Author : Keith Sharp
In January, 2008 I was in Calabar, Nigeria, staying in the home of Brother Bassey. A local preacher came by to visit and boasted how the church where he was preaching had grown in just three years from a Sunday morning attendance of 150 to 1500. That is more than a little spectacular. How had such phenomenal growth been achieved? They had consulted a “church growth specialist.” This professional had advised them that the one thing young adults in Calabar were most interested in was job opportunities. So the church opened a job placement service and presto – stunning growth!
This church has adopted a philosophy of growth pioneered in Protestant evangelical denominations known variously as “Market-Driven,” “Seeker-Friendly,” “Seeker-Sensitive,” “Purpose-Driven,” or “New Paradigm.”
Rather than expose and correct the superficiality and wrong mindedness of a generation addicted to fun, amusement and self, the modern church has all too often chosen to go with the flow and give ‘them’ what they want… Setting the agenda … is Willow Creek and its quasi-denomination, the Willow Creek Association (WCA) (Gilley. 33).
Perhaps no single source carries as much weight in the ‘seeker-sensitive’ church as George Barna and his Barna Research Group. Barna, the evangelical counterpart to George Gallup, …assures us that churches sell (or market) their product the same way that major retailers sell shoes and tools (Ibid. 35).
There are churches of Christ following this plan, in American as well as in Nigeria. “In 1997 my congregation (the Southwest Church of Christ) began implementing the Purpose-Driven model” (Adcox. 6-7). Besides, for several years most churches of Christ have adopted the position advocated by Lewis G. Hale in the Nashville Meeting in December 1987, that anything which helps get the lost to hear the gospel is scriptural as a aid to evangelism. This is just a less formal version of the market driven philosophy of church growth.
If we adopt the position, as Gilley states, our first problem is that we are marketing a product that to the vast majority of people is repulsive (1 Corinthians 1:18-24). The cross is still an offense to worldly people (Galatians 5:11). Girls may wear a gold cross as jewelry, but how many people are willing to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Jesus? (Matthew 16:24) In fact, the market-driven philosophy – “given ’em what they want; the customer is always right” – is the exact opposite of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
If we follow this model for church growth, “God becomes transformed into a product to be sold, father into a recreational activity to be done, and the Church into a club for the like-minded” (Wells. 180, as quoted by Gilley. 36). Such churches typically have a family life center (glorified gymnasium) to provide recreation, support a camp for “retreats” and summer camping for the young, have a “fellowship hall” in which they have regular church dinners which they mislabel as “fellowship” (eating a common meal is not Bible fellowship), have a day care center and perhaps a school for secular education, perhaps sponsor a scout troop, and conduct weight loss classes. Adult singles have activities together so they can find a mate. Sermons are short, pleasant, full of stories and humor but short on scripture, and address psychological concerns rather than requirements for salvation. Worship (so called) is entertaining, with shallow camp style songs (7-11 songs, seven words eleven times) and/or shallow chorus type songs (such complete music that only the musically trained can sing them, again with little scripture content). There is something to appeal to everyone, and no one is challenged to sacrifice the world for Christ.
Did Christ market the gospel, providing folks “felt needs” so He could say a little to them about their real need, salvation? (In marketing, this is known as “bait and switch.”) He certainly fed 5000 hungry men besides women and children (Matthew 14:15-21) and later 4000 (Matthew 15:32-39). But He did not offer them food as an attraction to come, but fed large groups of people by miraculously multiplying tiny quantities of food as proof He is the bread of life (John 6:35). In fact, when the multitudes came to Him for the purpose of receiving food for the belly, He rebuked their carnality and refused to fed them (John 6:26-27, 30-35). Indeed, the Lord gave sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, cleansed the lepers, enabled the deaf to hear, and raised the dead (Matthew 11:5), not to attract crowds by filling “felt needs,” but as proof He “is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:30-31). Rather than giving people what they wanted so they would come hear a little gospel, the Master repeatedly, though vainly, commanded those whom He healed to “tell no one” of the miracles (Matthew 8:4; Mark 7:36; Luke 5:14; 8:56). Jesus Christ never supplied “felt needs” in order to attract sinners to hear the gospel.
Christ and His apostles certainly didn’t market the gospel. How’s this for a sales pitch? “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). How about this reply to a scribe who said he would follow the Lord wherever He went: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:19-20)? Was Paul advocating “give ’em what they want” when he stated:
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their minds on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-19)?
The argument I have heard the most to justify the use of these “marketing techniques” to attract sinners is their success. Look how successful the churches are which provide all these services! The mega churches, those with Sunday morning attendance over 2000, are market-driven churches.
Are numbers the measure of spiritual success?
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
One of the powerful proofs that the market-driven mania is essentially wrong-headed is its popularity. The majority is always on the road to hell.
The market-driven philosophy makes worldly people rather than the will of Christ the standard which determines the work of the church (Colossians 3:17). “Love not the world” (1 John 2:15-17) is corrupted to “give ’em what they want.” Rather than converting the world to Christ, it converts the church to the world. Our job is to call a sinful world to repentance (Acts 17:30-31), not to make Christ attractive to impenitent sinners (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). The church is a spiritual relationship (Ephesians 1:3,22-23), and the work of the local church is spiritual: preaching the gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8), edifying disciples (Ephesians 4:11-16), and ministering to needy saints (2 Corinthians 8:1-4). The Lord doesn’t employ carnal attractions to get an audience (Romans 8:5-8). Our worship should glorify God and edify Christians (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Corinthians 14:26) rather than entertain the shallow world. Our preaching should be built on Scripture and designed to reprove, rebuke, and exhort (2 Timothy 3:16-4:5).
The market-driven model for church growth is taken from human philosophy found in “how to” books by Protestant evangelicals who have no respect for the authority of Christ Jesus. Our manual for church growth is the book of Acts. We must preach Christ and Him crucified rather than market the church to worldly sinners.
Works Cited
Adcox, Russ, “The Purpose-Driven Model: Tips for Making It Work” (“Church Growth Magazine” 16, April-June, 2001).
Gilley, Gary. This Little Church Went to Market.
Wells, David. Losing Our Virtue.
