“Share The Dream … Build The Team” Ten keys for revitalizing your church, Donald W. Morgan.
In the chapter “Let your light shine” Morgan makes this statement. “We in the church are called to do a first-rate public relations job. We’re to do a first-rate communications job, a first-rate sales job and a first-rate advertising job. These are not to be an afterthought, of marginal consideration, or elective. They’re points central to our evangelistic task – if we would make good on the mission committed to us by our Lord Christ”
His scriptural support, or at least his proof text, is Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket … Let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
While I believe that his expounding of the text is stretched beyond traditional interpretation, I do not want to debate the scripture. What I like to converse about is: Are we the church, becoming to much like a business? Looking for the next marketing program so to grow our business? I know we have to get our “name” out into the public so that people will know we are in existence and so we can be found. But are we so desperate to establish our identity that we must rely upon marketing to find it?
Do new and fancy words describe who we are? Have we abandon our Biblical identity and gone to gadgets and trends to re-establish it? Are the structures (the avenues through which we do ministry) taken the lead in who we are as a church? In example: We are a seeker-sensitive church. We are a contemporary worship style church. We are a blended worship church. We are a church made up of small communities. We are a relevant church in an ever changing world. And so forth.
I fear that we are so consumed with trying to “market” the church that we a failing in getting the message out. Society/population is growing faster than the church. A higher percentage of ‘church growth” is basically transfer growth. Oh I know that this does not apply to all churches, but is it not true for most?
Can we discuss these lines of thought? I would love to hear from individuals who are in the trenches.
In the chapter “Let your light shine” Morgan makes this statement. “We in the church are called to do a first-rate public relations job. We’re to do a first-rate communications job, a first-rate sales job and a first-rate advertising job. These are not to be an afterthought, of marginal consideration, or elective. They’re points central to our evangelistic task – if we would make good on the mission committed to us by our Lord Christ”
His scriptural support, or at least his proof text, is Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket … Let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
While I believe that his expounding of the text is stretched beyond traditional interpretation, I do not want to debate the scripture. What I like to converse about is: Are we the church, becoming to much like a business? Looking for the next marketing program so to grow our business? I know we have to get our “name” out into the public so that people will know we are in existence and so we can be found. But are we so desperate to establish our identity that we must rely upon marketing to find it?
Do new and fancy words describe who we are? Have we abandon our Biblical identity and gone to gadgets and trends to re-establish it? Are the structures (the avenues through which we do ministry) taken the lead in who we are as a church? In example: We are a seeker-sensitive church. We are a contemporary worship style church. We are a blended worship church. We are a church made up of small communities. We are a relevant church in an ever changing world. And so forth.
I fear that we are so consumed with trying to “market” the church that we a failing in getting the message out. Society/population is growing faster than the church. A higher percentage of ‘church growth” is basically transfer growth. Oh I know that this does not apply to all churches, but is it not true for most?
Can we discuss these lines of thought? I would love to hear from individuals who are in the trenches.
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