Earlier today I was flipping through my latest Esquire magazine when I noticed a personal issue I had never thought of before. In this latest issue of Esquire there is a whole section devoted to steak. I love steak, I eat at least 4 times a week, I love food in general. But when I look at these pictures of food it makes me want to get sick. I can not stand looking at pictures of food.
There is an ad for some soup or something, in the ad its a river of gravy with rocks made out of potatoes. Every time I look at this ad I almost get sick.
It reminds me of these Vera Bradley eyeglasses that now seem to be the latest craze with soccer moms that like to ride the trends of last year in new and uglier ways. See I love the Vera Bradley purses and bags (though at this point its getting old and uncool) but the glasses, the cooking aprons, the suitcases, that stuff is ugly.
A design may look good in one design yet when placed on another product it looses its charm and thus becomes hideous. Just like with the food. I would have loved to had any of those Esquire steaks in front of me, but when frozen and with no scents it becomes almost revolting.
I think the same is true in other parts of life. Something may work in one place or in one way yet when done another way it sucks. A restaurant may succeed yet when moved 2 blocks in crumbles and fails within months. Why does this happen?
Because there are parts of the whole picture that when taken away change the whole picture, even though they are small. Imagine a Bob Ross painting, the main focus of the painting maybe a mountain, yet when the cloud in the background is removed the whole painting looses its appeal.
The hard part of the whole concept is how do you keep these small key elements while staying relevant with an ever-changing culture? Sometimes the cafe has to move two blocks away, sometimes the candy recipe has to be changed (though it still should be milk chocolate since that is what Hershey's is known for, oh well), sometimes you have to change.
The key part of this is finding out what makes your identity. Is it just the food, just the paisley designs, just the mountain? Almost always its more than that. Its the how the cafe is an alley away from the busy street, its how the purses stands out when thrown in the backseat of the SUV, its how the mountain shows its strength against fluffy of its background.
I see churches doing this. Churches are adding sisters campus, online campuses, satellite campuses, yet so often these are exact replicas of the main campus. That's a futile exercise.
The new campuses has different people, its in a different building, in a different part of town. Its ultimately, whether you like it or not, a different church. Instead of trying to copy what succeeded last year, last month, or even last week we need to focus on tomorrow, on today. What may be a success at one restaurant will collapse at another.
Each community is unique with its own needs, styles, thoughts, and people. Imagine a city where each community had its own unique identity, unique restaurants and shops. Sure they can be chains but each one should take on the identity of what its around. The age of Big Box stores and cookie cutter plazas is over. The same is true for church.
Instead of satellite campuses more churches should try community campuses. Sometimes they link up and share a unifying message, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they share ministry names, sometimes they don't. We need to refocus on the needs of each community, of each congregation. People expect community news, community schools, community cafes, and a growing number seem to be expecting community churches. Churches that are more than an hour a week of HD projections and live music, more than a video based children's program, more than the same worship as a church 20 mins away. Church needs to be fluid, community focused. Able to change when tragedy hits a community, able to change when God moves during a worship set (or have we forgotten God still moves in unexpected ways?).
I can not imagine the upper room experience with a countdown clock on the back wall. What works in community is what works in one community. Every person, every congregation, every community is different, unique, and original and they need to be treated that way. Anything less is a disregard to what makes us truly human.
2 comments:
I think this could quite possibly be the first blog entry that you have wrote that I am in at least 75% agreement with you on!
Well said my friend. My only disagreement is that the age of big-box stores hasn't even reached its prime. At least from an economic standpoint. Big-box stores are typically a way for consumers to achieve what they want in a cheap fashion. As long as America remains a paycheck to paycheck city the age of the big box store and strip plaza will only continue.
I agree. Being part of a church plant, I've gone through various stages of 'they do that this way, we should copy' only to arrive at the same conclusion. It was hard when over 100 church start pastors came to 'view' our church last year. What to tell them? Don't copy us?
In the industrial mindset, success is repeatability and copying. But the assembly line mental is not how God works. Ever.
Once that is grasped and it is realized that in each situation we much lean on God's wisdom and not our own, it is crazy how everything can fall into place or move forward.
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