Dying Newspapers, Dying Churches
From Chuck Warnock’s “Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor” Blog,
Newspapers need to realize they are in the news business, not the paper business. The high cost of printing, delivery, labor, and organization is bankrupting newspapers. News organizations that embrace new media are on the rise. Where do you read your news — a printed paper or online? And that’s my point.
Churches have a similar problem. We are trying to hold on to the form of church (our version of the “paper”), forgetting that the message (”news”) is most important. Almost all denominations are in decline now, including my own Southern Baptist Convention. In response to that, denominational leaders try to appeal to young people. LifeWay conducts lots of very good research on how Baptists can reach the under-30 crowd. We kid ourselves to think, “If we could only add young people to our churches, everything would be fine.”
What we really should be doing is repackaging the message in ways that would carry it better.
I hope you check out the entire post by clicking here.
I think this comparison is right on point. Your thoughts?
Posted by GPC.
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Brian,
Enjoyed this article. I especially liked the explaination of why church traditionally meets at 11:00 on Sunday morning. I never thought of that.
My family currently goes to a church that meets at 4:00 Saturday afternoon. Plenty of time to get ready, then we eat out after church for special family time. It’s so nice to not be rushing off to church on Sunday mornings now; no fussing at each other as we inevitably run late. And Sunday is truly a day of rest for us now.
Comment by Chip Watts | April 8, 2009