Tim at e-church nails another deep seated worry/peeve/depressant of mine,  which is how the Church pursues the task of finding new members: and it is utterly like the rest of the business world strategies,  using marketing type tactics like reaching out to “market segments” and using business categories for these.  And the kind of thinking behind all this is how to make it all easier,  and so the “finer points” which usually involve things like “accountable community” and the things that make for a community where one is known and where one’s spiritual journey is a part of the “curriculum” — all that goes out the window.  Those kinds of things are just too scary for marketing;  too personal,  but that’s something  the Church seems to have given up in chasing after “putting people in the seats” (a sports marketing phrase).

To me,  in the past several years,  I haven’t felt that the Church has been particulaly good at much of anything relational.  It’s all “up front” around the pulpit,  and on “events”. 

Leaving Church. The Washington Times reports something that I have intuitively known, but have never found the data to prove it. Here… [e-church com.munity weblog]