The Dark Side of Attractional Ministry

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The dark side of attractional ministry is that it’s a short term strategy.

True confession–

I was a perveyor of an attractional ministry model. It never permeated any youth group that I’ve been a part of, but the structure of our last ministry was– at it’s very core– an attractional model within our two biggest demographics. (Children and adults 40+) Time and time again here on the blog I’ve made generalizations about attractional ministry, not just as an outside observer, but as someone who has participated and performed within the model. I critique because I know!

Three quick reasons attractional ministry doesn’t work:

1. A life with Christ isn’t entertaining. At the end of the day, a day-to-day walk with Jesus isn’t filled with flash pots, set design, video screens, and compelling skits, and crafted messages for the heart. So the premise itself presents a well-intentioned lie about Jesus.

2. When the lights go out, people feel empty. Whether its an amazing kids program or a great event for adults. The reality is that people leave feeling empty and longing for more. Just like 2 hours of television doesn’t fill the soul quite like an intense conversation with a good friend, an amazing night of Jesus-y entertainment just leaves you tired and empty. The attractional model had the same effect as a visit to a casino. A huge build up and a huge let-down. (With free drinks along the way.)

3. It’s unsustainable. This goes in a few directions. It isn’t sustainable in that a single church cannot entertain all the demographics/age groups you will attract. Also, it isn’t sustainable among volunteer and paid staff. (People don’t volunteer to entertain, they volunteer to minister) Lastly, it isn’t sustainable as it doesn’t prepare people to leave your church and fulfill the Great Commision.

You can’t sustain it as a church

When we first began our attractional ministry to children it seemed so innocent. The idea was if we could make the kids program awesome, kids wouldn’t want to miss church. We’d target kids knowing that parents would follow and support something that was great for their kids. It wasn’t about attracting money, it was about attracting families. Our hearts were in the right place as less than 5% of our communities families were part of a church. It wasn’t a false Gospel, it wasn’t evil or about self, it was just a short-term strategy that worked very well at first.

The dark side of that is that entertaining people is an ever-hungrier dragon. Our initial efforts were simple and fun. But expectations quickly swelled. It didn’t take long for us to rethink our plan… we needed bigger casts, more production money, more planning, and if we just upped our game a little bit we could attract more people. When we got to the next level, people were excited and wanted more. Within a very short time people were expecting an experience we couldn’t create. They’d watch television or go on vacation and their expectations increased as they wanted those experiences with a Jesus-twist. More money, more people, more production… this is not a model for sustainability. I don’t care if your congregation is 200 or 20,000. You simply cannot compete in a sustainable fashion with the entertainment industry.

Your leadership can’t sustain it

The same truism played out among the leadership. The folly of turning one area of the church into mini-Disney quickly caused unintended consequences. Within a few months I went from ministering to the hearts of people to the host of a three ring circus. I had a hard time getting into spiritual conversations. It always came around to “I loved what you guys did, what’s happening next?” It was such a time-sucker that in all reality… I was the host of a three ring circus who did the bare minimum relationally to be called a minister. The community recognition was useful, the day-to-day reality wasn’t useful.

Among the leaders, people turned on one another when one attractional ministry got more attention or funding than another. Remember that dragon? He always needs to be fed and as he grows he gets hungrier and more demanding. And a church only has so much talent that is functional for entertainment. As expectations for better entertainment attracted new and more people– competition for resources began. Feelings were hurt. Rank pulled. Volunteers stolen. Guilt laid. Moral shrank. Frustration set in. We all wondered in our silence, “How can we spend the same amount of time and money and get a bigger and better product?” We had fed a dragon that now spit fire.

That’s right… the church staff began thinking of worship services, kids ministries, and adult outreach as product to be perfected and sold to an audience. Before we could figure out what was happening, it all turned into one tragic game a bigger or better. The problem this model was created to solve really just made the original problem ten times worse.

The whole time I knew we couldn’t sustain it forever. There wasn’t more money. There weren’t more people. The questions went from “what are we looking to do in the next 3-5 years?” To “what are we trying to do this year?” To “what are we doing this quarter?” To “what are we doing this month?” To “what are we doing this week?” In desperation you just get into a survival mode of… how can we get through this week? No one entered into this foreseeing this problem. But that’s how dragons go, I guess.

Ever increasing expectations + lack of resources + staff frustrations = burnout. I wasn’t alone in feeling burnt out. All of our staff and volunteers felt it. But none of us would admit to it because we were all too busy feeding the dragon. He wanted more.

You can’t sustain it as a model for walking with Jesus

The model itself sounds so Christ-like when you start. We justified, “Hey, this is exactly what Jesus did. He drew a crowd, then invited them in to a relationship.” But our theology was short sighted. We forgot John 6, didn’t we? When Jesus confronts those following him with the reality that following him was going to mean they’d have to carry His burden and that in order to follow Him lont-term they’d have to eat his flesh and drink his blood… John writes... “From this time many disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Within a year, the most dedicated volunteers were still following us but the majority had pulled a John 6:66 and gone home. Who could blame them? The leaders were defeated, but still had people coming– expecting to be entertained. Pride set in as we doubled down to say, our plan MUST WORK! We couldn’t admit our mistake or tell those people that ultimately our vision failed. We knew a walk with Jesus wassn’t about fun skits, silly songs, games, and great music. Ultimately, our attractional-style of ministry worked in one way and had devastating effects in another. All the staff hated what we had created. All of the staff lied to themselves that it was worth it. All of the staff openly questioned themselves, “Is this what ministry is all about?

A life with Jesus isn’t about making it from one event to the next. It isn’t about getting inspired by an event. Teaching people that by depending on entertainment to draw people is ultimately not the Gospel. It looks like Jesus. It smells like Jesus. But its just a shadow of the real thing. Luke documented this phenomenon in Acts 8.

Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

I share this story as a warning to my friends in ministry— tough times make us all look for easy solutions. It’s Fall. A lot of churches are in the same position we were in when we started our attractional ministry. They have vision, they have unreached people, but right now money is tight and you think… “If we could only attract 20 more families, we’d be OK. We wouldn’t have to lay off staff.” That’s right where we were when we brought the dragon into our church.

That dragon may be cute and cudely today– but trust me, it will breathe fire soon enough. He will eat you up, spit you out, and leave you quoting Ecclesiastes.


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10 responses to “The Dark Side of Attractional Ministry”

  1. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    Interesting post. I found it via stumbleupon. I’m not entirely sure what you’re saying here though. You talk about a specific style of ministry, but the problems you outline seem to me to have very little to do with the ministry.

    The problems that I see are over-using an evangelism tool or using it improperly as primary operations of the church, building a ministry at the cost of those involved, and making ministry decisions based on fear or finances rather than God. (That last one is enormous! It seems to me that when you start treating your staff like a sales force that need to get their numbers up, you’ve completely turned your church from a ministry into a business. This is Western performance-based culture at its worst.)

    What do you propose as the solution? Are you saying that attractional ministry is all bad and should be avoided? What do you think the way forward is?

  2. Nick Arnold Avatar

    I agree wholeheartedly with this post, Adam. I think a church that sells a gimmick is wasting its time when it could be fostering relationships–which I think is absolutely necessary to successfully pass on faith to others.

    Another weakness of this model is it trains members that evangelism = inviting people to church, rather than actually witnessing. “Go and make disciples,” not “Go and invite people to church.”

    @Jeremy – The issue with the attraction model of ministry is its theology. The “If you build it, they will come” flies in the face of “Go and make disciples.”

  3. adam mclane Avatar

    @jeremy- I think Nick pretty much nails it. Attractional ministry is using a gimmick to draw a crowd. Not inherently evil, but not a great model for a church either for the reasons I listed above. And yes, that model totally treats the church staff as a sales force.

    What’s a solution? How about serving the community? How about living out hte gospel? How about doing less programming so people can do both?

  4. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    Nick: I’m not contesting that it doesn’t build disciples. I was more thinking that the problems seemed to be more related to other issues rather than anything inherent in that style of ministry.

    This sort of ministry has its place as a way to open a door. Different types of people require different approaches, so there is no one way to evangelize that is 100% effective.

    However, I agree completely, if it is your “end game”, the theology is completely out of whack. Once that door is open, you need to be doing something that matures your members rather than just entertains.

  5. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    @Adam: I completely agree that it’s a terrible model for a church. I personally believe though that if you’re using it as one, the problem isn’t the ministry, but how it’s being used. Serving the community and living the gospel should be the basic DNA of your ministry.

    I think the problem really arises when we lose sight of why we’re doing it to begin with. Any ministry can become a replacement for pursuing a real relationship with God, as much for the staff involved as those who benefit from it.

    Anyway, I’m not trying to be critical. I think you make some excellent points. I just see some deeper things within the post that, at least to me!, bear exploring.

  6. Dan Avatar

    Thank you for writing this post, Adam. I am glad that there are leaders who are realizing that this doesn’t work the way we all thought it would. I hate to say something that might be a cliche, but the fact is, relationships matter more than any “cool” tool out there. We must have relationships.

  7. tim Avatar

    Great post. As I read along it reminded me of why the vibe in the church van always feels so positive on the way home from something. Among the reasons is that we have communed with each other.

    On the other side of attractional ministry, we have decided not to have things like Wii’s and all you can drink Red Bull. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will never be cool in comparison with the rock stars of our day. However, we have bought in to something much more fulfilling, but at the same time much harder, which is to be guides, models, mentors, and friends in the Lord. Indeed you are so right – people volunteer to minister not to entertain – great post.

  8. adam mclane Avatar

    Thanks Tim. Be hopeful, you are not alone!

  9. deaconsbench Avatar
    deaconsbench

    Check out the links to faithful ministries at http://www.WeCanKnow.com, and as the Holy Spirit guides His Elect, you will see that all churches and congregations are under the rule of Satan as the Holy Spirit has been removed. There is no “fix” for the above topic!

  10. dr tim Avatar
    dr tim

    You speak of one of the largest reasons why I no longer go to church.

    I want Jesus beside me day by day. I don’t care for the entertainment as it only gets worse every year. The dragon is loose. Where’s knight when you need one.

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