McDonald's Church

 

Brand Management(mass noun): refers to the strategic and tactical process of nurturing a brand. How you manage your brand directly influences your brand equity, brand value, and brand reputation (Amazon)

In the same way that businesses have crafted compelling logos, colour schemes, catchy songs etc. all in the name of burning brands into our subconscious, the modern day church has also adopted these similar methods of Brand Management to fill churches. Is this right? 

A phrase I heard a few years ago referred to this practice as "McDonald's Church". Where you will have a "mothership" campus, and then multiple campuses across a city, region, or nation, or the globe (In the same way McDonald's Restaurants are everywhere). A lot of these churches stream the same sermon from the mothership to all the campuses. Yes, they have the lattes and lanyards, but going to church is like going to the movies.

The first time I went to Norway the food was alien to me, except at McDonald's. The fries tasted the same. The same thing happened when I had a long layover in New Dehli, the fries tasted the same at McDonald's. There is a sense of security in familiarity, but at what cost?

OK, I'm all for a logo, we at Rainmakers have a logo. Also, the ministry I founded that oversees Rainmakers has a logo. I'm not against logos. I'm not against a certain amount of familiarity, structure, order etc. I guess the best way that I can explain what I mean it is from this story. 

It is common knowledge among Pastors, in the US, that it is hard to build a church past 200 people. For some reason a different psychology comes into play. You can micro-manage upto about 200 people, after that, a whole other kind of leadership structure is needed. The church I pastored got as high as 80 at one point, but levelled off at 30-40 people. I was happy with that. I enjoyed working closely with a smaller group of people, it felt more like sharing life. However, I had the bright idea to try to grow the church and I reached out to an acquaintance who boasted of his ability to grow churches. He sent me an eight part "Church Planting" video course by some successful church planter. I could only stomach two episodes. EVERYTHING this Pastor was teaching could be done without God, if you just followed the model. 

20+ Years ago I tried to be an entrepeneur. I signed up to a particular way of doing it, found a mentor, and read all of the books of how to do it. I never succeeded. I just don't have the mind for that life, but I highly respect those who do. Dragon's Den and Shark Tank are the only TV I watch when staying at a hotel. I love those shows. My point is this, everything that Pastor was attempting to teach in that "Church Planting" course reminded me of the business courses I took twenty-plus years ago. The only difference was that instead of "widgets" he was talking "Churches". Beware of churches who see people as stock. Who measure pews filled and cashflow as a sign of their success. This is a real problem in the western world, and unfortunately the west has influenced other developing nations with the same business model. 

One of the dangers of building a brand is the practice of incubating celebrities. Just like a scene from a sci-fi movie, rows of pods full of emmerging ministers are slowly being formed into what a "typical" Pastor, Worship Leader, Youth Pastor etc. looks like in those circles. They wear the same clothes, they talk about how they like their coffee made, they wear the same facial hair, or hats, and they let us know where they are on the Myers Briggs scale. 

Do you remember the old Wii game, where you can craft your own avatar? Well, we run the risk of doing the same in church today. There is a trend on church websites where they'll have the Team directory and as you read about the Pastor, Worship Leader, or Childrens Director, they'll share the personal likes and dislikes of that Pastor. Do you know why they do that? It is all about getting people to join that church. Because sharing that you love drip coffee and Star Wars sends the message, "Oh, there are people like me there!" This is Brand Management!

Do you know what? I don't care how the Pastor likes his coffee! Does God show up? The late great German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke once said:

Think about that quote................There is more truth to it than we think!

The other day I was repenting, asking God to remove from me all of the "gimmicks and gadgets" that we risk using for our Rainmakers events. What would happen if we stopped ALL of the church planting techniques? If we left all of the gimmicks and gadgets to one side, and simply came to worship and pray?

My former, late-great, mentor, Bryn Jones, once said in a sermon,

"Don't tell me we understand what the 'church' is when we have two hundred people in a meeting on a Sunday, but only ten people show up to the midweek prayer meeting"  

I recently shared the following song that my friend Simon shared with a group of us at a night of worship and prayer in Swansea. I pulled the lyrics up on my phone to read along as he played the song through twice. I thought to myself, "Wow! This is a mission statement in a song". Listen to this song, as many times as you need to, and maybe try adopting it as your church's, or ministry's Mission Statement. When Jesus said His house would be a House of Prayer for all nations, that included Wales. We need more Houses of Prayer across this land. Maybe that should be the "church planting" movement this nation needs. The rest can just fade away. 

Mwy Arglwydd...