I love Indian food. There's an Indian restaurant here in town that has the best Indian food I've ever had, and I've had Indian on both sides of the planet.
However, most Indian restaurants I've been to have a lunch buffet, and I love buffets of all shapes and sizes. This one does not. For years I've told the owner he needs a buffet, but he staunchly maintains that Indian food is not good sitting around in a buffet tray and must be prepared fresh.
Two months ago a brand new Indian buffet opened in town. It's packed. You can't find a parking spot. I go there at noon and it's packed. I went there today at 1:30 and it's packed [on Memorial Day, no less!]
I went to the non-buffet Indian restaurant last week. Empty. My buddy Cliff asked the owner "how's business since the new place opened?"
"Terrible!" he replied. "Look at this place! It's usually filled at lunch and no one is here." He also reiterated how Indian food must be freshly prepared.
Well, I can see his point, but I do love buffets. I suppose a lot of people like buffets. And the new Indian buffet sure tastes fresh to me, especially when the place is packed and they're continually bringing out new food.
So I guess the non-buffet owner will go out of business, sticking true to his principles of freshly prepared Indian food. A shame, really - Greenville is big enough to support two Indian buffets.
Hey churches - what dumb things are you staunchly upholding that are obstacles to growth? I'm not talking doctrines of the faith here, but man-made rules that turn off visitors. If you can't think of any, try asking some people in your congregation that question and keep an open mind.
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6 comments:
This is a great post! Something we tried about a year and a half ago was to add a "secular" song before our experience (service) started. This was to accomplish two things: get people in the door and seated so that they can check out the video announcements and to help disarm any notions non-believers might have about a stuffy church.
The reaction has been staggering! At first we tried to match the song to the sermon, but we found we were using obscure songs that no one knew. So we went to good old well known songs. Everything from Ozzy to Cake. Our auditorium is about 75% full before the experience starts! But the coolest thing is that people have come to me and said, "hey, I invited my friend to hear the cover song. They agreed and after the sermon they accepted Jesus!" So, our people are using the "secular" things as a tool to invite their friends! This has been an amazing tool to use. Meeting people where they are. Using the very thing that they ALL love!
As far as other things that we can let go of...I'm gonna need to think about this one. We've got some sacred cows even though we're only 11 years old!
Great stuff Don....Love the blog!
Great post Don! Ditto Derricks comment also. I told a friend the other day that goes to another church about our plans to use a Nickleback song as an opener. He was apalled and couldn't understand why we would, in his words, "glorify" this band that regularly uses "bad" words in their music.
I tried to explain that in my opinion, we were highjacking their song and using the message to apply to our message. Also, that no one in the crowd would be able to hear the song outside of church without thinking about it in a new context.
Oh well...Just goes to prove that one type of church just won't work for everyone. :)
Kepp it up!
David
We miss you !! We need to have you over for a curry..........soon......I made a Chicken Korma last week for Danielle Howle & band , we thought of you!! Stay in touch , Maria.
It seems that many churches are a bit too spiritually insecure to allow a secular song to be played like derrik has described.
This practice is extremely appealing to me as a musician, since the quality of last 50 years of christian (mainstream) music has proven itself to be far inferior to that of secular music. Normal, non-church people know this. That's probably one reason it attracts them. It shows that the church is really thinking and not just following the rest of the drones.
Shoot. Secular music??? We tried to use some for a sermon series (Cat's in the Cradle, Help, and a few others) that were COMPLETELY in line with the topic...and we got called in on the carpet for it. I hate that we couldn't see the significance it would make to a person who didn't grow up in church his entire life....not that I think we should use it exclusively or maybe not even weekly...but just being able to step outside of the box and take a risk would be amazing....good post, Don.
Funny how some of the same congregation members that will give you down the country for using carefully selected "secular" songs on Sunday morning see no problem with using secular songs (often with silly, inane lyrics if you really think about them) in a wedding. And if you happen to be working with them on the music for a wedding and point out the shortcomings of a particular favorite ...
... on second thought, it's not funny at all.
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