Church Competitors

The buzz around town is that several new church plants will be launching in NYC within the next few months. Some are extensions of existing churches in the Metro area and others are independent start-ups hoping to succeed in a densely populated demographic. So my broad guesstimation is that some will do well, some more than others and some will eventually fold.

Now as a pastor, the news of a church plant close to home signals certain alarms otherwise unnoticed by most laypersons. Some are unaffected, but almost all pastors have had these thoughts at one time or another:

1. This creates competition which means a drop in attendance which hurts our Sunday offerings which lowers our yearly budget, and so on.
2. Ha! That church will not succeed in NYC. They don’t even have the slightest idea about what it takes to tackle the unique challenges that the city will throw at them.
3. Uh oh. What can I do to improve my service, fellowship and activities? What are the latest church fads? I need to draw people to my church and make them stick here. I need a better slogan. I need to be cutting-edge. Come up with novel programs.
4. I can still boast in my church. They don't have their own building. Their audio-visual equipment isn't as fancy or advanced as ours. Their worship is outdated and banal.
5. While their church may be greater in number, ours is spiritually ahead. And since that's ultimately God's desire for any church, I'll be okay.

I worry about how my church will survive these tough spiritual times. And the onset of another church makes it that much more difficult. But these thoughts should sound a bigger alarm to all of us about the church today. We are in the midst of a dog-eat-dog Christian culture. We compete like businesses. Our congregation is the client/consumer. And so our questions arise from that angle.

Which church location appeals mores? Which speaker inspires more? What band is more exciting? Are the small groups dynamic? It is a product. It is marketing.

While it is difficult to ignore, it leads me to a greater concern, the one that is often overlooked. We cater "our" gospel to this culture. The gospel is more palatable. It is comfortable. It's definitely way more portable. The gospel is watered down.

My prayer is that CROSSWALK looks to advance the gospel instead of chopping it up, diluting it, mixing it up, embellishing it, etc. The gospel is not a product. It is not an instrument in a marketing ploy. Instead, it is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes".

Pastor Dave