Thinking Outside the Box

In November of 2000, Richard Foster wrote in his newsletter that the mega-churches “have within them the seeds of perpetual superficiality.  The mega-church by its very nature must gravitate toward an ​“entertainment religion” which turns worship into a constant effort to keep people occupied and happy.”  When I was a pastor, the denominational leadership was enamored with the mega-church approach, and the big push from my bishop’s office was a challenge for pastors to “think outside the box.” 

But thinking and superficiality don’t go well together.  In an email discussion with other pastors, I raised a question about discipleship and about whether people being brought in by church growth strategies were indeed becoming disciples, and the reaction from other pastors was hostile.  They were simply not open to asking this question; of course they were making disciples; they were bringing people into the kingdom.  Who would ever even doubt this? Then, later, a friend of mine asked our bishop if there was room in the denomination for thinkers, and his response was “no.”  He wanted pastors who were bringing about measurable numerical growth and thinkers, I suspect, might get in the way of that.

So what did he mean by thinking outside the box?  He wanted pastors to think about more effective ways to bring more people into the church: things like using power point or inserting video clips in sermons.  The field for thinking acceptably outside the box was limited to strategies for “growing the church,” and did not extend to anything else.

But at the same time, they did try to market themselves as people who were using their minds.  That was clear in the advertisements from one of the new church plants in describing their pastor.  They wanted him to appear as someone engaged in thinking creatively, as someone using his mind.  But it was an empty claim.

As things have turned out, there seems to be some doubt about what churches like Willow Creek (which was the model for many of our pastors) were actually accomplishing.  People were coming in the front door while others were going out the back.  They were not successful in making disciples; they were just contributing to measurable numerical growth.  What these people coming in the front door were being “won” to is another question altogether.  Not being open to rethinking and reevaluating was a harmful thing; a church needs to have room for thinkers, people who will truly think outside the box, maybe in ways the leadership will not like but which could prevent longer-term problems.