The Fad Driven Church

Check out this fantastic blog post from the pyromaniacs on "The Fad Driven Church." It nails a major (if not THE major) problem that faces Christian church in America and a problem which I addressed in an earlier post. While I love my seminary and while I received excellent theological education, the tendency to teach future pastors to be "fad driven" could be found even there in a seminary representing a people who claim to be "people of the Book" (and lest we think that Baptists are more prone to this than others, a local PCA pastor told me that Presbyterians are every bit as beholden to church marketing fads as the Baptists are). I encountered this marketing mentality not only taught in church growth classes, but also by example in who they chose to speak in chapel. We attended chapel three days a week and the typical speaker was someone who pastored a church of, at least, 1,000 members and who was put before us as an example of "what we too could accomplish if we only try hard enough." It wasn't said that way, but it was clearly implied. There were glorious exceptions of course such as Steve Lawson, and others like him (the Anglican minister who led us through a three-day lecture series on 2 Cor. 4 during chapel times was especially good).

Anyway, read the post. And scan through the comments too. I love this quote from William Still that someone put in the comments section:

"We are called to feed the Lord's sheep; we are not called to entertain goats. let the goats find their entertainment in goatland. You cannot turn a goat into a sheep by pandering to its goatishness".