Comments for What is a “Multichannel Church?” at http://www.pres-outlook.org , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.pres-outlook.org Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:25:31 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.pres-outlook.org/reports-a-resources3/church-wellness-report3/9544-what-is-a-multichannel-church.html#comment-5147 When are we going to finally realize that the corporate business paradigm is not the Church's savior? The "Multichannel Church" is yet another desperate grasp at a consumerist marketing idea that is being repackaged for congregations and pastors. It asks us to see the people we encounter each day as "customers," not as real human beings and fellow children of God. It buys into the commodification of people and emphasizes quantification, counting, and percentages. Is is any wonder that people are fleeing the Mainline churches if all we have to offer is re-hashed marketing jargon? Let's finally admit that there is no "magic bullet" or off-the-shelf program that will fix us. The god of functional rationalism will not save us! Rather than focusing on the "round'em up" model of bringing folks into a church building through a new marketing program, it's time we followed the Spirit of God out into our neighborhoods and communities and open our imaginations to what is going on around us. Instead of counting heads at worship and programmed events, the church and its leaders should be focusing on being open to the work of God's Spirit in our local context. We need to be re-formed and trans-formed as God's people in our 21st-Century North American context, not re-marketed. - Mark Burnham Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:39:26 +0100 http://www.pres-outlook.org/reports-a-resources3/church-wellness-report3/9544-what-is-a-multichannel-church.html#comment-5146 Tom, I agree with you that *how* we do - and are - church needs to change and much of what you propose could be part of that. However, I think *why* we do (and are) church needs to be revised as well. Church can no longer be primarily a place for believers to worship God, or to serve society, or to receive the sacrament, or to retreat from the world, or to seek understanding as a companion for faith - depending on your tradition. It seems to me that the church needs to transform its understanding of itself and its purpose - the 'why' - perhaps to being a place where people (of faith or none) can encounter God, discover God's purpose for their lives and be helped to organise themselves and their relationships around that purpose. Glen Powell Sydney, Uniting Church in Australia - Glen Powell Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:00:02 +0100 http://www.pres-outlook.org/reports-a-resources3/church-wellness-report3/9544-what-is-a-multichannel-church.html#comment-5139 Tom, your thoughts make great sense BUT I'm thinking of a church that has incorporated 99% of your suggestions yet it is not growing or changing significantly, which I feel validates the thought that "outsight " alone cannot reverse established trends simply because the internal, and perhaps even prevailing external, forces are too rigid and inflexible to cope with. Jim Babcock Bozeman, Mont. - Jim Babcock Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:39:52 +0100