Tiffany and I (Dan) ate at a local restaurant called Houlihan’s the other day, and as I sat there waiting for the check, I realized that Houlihan’s was a lot like a typical American church. Let me walk you through the similarities.

The Experience
Before going there, I checked out the website to see the menu. I always view church’s websites before attending as well, to see what it might be like (and to see if the church is culturally relevant enough to publish a somewhat informative website). Anyways, the Houlihan’s website was really flashy and had some progressive music playing (see for yourself). It seemed pretty cool.

Upon arriving, the atmosphere was fairly trendy: they had metal covers on their menus, a neat paint/color scheme, progressive music playing, and the staff wore all black and looked stylish. Despite the artificial atmosphere, the wait staff wasn’t all that good, the glasses were dirty, and the food was average. It was a let-down. I used to feel this way a lot when I attended new churches. They would have a cool atmosphere, but the same old attitudes and ways of doing things (just like in the Starbucks church video, watch it if you haven’t seen it yet!).

What They Say About Themselves
Later, after reflecting on this. I decided to revisit their website and read the “About Us” page. There were some startling similarities with how churches present themselves. Let’s go through some of the statements they make about themselves and compare it to how churches portray themselves:

In 1972, Houlihan’s first opened its doors in Kansas City with a progressive, eclectic menu and energetic bar scene. Ferns hung throughout, artifacts cluttered the walls and tapestries made by San Francisco hippies formed the ceiling. Caviar burgers, roasted duck, foot-long hot dogs and fresh carrot juice were just a few original menu items so ahead for its time. It was hot.

Just as Houlihan’s opened in the early 70’s with an eclectic and energetic atmosphere, so too many churches found their origin in the “Jesus Movement” of the 60’s and 70’s and used charisma and popular culture to draw in crowds. Notice the goal here is to cater to the consumer, not to conform the consumer to a greater ideal. In many ways churches today have it as their goal to meet peoples’ needs, rather than to conform them to the image of Christ (even when it’s not popular to do so).

Before long, there were a lot of ‘casual dining’ restaurants opening and call us crazy, but they looked a whole lot like us. We tried to be flattered. Some grew really big, and by the ’90s, the whole ‘casual dining’ landscape was pretty me-too. Instead of watching the consumer, the industry seemed more worried about what competitors were doing. Casual dining lost its way, and in doing so lost its edge.

Houlihan’s makes a good observation here, they recognized that not only had the casual dining industry lost touch with the consumer, but it also became self-absorbed and chased after competition relentlessly. Over the last few decades, churches have also been racing to be the biggest, most “relevant,” have the best worship band, and draw the largest crowds. They have forgotten that the true focus is Christ, not having better preaching than the mega-church on the other side of town.

Fast forward to 2002. That’s when we had our ‘Aha!’ moment (as Oprah would say). New leadership, new ideas, new inspiration. We completely re-imagined ourselves, and got back in touch with the consumer. New menus. New plates. New building design, new soundtrack. Stylish uniforms. And a modern, warm restaurant design with an open kitchen and prominent bar. Today, our company is built entirely around what the progressive consumer seeks in a restaurant + bar experience. And we plan to keep it that way.

Forget ‘casual dining.’ That’s an industry term so out of touch with how consumers eat and drink today. For premium quality and style; fare that’s at times familiar and other times adventurous and a laid-back modern setting, Houlihan’s is a true original.

Notice two things: 1) All of the changes involved the external environment, not any real internal change on the parts of the staff; 2) Above and beyond merely stating the casual dining industry has gotten out of touch with the consumer, Houlihan’s believes entirely new terms need to be employed to describe their “original” setting, rendering the “old” terms obsolete and “out of touch.”

Isn’t this also the only real change many churches have made – external only? In an attempt to make church all about the people in the pews (rather than keeping its sole focus on Christ), it has tried to create an experience that will meet the Christians’ needs for belonging and adventure, among many other things. The problem is, these needs can only be met in Christ! The church will never be able to meet all of peoples’ needs, the local bar or the person’s family can do that much better – but the Church can show the person the only thing that will truly meet their needs: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Also, just as Houlihan’s has sought to employ new terms, the church is filled with new terms such as “missional,” “relevant,” “seeker-sensitive,” etc. Now those terms are being attacked as out of touch, and new terms are emerging such as “post-missional,” “beyond relevance,” “seeker-friendly,” “post-denominational,” etc. Despite the terms, the church still looks and feels the same, and it’s still doing things the exact same away (in many instances it is doing them worse than it did before).

Conclusion
Just as my Houlihan’s experience was blah and average, my experience with many churches is the same. The church can’t compete with Satan’s progressive culture, nor should it try. The church needs to stand against the grain of culture and challenge it to embrace Jesus Christ. Rather than adapting to culture, the Church should transform culture. Only Jesus Christ can do this, not a new movement, program, or committee.

That seems to describe a lot of what we see in the Church these days, which I’ve termed ‘Nonreligious Christian Spirituality.’

I saw this video over at Miscellanies’ blog, who saw it at DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed:

While it may be a McDonald’s commercial, I think it also contains a lot of truth about how we do church as of late. Kevin DeYoung writes:

I admit it’s funny because I like McDonald’s more than I like coffee shops. (I can get a filling meal at McDonalds for the same price as a thimble of hot chocolate at Starbucks). Some people don’t like the ad because they think it makes fun of jazz music, facial hair, and reading poetry. I like the ad, not because I think it makes fun of these things, but because it makes fun of the haughtiness that sometimes comes with these things. McDonalds has cheap greasy food, the atmosphere is utilitarian, and their coffee is pedestrian. But, hey, some people like burgers, fries, frugality, and bad coffee.

I mention all of this because so much that passes for spirituality these days is nothing more than middle class, 20-something coffee culture. If you like jazz, soul patches, earth tone furniture, and lattes, that’s cool. But this culture is no holier than the McNugget, Hi-C, Value City, football culture that most people live in. Why does incarnational ministry usually mean hanging out at Starbucks instead of McDonalds?

Jesus came to save Grimace and Hamburglar too.

Wow, well said Kevin. In Christianity 2.0’s push toward cultural relevance, we can’t be so quick to lump everyone into the ’sophisticated coffeehouse subculture’. God’s people are very diverse, and our fellowships should reflect the same. I posted this picture on Thanksgiving, and I think it speaks volumes. I’ll close with the image and let it speak for itself. Are we reaching these people?

Recently I posted a video entitled What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church? I got a lot of good reactions from the video, and it’s best you watch it prior to reading this post, although not necessary. It really made me (and many others) think about how scary church marketing tactics really are — and how inauthentic and fake many church folks are. Remember, this blog does not exist to bash the church as an organism (the true Church, the Body of Christ), but to critique the church as an organization — which it was never intended to be.

I saw a great article over at Church Marketing Sucks entitled Tony Morgan Thinks Churches Should Stop Marketing.

Tony Morgan, chief strategic officer at NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C., co-author of the Simply Strategic Series, former pastor at Granger Community Church and author of the soon-to-be-released Killing Cockroaches (and we’ve interviewed Tony and linked to him on dozens of occasions), says that marketing is evil and your church should stop.

So what is Tony talking about? Essentially, he says ministry trumps marketing. If we try to fix the church’s problems with marketing, we’re going to fail. The article says:

“Direct mail won’t fix your problem. Billboards won’t fix your problem. Neither will platform announcements or bulletin ads or bumper stickers. At some point marketing may be a good option, but until you answer the right questions, marketing could be what’s preventing your success.

If your church has stopped growing, marketing is not your solution. If you have stopped seeing life change, marketing is not the answer.”

And to that, we say amen.

But as much as we love Tony, he’s a little off base.

The articles goes on to disagree with Morgan and explains why churches should continue marketing. However, I think Morgan is correct. Tony Morgan also recommends that people stop reading the Church Marketing Sucks blog. I’m going to take his advice. Morgan goes on to say:

Marketing is becoming a barrier to the advancement of the Gospel message. It’s becoming a hindrance for the church. Ministry is being negatively impacted because churches are attempting to use marketing tactics to reach people for Jesus and help them take steps in their faith. [emphasis added]

AMEN! Why does the church continue to use the methods of the world to reach people for Christ? Jesus very simply (and literally) said,

“Then having gone, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. Amen” (Matthew 29:19-20, LITV).

Note that “Go” is not a command in the Great Commission in the original Greek, it is best translated “having gone” or “while [you are] going”. The only command here is to disciple, and then the methods of doing so are given: baptizing and teaching. So while you are going, disciple everyone in the world by baptizing and teaching them. Then Jesus gives us a great promise: I’m not leaving you alone to do this, I am with you. That’s awesome!

You see, it is assumed that we will go about our business — life happens. But as we go, we are to disciple people along the way.

Understanding discipleship is helpful. Discipleship is not a church program or agenda, nor is it a curriculum that can be completed and finished with a spiritual gifts inventory and placement into a church program or activity. Discipling goes beyond witnessing, it’s the nurturing of a new Christian’s faith and the parenting of the new Christian into maturity. This cannot be effectively accomplished by investing one hour per week into someone or by having them complete a workbook. Jesus traveled, ate, slept, and hung out with his twelve disciples for three years prior to sending them His Spirit and cutting them loose. Paul spent three years in Arabia prior to preaching the Gospel in Damascus (Galatians 1:17). Many others are prepared by intense mentoring prior to being sent into leadership roles in various churches.

The pattern and example is clear: discipleship only occurs by investing time into people’s lives and walking with them through the daily grind of life — the good and bad times. This can’t be taught in a program or agenda, this can only be lived. The institutional church has done a great job at filling the minds of young men with vast amounts of knowledge yet leaving them with only infant-level emotional maturity (these men lead many institutional churches today). It has done a great job at allowing complacent Americans to remain willfully ignorant of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot possibly disciple people adequately without forming deep relationships with them.

But this cannot be done with our culture’s capitalist focus on church growth. Rapid growth is expected, and it is measured by weekly attendance and giving totals. People are viewed as being either assets or liabilities, and the board of Elders spends more time examining budget proposals and accounting worksheets than it does praying that the church’s “love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that [it] may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). This blame is put on all who view the church as an organization rather than as an organism, not just pastors and leaders. Many times pastors understand that this is wrong but must comply with his or her congregation’s wishes to grow, Grow, GROW!

So how should we “make disciples” if we don’t use marketing tactics? How will we get people to come to church? The same way Jesus drew crowds of thousands who were willing to listen to Him speak without food for three days: word-of-mouth. Of course this involves telling people about Jesus as you are going (not about your church), and does not take kindly to a “Come and See” approach which most churches advocate.

Instead of sending a direct mailer to the community, why not focus on discipling a small group of core people and watching their lives be transformed. When this happens, they won’t be able to help but tell people about Jesus and what He has done in their lives. Instead of support-raising money to purchase a building and “praying in faith” for God to pay the bills, take your small group of people and meet in the intimacy of your home regularly until your living room can no longer accommodate the guests. This may take three years or more, but exercising patience and doing things in God’s timing is better than using worldly marketing tactics to plant churches in some man-made “cookie-cutter” pattern. Instead of finding musicians to lead worship without really getting to know and disciple them, first spend time with them to determine if they have a heart of worship or simply a passion for music. It is better to have a mediocre musician with a heart for worship on an acoustic guitar with no sound system than to have a full praise band of talented musicians and great sound but no depth or revelation of Jesus Christ behind it. Granted, talented musicians can create an “atmosphere” or “mood” that misguided Christians call “worship”, but true worship has far more to do with how we live on Monday than how we sing on Sunday. You need to be sure that your worship leader spends more time talking to God than he or she does talking about God, and this will be evident in the way they live.

Finally, churches need to cultivate a passion for God in their fellow Christ-followers. Many pastors and churches have a passion for evangelism, or for missions, or for preaching, or for whatever. . . . but few simply have a passion for God. Without that, all other passions are useless preoccupations with man-made strategies. Paul Washer says this well in his message entitled “Jesus Christ is Not a Yuppie’s Accessory”, which I recommend you all watch (click the title to see the video).

What we need is for all true Christians to realize that they are ministers, literally “servants.” We are not here to lead others, Christ can handle that Himself. We are here to point others to the only Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ Himself. We do this by a life of service and sacrifice, not by a life marked by pride and organizational development. There is no such thing as a “part-time Christian.” Christianity makes you a new creation, it is not just a mere belief shift — it changes who you are. When you become a Christian, you become a full-time minister, your job is your mission field. Your life is now all about Christ. As Paul Washer says in his above-mentioned message, Jesus Christ is not an accessory to your life — He IS your life!

There are too many Christians who claim Christ as their Master but deny this by how they live — myself included. But I am dedicated to becoming the man Christ has created me to be, and I must die to my flesh daily in order to accomplish that (more on this in a future post). Christianity 2.0 is the awakening of the true followers of Jesus. People are beginning to realize that the way we “do church” doesn’t work — the whole system is flawed. Christianity 2.0 is about returning the focus of Christianity to the people, not to organizational needs and challenges. Christ came to seek and save lost people, not to set up divisive administrations with complex bylaws and governmental legislation. We must stop focusing on man-made strategy (marketing) and start seeking how we can serve others (ministry).

I’m going to close with the lyrics to a song entitled “Expectations” by Caedmon’s Call / Andrew Osenga. It’s on Caedmon’s Overdressed album to which you should definitely listen. My wife wept when she first heard this song, it touched my heart when I first heard it as well, because we both identify with this completely:

that boy had the highest of expectations
and he heard that Jesus would fill him up
maybe something got lost in the language
if this was full, then why bother?

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate

and you know that we all try to blame someone
when our dreams won’t rise up from their sleep
and the reaching of the steeple felt like one more
expensive ad for something cheap

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate

he dressed up nice for the congregation
scared somebody’s gonna find him out
through the din and the clatter of the hallelujahs
a stained-glass Jesus sings.

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate