4 responses

1. 

   Jez Bayes

   2 November 2010

   Wrong end of the Telescope?

   As someone who has been around Churches and Conferences for more Decades than I would easily admit, my observation would be that this is a two-way street, with much of the traffic coming in the opposite of the direction that you imply.

   For example, I have always been uneasy at attending a conference, opening the programme, and seeing an advert promoting the cover shot for the worship album of that event, featuring the ‘inspiring worship’ which hasn’t yet happened or been recorded.

   If it turns out to be rubbish it will get touched up in the studio, so it’ll still be OK. Apart from blatant marketing and consumerism, this also restricts the worship leaders from focusing on the people they are there to serve, as they then have to teach a set of songs early in the event, and then repeat them towards the end of the event, looking for a good take, rather than be free to lead the people spontaneously and appropriately.

   Also, I love the way that Blogs create a conversation, and help you to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on around The Church … so please can some full timers stop just using them to promote their latest book. Once in a while, OK, but this shouldn’t be the main event.

   I think that in the Church in the West there is a danger of over prioritising and overexposing ‘full time’ staff and their careers, which leads to a dangerous culture that mirrors the celebrity culture of the world around us, which isn’t reflected in the NT, or in Churches in less materialistic parts of the globe.

   Another example of this danger would be the Lakeside ‘Revival’ of a couple of years ago, which gained the appearance of importance because they had good internet connectivity, when in other continents near revival has been quietly making inroads out of the glare of youtube and twitter.

   Are we in danger of confusing effective marketing with effective churches? We do need to be careful, but a lot of this is driven by materialistic habits in churches and church groupings, rather than by the christian consumers and congregations ruining Pastors.

   Where it is the congregations’ problem, surely it must be the responsibility of good Biblical teaching to address this consumerism, rather than blame congregations for leading Pastors astray.

   If Churches don’t want ‘pastors to be ruined and the mission of God to be cheated by consumers enjoying goods and services from their local church’ then simply stop plugging products, and improve the teaching and habits in churches.

   NB: Ed also goes on to address Pastor burnout, which is also a cause-effect of over emphasising full timers and their careers in relation to their congregations, rather than promoting a good Biblical Body ethic, based on 1 Corinthians 12-14 and the structure of The Church in Acts, where Leadership of The Body was based inclusively on what seemed ‘good to the Holy Spirit and to us’ rather than top down decision making.

   Rant over and out!

   Reply
   1. 

      Simplepastor

      2 November 2010

      Wow, that post hit the spot! Thanks for the comment Jeremy. I guess it’s a ‘both/and’ situation. Leaders organising and acting in keeping with the culture because that seems to be what the culture want. It will take some brave leaders to lead differently in a consumer culture, to organise events differently. To respond to requests for resources differently. Basically we need more brave leaders! I think your point on effective marketing or effective church is spot on. I might make that a blog post!

      Reply
2. 

   Tim Simmonds

   2 November 2010

   I agree with Ed and Jeremy! Great post

   Reply