{"id":1014,"date":"2017-02-17T16:50:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T21:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/?p=1014"},"modified":"2017-02-17T16:50:19","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T21:50:19","slug":"five-questions-churches-never-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2017\/02\/five-questions-churches-never-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions Churches Should Never Ask Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Use
Use as desired<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Over my time as a Pastor, I have been\u00a0to my share of Church Business Meetings; and they\u2019re not fun. The leadership spends time acting like a Corporate Board of Directors, and the congregation acts like shareholders, each owning stock in the church. \u00a0Churches spend a great deal of time claiming they\u2019re not a business, but still striving to operate just like a business; to be honest with you, it\u2019s so very confusing. Here are five questions I believe a church should never ask themselves, because they are business questions, not church related questions. You may disagree with me, and pushback is fine [let me know in the comments], but I see these questions as rather destructive to the average church.<\/p>\n


\n\"A-PATHEOS-TNJ-Branding.fw\"What\u2019s our Brand?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are so over marketing, and branding \u2013 we\u2019ve spent our lives hearing all the marketing hype, and because of that, it means little, if anything, to us. We know hype when we hear it. Think about it this way, is there really a difference between Coke, and Pepsi?<\/p>\n

Branding is simply trying to persuade a consumer that your name, service, or product is better than the name, service of product, from the church down the street [my church is better than your church].<\/p>\n

Consumer based churches seldom, if ever, truly change the lives of people \u2013 because they are centered on consumption [depletion], and not development [growing]; they strive to develop programs to attract people, not help people. Here is something interesting to think about, words that are synonymous with consume are decay, depletion, waste, damage, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

[RESPOND IN THE COMMENTS: What is your view of branding?]<\/p>\n


\n\"A-PATHEOS-TNJ-Branding.fw\"What\u2019s our purpose?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Really? As a church, you\u2019re wondering what\u2019s your purpose? There are tons of articles online designed to help churches design a purpose statement<\/em>. But, it never seems to fail, when I read those propose statements I always ask, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m of the mind that the best way to understand our purpose is to know Jesus\u2019 purpose. Anything else, is simply our way of saying We know better.<\/p>\n

So, what was Jesus\u2019 purpose?
\nTo bring life, so people could live life fully [John 10:10], and to embrace the broken, the marginalized, the hurting, the lost [Matthew 9:13]<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ll admit, those can be rather messy for many USAmerican Churches. After all, seeking out those who are \u201cnot like us\u201d is scary.<\/p>\n

[RESPOND IN THE COMMENTS: What do you see as the purpose of the church?]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"COO\"
COO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s our mission?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, really? You have no idea what the mission of all churches should be? While this is related to developing our purpose, creating a mission statement always limits us in striving to live in the mission of Jesus. So, what was Jesus\u2019 mission?<\/p>\n

To proclaim the good news to the poor, set free those who were enslaved by the law, and to bring a new life to those the religious class, and others, oppressed. [Luke 4:16-18]<\/p>\n

If your church\u2019s mission is anything but that, you are not following the mission of Jesus.<\/p>\n

[RESPOND IN THE COMMENTS: How do you see the mission of the church?]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"COO\"
COO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s our target market?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This question move us from reaching those Jesus tells us to reach, and simply helps us design a church we can be comfortable in. I remember speaking with a Pastor who said his church was targeting those who lived around his church \u2013 which meant, the white, middleclass, heterosexual, double-income, married couples, who owned their own homes, and had young children. What I found funny, when he was describing his target, he described himself. He was looking for people like him \u2013 and when you look at churches who decide they have a target market it is always amazing that those they seek, look just like them.<\/p>\n

[RESPOND IN THE COMMENTS: How does bring \u2018marketed to\u2019 feel to you?]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"COO\"
COO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How attractive is our building?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who cares! I want to know, how captivating your people? How do they love others? How do they care for the broken in the community? When I first started in ministry, I was appointed to a five-point charge with the United Methodist Church in Northern New Jersey. It was comprised of one large church, and four smaller churches. The larger church was a massive building, and looked more like a castle then a church; they had great pride in how their building looked.<\/p>\n

The larger church had million in a trust account designed for the upkeep of the building \u2013 millions for a building. They would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the yearly upkeep of the building \u2013 and almost nothing on anything else.<\/p>\n

We should see our buildings as a tool, nothing more. If your church is spending more on the building, and less on being Missional to the community, you\u2019re placing too much of the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

[RESPOND IN THE COMMENTS: Should the church have huge buildings?]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Churches spend a great deal of time claiming they\u2019re not a business, but still striving to operate just like a business; to be honest with you, it\u2019s so very confusing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2697,"featured_media":1015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,86,8,124,12,20],"tags":[29,30,33,56,125,62],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-evangelism","category-faith","category-good","category-leadership","category-missional","category-theology","tag-care","tag-change","tag-church","tag-jesus","tag-leadership","tag-missional"],"yoast_head":"\nFive Questions Churches Should Never Ask Themselves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Churches spend a great deal of time claiming they\u2019re not a business, but still striving to operate just like a business; to be honest with you, it\u2019s so very confusing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2017\/02\/five-questions-churches-never-ask\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2017\/02\/five-questions-churches-never-ask\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Questions Churches Should Never Ask Themselves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Churches spend a great deal of time claiming they\u2019re not a business, but still striving to operate just like a business; 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