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Pleasing The Customer
by Rev. David Feddes |
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Pleasing The Customer
by Rev. David Feddes |
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The time will come when men will not put up with
sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their owm desires,
they will gather around them a great number of
teachers to say what their itching ears want
to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3
"The customer is king." That's the motto of almost
any successful business. Figure out what people
want, and then give it to them. If you don't, your
competitors will, and you'll lose business. In a
market economy, you've got to please the customer.
It's that simple.
What's true in business seems to be true in the
religion business as well. Religious publishers
won't print a book if there's no market for it;
religious recording companies won't produce an album
if they don't think people will buy it; a religious
broadcaster can't raise funds on the air if he's not
saying what his audience wants to hear; and a church
isn't going to expand and thrive unless it's the kind
of place people want to be.
Even the Bible is tailored to please the customer.
Some people whose main interest is sports might not
want a plain old Bible, containing nothing but the
revealed truth of God, but they might be interested
in Path to Victory, a New Testament with profiles of
Christian sports heroes talking about their favorite
Bible passages. According to Time magazine, the
market for Bibles is worth $400 million a year, and
sales are best when there are different Bibles to
suit different customers. As the president of the
Christian Booksellers Association says, "In a
Baskin-Robbins society, people don't want chocolate
or vanilla. They want a special flavor that really
suits their needs!'
Now, I have to admit that I hadn't thought of the
Word of God as a brand of ice cream. But some people
do, and they're selling Bibles in a lot more than 31
flavors. And everybody's happy. You get the Bible
in your favorite flavor, and the booksellers get their
$400 million. Everybody wins.
Just as companies have tried to please people
shopping for Bibles, so pastors have tried to please
people shopping for a church These days, before a
minister tries to start up a new congregation, he'll
first survey the neighborhood to find out what people
want and don't want. He'll often target his
audience, just the way an advertising executive
would. He'll tailor his message to white males
between 30 and 45, or pick music that fits the tastes
of a certain age group, or figure out what support
groups might benefit people in his neighborhood. The
key to being a successful church is finding the right
niche in the religion market.
Lately, some seminaries have created an entire
department of study devoted to the science of "church
growth." A great deal of church-growth theory depends
on sociological and business principles. How can a
church appeal to people in such a way that they want
to join it? Pastors and church leaders have become
fascinated with church-growth information. In a
survey of preachers asking what author had most
affected their ministry, the person named most often
was a popular church-growth consultant.
In other words, pleasing the customer is at the very
top of the religious agenda these days. Preachers
and church boards and merchandisers of religious
materials are all studying the marketplace very
carefully. They are studying you. They're trying to
learn what makes you tick, trying to figure out what
needs you feel, trying to offer something you'll find
appealing, trying to draw you into their church. And
this isn't all bad. Some publishers and broadcasters
produce material that's very helpful, and they want
to get their message into as many hands as possible.
If different formats of the Bible get more people to
read it, great! Likewise, many preachers study
church growth because they want more people to know
Jesus Christ and to join the fellowship of the
church. If, by presenting the gospel as attractively
as possible, they lead more people to Christ,
wonderful!
The apostle Paul himself once said, "I have become
all things to all men so that by all possible means I
might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Paul was
willing to adapt himself and his methods to meet
people where they were. That's one reason he was
such an effective missionary.
Still, though Paul was willing to change his methods,
he refused to change his message. He had a definite
understanding of Christian truth, and he refused to
compromise that truth to please the customer. It's
good to be sensitive to people's needs and
preferences, but when the main goal is to produce
satisfied customers, something has gone terribly
wrong. There are serious dangers in a consumer
approach to religion. That's why Paul wrote to his
friend Timothy, a young pastor, and said:
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of
season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great
patience and careful instruction. For the time
will come when men will not put up with sound
doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires,
they will gather around them a great number of
teachers to say what their itching ears want to
hear. They will turn their ears away from the
truth and turn aside to myths.
(2 Timothy 4:2-4)
There's a market out there for preachers who say what
people want to hear and for churches who give people
what they want. Canadian sociologist Reginald Bibby
says,
'Late twentieth century Canada is filled with a
consumer approach to religion... [Religious
organizations] offer religion as a range of
consumer goods. Rather than saying to culture,
"This is what religion is," they have been much
more inclined to say to culture, "What do you
want religion to be?" ...Religion is available
to Canadians in all shapes and sizes, and
fragment-minded consumers have before them a
multitude of choices.'
Bibby's description of consumer religion in Canada is
just as applicable to the United States, if not more
so. The customer is king. And the result? Let's look
at what the Bible says.
There have always been people who want gods that suit
their fancies, and there have always been leaders
willing to give these people what they want. When
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten
Commandments from God, he was gone for more than a
month.
When the people saw that Moses was so long
in coming down from the mountain, they gathered
around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who
will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who
brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what
has happened to him."
(Exodus 32:1)
So Aaron gave the people what they wanted. He made a
golden calf that everybody could see and admire, and
the people proclaimed that Aar-orYs homemade calf was
the god who brought them out of Egypt. They had a
wild party to celebrate, and it was all a lot of
fun-at least until Moses returned from the mountain,
and God punished the people for their idolatry.
It's easy to manufacture a god that pleases the
customer. People like to hear that God is a golden
calf, or that God is their inner child, or that God
is Mother Earth, or whatever else suits their fancy.
But what they end up with is nothing but a worthless
idol. It's an affront to God, and it's deadly for
all who worship it. So beware of anyone who is too
quick to provide you the kind of religion you want.
When a religious organization gets too concerned with
pleasing the customer, it misrepresents who God is,
and in the process, it also misrepresents who we are.
The prophet Isaiah told people about a holy and
awesome God. He showed them how sinful they were in
the light of Gods purity. That wasn't what most
people wanted to hear. They wanted a positive
religion, one that made them feel good about
themselves and optimistic about their future.
(See Isaiah 30:10-11).
Once you stop thinking about Gods holiness, once you
abandon the morals of the Bible for a new standard,
once you're surrounded by preachers whose main goal
is to boost your self-esteem, you can feel good about
yourself without actually being good. Maybe you've
heard about the international study comparing
students from industrialized nations. In math and
science, American students came in last, while
students from South Korea ranked at the top.
Ironically, when asked if they are good at math, 68
percent of Americans-the most of any country-said
they were, while only 23 percent of the South Korean
students said they were good at math -the least of
any country. This demonstrates, says William
Bennett, that American schools "are a lot better at
teaching self-esteem than they are at teaching math."
Like the schools, many churches have been on a
self-esteem kick. Preachers promote it like it's the
very heart of Christian teaching, though it's really
just a recent trend in pop psychology. The greatest
saints have always had a deep awareness of Gods
holiness and of their own sin, and they have prayed
daily for forgiveness. Nowadays, however, the
filthiest and most corrupt person can bask in sermons
about how wonderful and creative we all are.
Churches are helping people to feel better and better
about themselves, even as they are becoming worse and
worse. George Gallup summarizes the situation this
way: "Religion up, morality down." This goes to show
that churches are better at teaching selfesteem
than they are at teaching holiness.
Consumer religion is eager to please. Instead of
confronting you with the holy God, it manufactures an
idol to suit your preference. Instead of declaring
the righteous standards of God's commandments, it
lowers the standards so that you can feel good about
yourself And instead of warning you to repent and get
off the road to hell, it makes your trip down the
road to hell as pleasant and comfortable as possible.
The Bible tells how the wicked king Ahab was
preparing for a great battle and how he wanted to
find out what his chances were. Ahab had prophets he
liked and prophets he didiyt like, so he called in
the ones he liked- 400 of them. They all said, "Go
ahead. The Lord will give you victory." But Ahab's
ally, king Jehoshaphat, asked for a second opinion:
"lsn't there a prophet of the Lord-a real prophet-we
can ask?" Ahab said, "There is still one man through
whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him
because he never prophesies anything good about
me, but always bad. He is Micaiah"' (1 Kings 22:8).
Well, they called Micaiah in, and sure enough, he had
nothing good to say. He told Ahab, "The Lord has
decreed disaster for you.' No wonder Ahab liked the
other prophets better! The only problem was that
Micaiah was right. When Ahab went off to battle, an
arrow penetrated his armor, he bled to death, and his
army was scattered.
Ahab liked flattery, not criticism. He liked to
think positive, not to hear about judgment. So Ahab
ignored Micaiah and marched to his death, with four
hundred positive thinkers encouraging him every step
of the way. As the Bible says, "There is a way that
seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
(Proverbs 14:12).
So beware of preachers who tell you only what you
want to hear! They're just making you comfortable on
your journey to hell. Listen to someone who preaches
Jesus Christ according to the Bible, who preaches the
Word in season and out of seasom when people like it
and when they don't like it. Listen to someone who
loves God enough not to misrepresent him, and who
loves you enough to rebuke you and warn you when
you're on the wrong path.
Remember Reggie Lewis, the basketball star for the
Boston Celtics? After collapsing in a game, this
splendid player was told by a group of medical
experts that he had a serious heart condition and
that he should never play basketball again. Reggie
didn't want to accept that, so he went to another
hospital, where he was told that his basketball
career could continue. That sounded a lot better, so
Reggie began training again for the next season. But
one day on the basketball court Reggie Lewis
collapsed and died. His death was a reminder that
people who tell you what you want to hear are often
tragically wrong.
The Word of God gives us a diagnosis we'd rather not
hear: we're sinners. It gives a prognosis we'd
rather ignore: we're bound for hell if we don't
change. The Word also offers a cure that upsets us:
the crucified body and shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told the crowds of people who were curious
about him, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you." This was offensive to many people,
and the Bible says,
From this time many of his disciples turned
back and no longer followed Him. "You do not
want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. We believe and
know that you are the Holy One of God."
(John 6:66-69)
Today, in an age saturated with consumerism, Jesus is
presented in a way that doesn't really offend many
people. You hear a lot about what Jesus can do for
you. If you're lonely, Jesus can be your friend. If
you want more money, Jesus can "bless you real good."
If you're an athlete, Jesus can make you a winner.
If you're feeling inferior, Jesus can give you more
self-esteem. If you're family is falling apart, Jesus
can put it back together. If you're struggling with
an addiction, Jesus can help you out of your mess.
Whatever your problem Jesus is the solution.
There's some truth in this, but the central truth we
need to know is that unless you eat Jesus' body and
drink his blood, you are lifeless and decaying. You
need to believe the preaching of Christ crucified for
your salvation. You need to eat the bread and drink
the wine through which the Spirit of Christ nourishes
people for eternal life. Whatever other things the
church may do or say, the preaching of Christ
crucified and the holy sacrament of participation in
his body and blood is the essence of Christian faith.
If that turns you off the way it turned off the
people Jesus was talking to, I'm sorry. But if you
look for a religious substitute that you find more
appealing, it's going to be a counterfeit. You need
the genuine Jesus, not the consumer Christ. Who else
has the words of eternal life? Who else is the Holy
One of God? Beware of voices that tell you what you
want to hear. Listen instead to Go&s Word telling
you what you need to hear. If you!re not yet a
follower of Jesus, repent of your sin, trust in
Christ and join a church where Christ, not the
customer, is King.
Whether you have been a Christian for many years or
for just a few days, you need to be aware of how your
faith and life can be distorted when religious
organizations try too hard to please a certain type of
customer.
We want our faith to be interesting, not boring. We
love sensational testimony. We're fascinated by
people who tell tales of the sin and horror they
experienced before they became Christians- the worse,
the better-followed by a spectacular conversion and a
new life in which they're happy and holy twenty four
hours a day. Sensationalism sells, as tabloids and
TV shows demonstrate. But maybe our churches would
be better off highlighting the unspectacular ways God
often works in the lives of ordinary Christians.
Another thing we need to watch out for is
overadvertising. Sometimes we're so eager to lead
people to Christ that we talk as if all their
troubles will disappear the moment they trust Jesus.
Or, at another level, we say it's possible to sense
God's nearness at all times, to know constantly what
the Spirit is saying. Books with titles like The
Christian's Secret of a Happy Life are appealing.
Preachers offer how-to advice on the "victorious life
in Christ," giving glowing accounts of how alive and
vibrant they feel, telling you how you can enjoy that
same marvelous feeling in a few easy steps. And then,
when you don't feel that way, you wonder what's
wrong with you.
It all sounds superspiritual, but it's just not true.
Instant holiness and perfect fellowship with God
sound appealing-but so do books with titles like Thin
Thighs in Thirty Days. People are always going to be
attracted to quick and easy solutions, but Christian
discipleship is a lifelong journey that involves ups
and downs, hardships and heartaches, times when God
seems distant as well as times when he seems near.
The Bible promises heaven in heaven, not heaven on
earth. People need to know that Christ makes a great
difference in our lives, but they also need to know
that the Christian path sometimes leads through
valleys of frustration and spiritual dryness. That
message might not sell as well to customers who want
instant happiness, but it's the truth, and in the
long run it will do them more good.
And churches that aim the gospel at one particular
group need to remember that Christ breaks down the
barriers of social preference. People want a church
where they "feel comfortable," and they feel most
comfortable with people who are like them. Church
growth experts call this "the homogeneous unit
principle.' They say that a church grows fastest when
it targets a single racial group, or a particular age
group such as the baby boomers, or a particular
social class such as professionals, or people who
like a particular style of music. Everything is
structured to make people in the target group feel
comfortable and to show the relevance of the gospel
to their particular situation.
But let's not forget: there's more to church than
feeling comfortable. Often God calls us out of our
comfort zone. He calls us out of ourselves and into
Christ. We may feel most comfortable with people who
are like us. But the gospel of Jesus and the
celebration of his Holy Supper unites people who
aren't alike. True Christian unity doesn't depend on
social similarities; it depends on Christ.
The church isn't a supermarket or a social club. It's
the body of Christ. Christ is King; the customer
isn't. Let's remember that.
PRAYER
Father in heaven, in a religious marketplace
filled with many choices, we're often confused.
Protect us from preachers who tell us only what
we want to hear, and open our ears to those who
preach the Word. Turn us from our sin to you,
Lord.
Give us the wisdom we need to be sensitize to who
still need to know you, to be aware of how they
think and what they feel, and at time help us to
be faithftd to you and honest in how we present
the gospel. May your name be praised in all we do,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
The message printed in this pamphlet
was heard over The Back to God Hour,
which is broadcast every Sunday from
coast to coast in the United States
Canada and by short-wave throughout
the world.
If you would like to have a copy of our
complete log of stations and additional
copies of this message for distribution
to others write to The Back to God Hour,
write to The Back to God Hourt, 6555 West
College Dr,. Palos Heights, Il.60463. We
will be happy to mail them to you without
obligation.
Prepared for broadcast by Rev. David Feddes,
Radio Minister, Christian Reformed Church.
The Back to God Hour
6555 W. College Dr., Palos Heights, Il 60463
Pleasing The Customer
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