everything is good financially in every area, and now you have $120,000... and someone says "Hey! We should use this money to somehow see if we can help more people come to know Jesus!"
Someone else says you should buy a house and give a chance to win it to everyone who comes through the door that year. Someone else says that's an asinine idea...

So what do you do?

What do you do?

:)

Comments

[J@mes Carmichael]

Shoot the hostage.

- Keanu Reeves in Speed

[Pat]

I'll play the game.. First, realize that we have no building, we recently moved from meeting in a community center back to meeting in my own home.

If that scenario happened to us and I were the decision-maker, I would take the money, renovate the big old car dealership building in the middle of our town which hasn't been used in decades and is in disrepair, a monument to our town's iffy economics, and turn it into a Third Place (specifically a proximity space). Maybe it would be a coffeehouse/bookstore, maybe it would be a pub/club, maybe a laser tag club with a lounge on the side, but in any case it would also be have room available to the community for hosting 12-step groups, Mothers of Preschoolers, birthday parties, that sort of thing. Further in the dream world, it would host 20 bunkbeds and a set of showers in a hostel style setting for those between homes. We would also teach marriage communication workshops there, computer skills classes and host local artists of all flavors.

In my dream world, we would staff the Third Place with people from our church community, perhaps other churches around town whose people 'got it', and nonbelievers who wanted to do the stuff we're doing.

Oh, and if the church could fit a way to gather for worship in it, so be it; if not, fine.

(120k isn't enough money for this, but i'm pretending that it is... if I have to be more realistic, I'd do the same thing with a smaller site - the main thing is that our town needs a Third Place which could also act as a proximity space).