Evangelism and Market Share
There are plenty of people who've written cogent analyses detailing the ongoing issue of "mainline decline". Theories abound, but theological and sociological theories of various stripes and in various permutations lead the explanation parade. But when all of the theorizing, postulating, extrapolating and hyperventilating is done, the bottom line remains the same. From a strictly business standpoint those of us in the historic Protestant denominations -- Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. -- have lost significant market share. As one person quipped, "The mainline has become the sideline."
The difficulty with all of this denominational handwringing, is that it fails to generate any sort of positive momentum. It's almost as if the "experts" believe that through describing in new and more desperate fashion the grave state of the mainline, the people remaining in our congregations will suddenly snap out of the Sunday morning stupor, get excited about helping "grow the church", muster all their excess energy and get "out there" to find some new members to shore up the sinking denominational ship. The problem with this strategy is the denominational ships have, for too long, functioned as passenger liners -- where the faithful merely have to pay their fare, get on board and cruise comfortably toward the heavenly horizon. We haven't sufficiently communicated to folks that on the Gospel ship there are no passengers only crew members!
What's clear to me is this: no amount of bailing (applying copious amounts of energy and initiative to the same tired strategies) will stem the rising tide of social change all around us. And this is precisely why we need to let go of our fixation with market share. The tempest of change is swirling around us and atempting to control it through more data will not stave off its effects. If we let go of the language of market share, then we might more fully embrace the language of evangelism -- of sharing the Good News.
The Good News isn't that people can come to our churches and help save our traditions (no matter how storied and historically valuable they may be). The Good News is that God has come to humanity through the person of Jesus the Christ. The Good News is that God is more concerned about the salvation of the world -- one person at a time --than the preservation of an institutional status quo. The Good News is that this continuing ministry of Jesus in the world is "incarnated", literally embodied in communities of people, not housed in brick and mortar at denominational "HQ". The Good News is that the invitation to follow Jesus in the company of a community of fellow followers is offered to "whosoever will". The invitation to follow Jesus in the Way that leads to life is not dependent upon one's ability to pay a pledge, serve on a committee, or teach a Sunday School class.
And that Good News -- the Good News of God in Christ--will continue to "sell", even if mainliners go out of business. Because the Good News was never intended to capture passengers on a denominational ship. The Good News is intended to liberate sin's captives and set them free to walk through the storms of life's uncertainties (Matthew 14:22-33)!
Perhaps we've gotten lost in all of our analytics. Perhaps we've been seduced into thinking that a slick ad campaign designed by some Madison Avenue type and strategically directed through a multiplicity of media outlets is the salvation of our sinking market share. I wonder what would happen if we took our eyes off demographics and focused them on Jesus for a while. Simplistic? Maybe.
But, remember what happened to Peter? He got so distracted by a storm he took his eyes off Jesus and the solidity of water beneath his feet turned to, well, water! When he realized what was happening he cried out, Jesus lifted him back to the top of the water and on they walked to the waiting boat. Remember what Jesus said to him? "Oh, you of little faith! Why did you doubt?"
Peter had no good answer. Do we?
There are plenty of people who've written cogent analyses detailing the ongoing issue of "mainline decline". Theories abound, but theological and sociological theories of various stripes and in various permutations lead the explanation parade. But when all of the theorizing, postulating, extrapolating and hyperventilating is done, the bottom line remains the same. From a strictly business standpoint those of us in the historic Protestant denominations -- Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. -- have lost significant market share. As one person quipped, "The mainline has become the sideline."
The difficulty with all of this denominational handwringing, is that it fails to generate any sort of positive momentum. It's almost as if the "experts" believe that through describing in new and more desperate fashion the grave state of the mainline, the people remaining in our congregations will suddenly snap out of the Sunday morning stupor, get excited about helping "grow the church", muster all their excess energy and get "out there" to find some new members to shore up the sinking denominational ship. The problem with this strategy is the denominational ships have, for too long, functioned as passenger liners -- where the faithful merely have to pay their fare, get on board and cruise comfortably toward the heavenly horizon. We haven't sufficiently communicated to folks that on the Gospel ship there are no passengers only crew members!
What's clear to me is this: no amount of bailing (applying copious amounts of energy and initiative to the same tired strategies) will stem the rising tide of social change all around us. And this is precisely why we need to let go of our fixation with market share. The tempest of change is swirling around us and atempting to control it through more data will not stave off its effects. If we let go of the language of market share, then we might more fully embrace the language of evangelism -- of sharing the Good News.
The Good News isn't that people can come to our churches and help save our traditions (no matter how storied and historically valuable they may be). The Good News is that God has come to humanity through the person of Jesus the Christ. The Good News is that God is more concerned about the salvation of the world -- one person at a time --than the preservation of an institutional status quo. The Good News is that this continuing ministry of Jesus in the world is "incarnated", literally embodied in communities of people, not housed in brick and mortar at denominational "HQ". The Good News is that the invitation to follow Jesus in the company of a community of fellow followers is offered to "whosoever will". The invitation to follow Jesus in the Way that leads to life is not dependent upon one's ability to pay a pledge, serve on a committee, or teach a Sunday School class.
And that Good News -- the Good News of God in Christ--will continue to "sell", even if mainliners go out of business. Because the Good News was never intended to capture passengers on a denominational ship. The Good News is intended to liberate sin's captives and set them free to walk through the storms of life's uncertainties (Matthew 14:22-33)!
Perhaps we've gotten lost in all of our analytics. Perhaps we've been seduced into thinking that a slick ad campaign designed by some Madison Avenue type and strategically directed through a multiplicity of media outlets is the salvation of our sinking market share. I wonder what would happen if we took our eyes off demographics and focused them on Jesus for a while. Simplistic? Maybe.
But, remember what happened to Peter? He got so distracted by a storm he took his eyes off Jesus and the solidity of water beneath his feet turned to, well, water! When he realized what was happening he cried out, Jesus lifted him back to the top of the water and on they walked to the waiting boat. Remember what Jesus said to him? "Oh, you of little faith! Why did you doubt?"
Peter had no good answer. Do we?
posted by FrGaryB | 1:07 PM
1 Comments:
Well said.
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