Church Growth, or the application of business marketing principles to the church, has been a thriving business for at least 25 years. I have studied and pondered the ways, means, issues and applications for most of that time. But something has troubled me about the effort to market Christ’s church. A dissonance in the pit of my stomach caught my attention early on, but identifying the source and nature of the my concern has proven to be difficult.

After all, I want the Lord’s people to reach out to lost sinners with the love of Christ. I don’t want churches to keep their proverbial lights under a bushel basket. We need to share our faith for the greater expansion of Christ’s church and the glory of God. These are all good things. The aim and purpose of church marketing or church growth appears to be a good thing. But is it?

I’m sure you can hear my hesitation about this noble effort to increase God’s Kingdom and Christ’s church. But please know from the outset that my hesitation is not related to the expansion of Christ’s church in the modern world. Lord knows, we need to capitalize on everything that will move the Kingdom forward. This article is not against evangelism or church growth.

Having worked in the area of secular marketing for a number of years now, an insight and perspective about the problem with modern the Church Growth Movement has jelled in my brain. The issue may be hard to see—as it has been for me. Please bear with me.

I attended my first Church Growth workshop in 1982. There we learned how churches have failed to extend the most rudimentary business oriented hospitality to visitors. Visitors were described as potential customers for the services that churches should provide to their members. We learned about name tags and signage, parking and accessibility, friendliness and follow-up. In short, we learned to treat visitors and members like customers, and to better provide for their needs.

Honestly, at that time the people from the churches in attendance at that seminar were astonished by the lack of concern and attention to the needs of people in worship, which is often the main attraction or venue for generating additional members. How could the churches be so out of touch with the people they professed to love and serve? We all went home with new resolve to become more visitor and customer centered in our worship and programs.

The initial insight about name tags and signage, parking and accessibility, friendliness and follow-up was well received, as it should be. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these things.

As the Movement continued to develop momentum it began to apply its concern for church members and visitors more and more widely, even to the content and choreography of the worship service itself. As marketing principles became more widely used in worship planning and execution, I became increasingly disillusioned. But I could not put my finger on the nature of my concern.

The small churches that I served as pastor increasingly saw Church Growth principles as potentially answering many of their small church concerns. Noses and nickels became increasingly important to the governing boards, particular as they saw so many of their own young people abandon them and turn to modern churches that employed customer-centered marketing principles to every aspect of church life. Everything in such churches was done from the perspective of customer friendliness and ease of use. After all, these principles have clearly established themselves as engines that can—and have—grown phenomenal businesses and churches. Who can argue with success?