June 1 - Churches More Like Fast Food Restaurants? One Pastor Thinks So

Are churches becoming more and more like fast food restaurants today?

 

Megachurch pastor Brady Boyd asks readers the tough question that has plagued many pastors and congregations alike, touching upon a rather sensitive subject for most religious leaders. “Have we, as American pastors, given up our calling as shepherds and unknowingly become fast food entrepreneurs who are building a religious business and not a church?” the Colorado pastor posed on his blog.

Witnessing the ever-growing trend for pastors to be focused primarily on the numbers – number of people attending their church – Boyd desired to shift the internal conversations happening among leaders and spark some honest debate on the subject of church marketing and mass numbers.

“Church is not a product to be consumed like a gym membership, but rather a holy gathering of sinners who are becoming saints because of grace,” he penned. “We want to be what Eugene Peterson calls ‘a company of pastors’ and not a company of shopkeepers.”

While the gathering of people was not in any way damaging or misguided, the former English teacher wondered if leaders were only focusing on the number of attendees, rather than the growth of existing members.

Church, he concluded, has always been about the gathering of the called out ones, not the gathering of potential customers, who leaders hoped would have a great consumer experience.