More from Methodist minister Morgan Guyton’s post entitled “Six Ways that Capitalism Fails the Church.” He discusses competition between churches, the way churches “with bling” take members away from churches “without bling.”
From Morgan Guyton, Six ways that capitalism fails the church | Mercy Not Sacrifice:
3) Capitalism fails the church when churches with bling build their membership on transfer growth from churches without bling
I don’t deny the fact that there are churches which grow explosively because the Holy Spirit is creating genuine synergy in their midst. There are also churches that have managed to image success with their bling (such as state of the art audiovisual equipment), and in that way poach their members from churches that have dated furniture in their foyers. It’s similar to the way that Walmart put all the mom and pop general stores out of business in the eighties and nineties. This one hits close to home for me because we’ve lost several members to the local “community” church. One of our ex-members said that at her new megachurch, they don’t really have to volunteer for anything since the staff does everything for them. Yup.
What is legitimate competition among churches for members and what constitutes “sheep-stealing”?
HT: Mary Moerbe
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In