Church growth

Robert Schuller said that the most important thing for church growth is plentiful parking! 

Rick Warren says that the most important thing is the music.

So many think that the most important thing is marketing Christ to the consumer.

Too many try to market Christianity. 

In the beginning of the 20th century, America was a production based industry, not centered around the consumer, but in the middle of the 20th century, America moved from a production based to a consumption based industry, where the customer's tastes rule.

 There is a move in authority, then, from producer to consumer, and the customer becomes key.

 Schuller, Warren, and Hybels all polled the surrounding community to find out what they wanted in their churches. 

The church, then followed closely behind the business world in becoming consumeristic.  They became very focused on what the individual wants.  They want to provide that for them.

 We've been trained by our consumerist culture to put ourselves in the center of the universe.  The medium actually does matter, and so if Christianity is presented in a consumeristic way, then the religion ceases to be centered on God and Christ, and becomes centered on us.  This undermines the idea that Jesus is Lord and that we need to take all of the Bible seriously, not just what we want.  Churches have begun to say it in terms of meeting "felt needs".

 Church advertising is okay, because you're simply letting people know about your church, but church marketing is not okay, because you're trying to target a certain demographic, and give them a reason to come to your church to get what you think they want.

In the following video, Mark talks about church growth and numbers