Young Theologians Society

I am a Tivo addict. Technically mine is a DVR, but the term Tivo has been coined already, and i guess it will stick. Nonetheless, i love setting this thing to record all of the shows i like, or kinda like (most in High Def); and i can watch them when i feel like it.

Tonight Mel and I watched the latest installment of Apprentice. It aired monday, but nothing interupts our 24! Anyway, the task this week was to throw a tailgating party sponsored by Outback. The guys threw a huge party: they had a money grab box, eating contests, give-aways, and lots of cheerleaders. They also did a ton of promotion and syked up the students. The girls took a different approach. With all the excitement going on at the guys tent, they decided their strategy would be to take the food to the tailgaters. They didn't have tons of people around their tent, but they delivered the food and beat the guys by almost a 50% more in sales.

There is a big debate among many churches as far as model. We often define these as 'Attractional' and 'Incarnational'. Within many Attractional-based churches, the ultimate goal is for the community to come to them. It's all about the weekend, and generally the ministry of this church focuses primarily on the weekend services alone. Small groups are a good addition, but often in Attractional churches the focus is on the service. Thus the term, their attempt is to 'attract' those who aren't in church, seekers, etc. The Attractional model usually throws huge parties (when they're done right) for their services and they go all out on being creative and unique. Terms used here are often "invest and invite", meaning the church encourages their members to invest in those they come in contact with, in order to invite them to come to church -- again the primary target being to get a person inside the service.

Another idea is what many call 'Incarnational'. Incarnational churches differ in focus, as their goal is to grow naturally and out of an expression of the local culture. Many incarnational churches actually hold their services in what is becoming another common term, the 'third place' (our 'first' place being home and our 'second' being work, the 'third' place is where people spend their time when they aren't in place 1 and 2 -- such as Starbucks or a Local Pub/Bar). Incarnational churches choose to grow through relationships and not gimmicks, giveaways, or mailouts. These churches change the focus from "come to me" to a "go to them" mentality, and their goal is to equip the members of their church to live in their communities as missionaries -- reaching their friends, co-workers, and neighbors for Jesus even if they never darken the door of a church.

What i'm NOT suggesting is that there is any truth to be learned about the church from The Apprentice (though i have seen pastors with as bad hair as Trump), but my it did catch my interest. I'm not sure which model is the perfect one, and i'm not sure we have to be stuck in one or the other. But i do know that often our churches err on becoming to 'business-like', when we are lacking authenticity and truth through our communities. It is not just enough for someone that attends our churches for them to invite their friends, there is so much more to our job of equipping than that. We definitely need to be attractional (Jesus did say "come and see.."), but not at the sake of our incarnationality.

All i know is, i was kinda bummed the girls one; but while the guys tent was a huge fun party full of spectators, the winners took the meat out TO hungry fans.