October 20, 2006
Conversation with a Church Growth Telemarketer…
Me: The Well how may I help you?
Him: Is pastor Jackson there?
Me: No, he no longer works here.
Him: Can I ask who the Sr. pastor is?
Me: I guess that is me.
Him: I want to introduce to you…bla bla bla bla. something about outreach and growing your church bla bla bla.
Me: We’re probably not interested.
Him: You’re not interested in growing your church?
Me: No, that’s not our number one priority.
Him: (pauses in a tad bit of confusion) uh, really?
Me: Nope.
Him: oh (another pause) ok. bye.
Me: Hangs up, wishing he would have asked me what our number 1 priority was so I could share with him that our number 1 priority is to have a faithful, personal (not marketed) witness in our local community so that we can provide a glimpse of the kingdom of God here in our area.
Does that sound overly pretentious of me? Maybe it was…but its true. And, let’s be honest, there is something very satisfactory about making a telemarketer not know what to say.
10.20.06
By: Chris
Thanks for sharing this Todd. I’m glad you had the courage to say “no” to the “priority” that is destroying our churches today.
May we repeat the “yes” to the world that Jesus Christ has spoken to us.
10.20.06
By: Helen
Wow
If I ever found out a church I was going to was paying people to ‘grow the church’ I would be soooo out of there!
10.20.06
By: michael bells
I am so sick and tired of packaged “programs” that are pushed and bought, rather than the church learning to listen and be who/what God is doing in that place.
10.20.06
By: Todd
“I am so sick and tired of packaged “programs” that are pushed and bought, rather than the church learning to listen and be who/what God is doing in that place.”
yah, me too…of course, this is easier said than done, which might be why so few churches do it (and of course, we don’t do it perfectly either!)
10.20.06
By: blind beggar
Oh, nice! And not at all pretentious. Some day it may dawn on the “church growth” people that our calling as Jesus followers is not the grow or “build” the church.
10.20.06
By: Kevin
Hey Todd, it is very sad. Church is business. I just got a letter from some “Light University” that I can get a certificate in biblical counseling. I gives me a bunch of DVD’s, which by buying them I become a counselor. So much for doing it the hard way in grad school. Some of this stuff is not only tasteless it is also unethical
10.20.06
By: Matt Wiebe
hehe… My imagination is working overdrive trying to see the look on his face!
10.20.06
By: Todd
i’ve decided that i think after he hung up he probaly was thinking “man, that poor pastor, he’s go no clue.” something i would have probaly said about 5 years ago.
10.20.06
By: Gabrielle
I pray that our society stops affecting our spiritural lives. Our capitalistic, prideful society tries to quantify everything. We need something tangible to show people that what we do is really working! Our faith can’t be qauntifyed. Number of people, the amount of money, our words really add up to nothingness. Instead of certain people trying to kill me from the outside, like the people in China who want to destroy christians. I feel strangled on the inside from the nothingless people, ideas, and the culture of America force into me so inconspicuously. I pray that God makes the persecution in my society as obvious as the persecution in China. I pray this that love and truth maybe abound.
10.24.06
By: Helen
I was thinking about this some more…
If a church isn’t growing then doesn’t that mean the church isn’t bringing people to Christ? Or isn’t enough of a community to retain the people they have/the people who they brought to Christ?
So – while growth for growth’s sake means nothing, isn’t it true that a church that isn’t growing is lacking something important?
What do you think?
If churches want people to come to Christ, then a church that isn’t growing isn’t bringing people to Christ, so non-growth could signify a failure of the church to share the gospel effectively, right?
So – while growth may mean nothing, isn’t non-growth also indicative of a problem? Or
10.24.06
By: Todd
Helen, great point. i totally agree. the problem with most of the advertising we do in the church world simply attracts Christians for other churches. this is pointless in my opinion.
Its also quite possible for a church to be a great witness, where people come to follow Jesus because of their ministry, and send these people to other communities that make more sesnse for them to join.
For example, if someone lives 40 minutes from The Well, and comes to visit one Sunday and the Spirit moves and they choose to follow Jesus. I am not sure the best thing we can do for them is have them drive 40 minutes to church every sunday and have a hard time getting into the life of the community. perhaps the best thing we can do here is find a good community for them in their neighborhood.
you are right, it should be a by product of a faithful witness. but, if we’re honest seeing people follow Jesus is usually overtaken by our desire to grow our organization and make it “viable.”
as sad as this sounds, its a struggle that ALL pastors deal with, me being one of them.
thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
10.24.06
By: jim henderson
Beautiful response Todd.
Had to be Outreach Marketing people.
They have a machine to feed which is the main reason they are calling you and using a classic “set up” question
Pretty sad
10.25.06
By: Helen
Thanks for your response, Todd.
I think we both agree: there are valid and invalid reasons to want a church to grow; and if a church isn’t growing there could be good or bad reasons for that.
Hey, if this happens again you could have fun with the caller and say “Actually I don’t care about my church growing as long as I get to be rich and famous. Can you help me with that?”
Then see what he says…
:-)