Does The Church Have Products?
by dovetailedlife
A few weeks back, I wrote this on my Facebook wall:
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he took the entire museum of old Apple computers and gave it to Stanford in an effort to stop looking back and start looking forward. No longer did Apple worry about what had happened but it began to focus on who it was and where it was going to go. Perhaps it is time for us in the Church to tear down our traditions and reevaluate them. Let’s simplify our products and figure out what the Church is. What would it look like if every church tore down its walls and started over? It would send a message for sure.
The question posed saw more responses than I imagined. (I won’t include a permalink to the conversation because Facebook‘s privacy policies are iffy at best and I haven’t asked permission to post any one person’s comments.)
The part that I choose to focus on here is: “Perhaps it is time for us in the Church to tear down our traditions and reevaluate them. Let’s simplify our products and figure out what the Church is.”
In order to understand this fully, you’ll need to understand a few things:
1) I’m slightly obsessed with Apple Inc.’s product line.
2) I’m significantly impressed with the work that Steve Jobs has done at Apple. (and much of that respect leads to number one being a reality)
3) I get criticized quite a bit for being so Apple centric. (It’s ok, courage of my own convictions)
4) I think quite a bit about the dying mainline churches and what might save them.
You’ll also need to understand the history of Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) and the highs and lows that the company has been through. If you aren’t that up to date, don’t worry, you can get the basics here. The important part is that Steve came back and revamped much of the company to turn it into what it is today.
My question posed above resulted in several responses both on Facebook and in person(reminder: name omitted):
“Steve Jobs isn’t Jesus”
“Is the church a product?”
“The Church does not have “products;” the Church is not something that can be marketed.”
“I’m not sure how [John] Wesley would have felt about the church having products…”
“I’m game.”
“The church absolutely is marketable if that means sharing via medium other than word of mouth although you can certainly say that inevitably has flaws also.”
“Bryant, you love Apple too much.”
“Rather than us forming the Church into what we think it should be, we should be asking the questions about why we haven’t allowed the Church to form us.”
There were more, but now you have an assortment.
In trying to understand this more fully, I did some thinking and ended up at my bookshelf. I noticed that there were a lot of books on it that had to do with the Church and in one way or another the world (and therefore, the Church’s relationship to it). I took a picture of all of them.
There are lots more. Written by all kinds of people: bloggers, Pastors, missionaries, seminary professors, and Apostles.
As far as I can see it, the question of “Does The Church Have Products?” stems off of this struggle with where the Church fits into our everyday lives. In the midst of the dying Church (some stats peg the United Methodist Church to have lost 6 million in membership over the past 50 years), we question whether the Church is still “relevant” to our lives. The body of Christ-as a whole-has responded by creating magazines to investigate this, commercials to combat this, and books (see above) to discuss this.
Naturally, churches have moved to worldly ways of getting the word out about their relevancy in order to attract new people. As a result, we have seen the rise of a few things: Contemporary worship music (no longer boring services), stylish preachers (think gel’d hair and tight jeans), new looking buildings (the warehouse look is in), and advertisements on billboards (we all know who the churches with the money are).
This is scary to many. Especially (as I am learning) to seminary students.
Because here we are learning about the history of the Church, the mistakes and progression its made, and somehow this new fangled worldly marketing is scary. Rob Bell even mentioned in his book Velvet Elvis that he was appalled when he saw a sign advertising his new church.
“The thought of the word church and the word marketing in the same sentence makes me sick.”
Rob Bell argued that people had to “want” to find the church. they had no advertisements, no flyers, no promotions, no signs.
The first week they had 1000 people in attendance. (People on Amazon.com’s reviews of the book argue that Bell came from another giant church as an associate and so his name was probably already known to the area and his follower base was already there. I can’t vouch for those facts because I simply don’t know, but it would explain quite a bit)
The bigger issue to me is not the marketing. I agree with Bell that if we break down our evangelism into “marketing”, we have missed the boat. But that doesn’t mean that the Church doesn’t have products.
The obvious answer to whether or not the Church has products is “Yes, it does.” For better or worse, it does. Products, as I see it, are the things that come out of the Church. The things that the Church produces. Perhaps we should stop and look at some of the products of the Church (as as to convince you more fully): pastors, businessmen, bad theology, good theology, morally responsible citizens, not-so-morally responsible citizens, worship music, “non-worship” music, art, advertising, love for the marginalized, hate for the marginalized, etc.
Things come out of the Church. Because the Church is a body of people. And bodies of people exist for a reason (whether or not they are aware of it). From our own nature, we exist to produce. And so, we have products.
Here’s where Steve hit it on the head in his return to Apple. Apple had too many products. One of the famous stories centered around Apple’s printer production. He asked, “our printers suck, why are we making them?” They stopped making them. They later gave up on the Newton project because Steve said “handwriting is the slowest form of input”. When something wasn’t working, they gave it up. The started again and worked on it until was good. Then, when they debuted it again, they told people about it. And, because it was worth having, people flocked to it. In a mixture of simplifying and revamping, Apple turned around from being nearly bankrupt to being the powerhouse and influence that it is today. That’s how the Newton turned into the iPhone.
So the Church has products. But the products aren’t what we tell people about. Or at least maybe we shouldn’t. Jesus is what we tell people about. Or what we should tell people about.
Here’s my proposition: Jesus isn’t the Church’s product. To say that he is would be to commit heresy. But, our perception and portrayal of Jesus IS a product of the Church. And sometimes, that is messed up. So perhaps we need to examine how we are portraying both Jesus and ourselves to the world. If we can re imagine a better way to be the Church and the body of Christ, we could score big. Maybe then evangelism would be what it needs to be. Maybe then disciples would be created instead of just church attendees. Maybe then people would fall in love with Jesus through the Church instead of falling in love with the music.
Of course the Church has products. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t contribute to the world. That would be a shame.
Evangelism is the key to the Church’s growth. Proper evangelism comes from discipleship. All these things take care of each other. We ought to be more aware of how progression in culture effects us and what we can glean from it in order to better ourselves. The Church is a God-ordained body that exists to spread his name and glory so that more may grow in their pursuit of Christ-like life and perfection. But it is made up of imperfect humans that try their best. Sometimes, we just have to be realistic and trust that God will work through our imperfect products.
-B
P.S. – I’ve had the opportunity to help start two churches now from scratch. We talk about marketing in a live or die fashion. These churches cannot exist without people knowing about them. Word of mouth is great (and the best form of spreading the news) but sometimes isn’t enough. We aren’t looking to be huge, we aren’t looking to be a mega-church, we are looking to survive. Many who have argued against me (though admittedly not all) have not started a church from scratch. I would highly recommend that those who have not had that opportunity, need to have it. It is an important experience full of highs and lows. For those who think they know the “right path”, it is a nice reality check.
hit the nail on the head B. I really enjoy reading your blog cuz its so real. However that is also my opinion on why i cant listen to any sermon my pastor spits out. because I can’t relate to them. is that a criminal offense in a sense relating to the above subject?
I don’t think any of that is a “criminal offense”.
As far as relating to your pastor, every preacher is different and some may speak more toward you and some may not. Doesn’t necessarily make them a good/bad pastor or good/bad person.
When you say “real” do you mean that she doesn’t speak to you, or that you are nothing like her?
by real i mean her sermons dont move me. the problem, as i see it, is that she doesnt preach on the right subject. or that maybe her sermons are aimed at an older generation. but the same thing happened with your father in law, most of his sermons i felt i couldnt relate to and then there were also some that i felt looked just like my life.
Yeah, something about our culture thinks that everything (including sermons) have to cater directly to an individual in order to get something out of it. Not your fault, but definitely a downfall of the culture.
It’s tough when you are young and you feel like the whole thing goes over your head. One of our realities.
Many pastors tend to do pretty well with “keeping with the times” though. However, that is not a requirement (or even really suggestion) for the ordination process.
The story of Jesus and the love of God is a story that can transcend time, space, age, relevancy, culture, and all things.
There are (at least) two key ingredients for a church to have “members” who stay and are willing to invite others: good fellowship and a strong opinion of the pastor. To follow your supposition, the product of a positive, meaningful image coupled with a meaningful growth in a relationship with Christ is not only a real concept, it is an essential element to survival.
In a conversation last week, Ben Collins told me that 70% of those in seminary don’t end up working full time for a church. (Assuming he got that from somewhere credible,) he followed by saying that not that many churches can afford full time staff at a marketable (my word as a substitute for competitive) salary. Perhaps that will be a cause of the fear you see in fellow seminarians.
The real analagous observation about Jobs is the loyalty that his customers bring into the shopping. You didn’t mention that the customers are willing to pay a premium.
The loyalty is by far what has made Apple what it is. BUT…if the products started to suck (and they don’t…they have a dud here and there but all are well done and successful) the loyalty would fall apart. Even for someone like me, it is impossible to look at some of the new Android phones and not see and appreciate the cool things they have. The iPhone is short a few features that Android has on board (voice control, free turn-by-turn navigation, etc) but what it has, it does well. FaceTime is a hundred times better than the VideoCalling apps that Android has available now.
If a church has something worth attending, people will attend. Like a movie. if the movie sucks, people won’t go. If it’s good, it will top the box office.
As far as a premium, I don’t see exactly where that fits in with the Church, at least I can’t make the connection right now. I’m not sure anymore if it is true anymore either.
When the iPhone debuted, it was SUBSIDIZED by AT&T (Cingular) at $499. A $500 phone? They sold…because it was an Apple phone…but they didn’t sell anywhere close to the rate that they are selling now.
However, now, if you look at the iPad (and its competitors) it is priced rather aggressively. Same with the iPhone. Even MacBooks continue to come down in price, and with the introduction of the Mac Mini’s it has become affordable once again to get into the Mac world.
A good argument to be made for premium pricing (I think a blog post is coming about this) would be the new Macbook Air. The 11″ model is comparable to a netbook at starts at $999. For that price, a lot of people could buy a pretty decent windows machine. The difference comes from Steve saying, “We don’t ship junk”. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qeb_rJYU) Netbooks often have to run older versions of Windows because the hardware simply can’t keep up with the operating system for the money. The MacBook Air compares to a netbook in terms of portability, but outruns ALL of them on the market in terms of speed, full keyboard size, etc.
[...] The second church spends lots of money sending out mailers to the surrounding neighborhoods in hopes of inviting more people to church. My initial reaction to this process (besides knowing that your response will be anywhere below 0.5% of all of the mailings you do) was one of Bell’s fancy. Marketing? Church? How can they mix? Are we trying to sell something? (You can read my take on whether or not the church has products here) [...]