He hires his own “secret shopper”? He can’t, like – look around himself?

I agree that this does seem to belittle so much about what they claim. When they speak to us, it is about the high level areas of their faith. Being petty enough to complain about a bucket in the bathroom when they are supposedly saving their followers from the peril of hell seems odd.

I think that we also need to remember that to a pastor it is a job, day in and day out. And…to many perishoners, they are his (in rare cases her) employers. I think this is much more about the congregation making sure the pastor is earning his pay in his job…that they are funding.

Also…while the mormon church does not actually hire ministers (so it was not a paying job to me, though it took a lot of my time), I was a member of a bishopric in the mormon church before I left, and we dealt with much the same. Members complaining about every little thing…and then other members who would tear up the building and not seem to care. It was an actual concern that we did have to focus on. The reason? Churches are in the money making business…and they will not make money if there are not people in the seats to contribute.

In an increasingly diverse and fluid religious landscape, churches competing for souls are turning to corporate marketing strategies such as focus groups, customer-satisfaction surveys and product giveaways.

Not only that, but they’re going to need to hire an extra security guard after that weird dude came in out of the desert and started smashing up the Moneychangers’ Bank ATM next to the Starbucks.

Seriously, I find the huge megachurches much more objectionable than the small ones because they are so obviously awash in money. They’re competing for souls, they’re competing for dollars; and it’s not about using religion to teach good ethics and encourage parishioners to be good people, it’s about draining tithes from the congregants so as to pay back the millions of dollars that had to be borrowed to buy the land and construct these monstrously huge and sophisticated buildings.

Do they have such little respect for potential congregation members that they think anyone will care about the cleanliness of the bathroom and the lack of enthusiastic greeter over what the message(s) of the church actually is?

If they do, they have a realistic view of their customers. Most congregants ignore the ‘substance’ of the sermon too.

So this is much ado about nothing, theologically. Christians aren’t required to be perfect. As a matter of fact, they are acknowleged as pretty crappy most of the time. Just one more thing, I guess.

Just a blip.

But certainly enough to scare me away, and you…….

But we weren’t going anyway, right?

It reminds me of when the EU criticizes the US’s hypocrisy. Do you care? Maybe you do.

Oh my my.

In the long run you get whatever kind of customer to whom you appeal. As these churches concentrate on increasingly shallow things to attract people, they will attract increasingly shallow people. Folks who are looking for something of substance will find it increasingly rare.

…a stray plastic bucket under the bathroom sink…

Although I am a very deep and profoundly thoughtful person, I must admit that would be a deal breaker for me.