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| Photo can be found on Justina Babcock's Site |
As
we draw nearer to 2017 there should be a celebration for the sixtieth
anniversary of Vance Packard’s book, “The Hidden Persuaders.” For at least a
year it should be included as required reading for every high school American
History course and every Seminary course on ministry. It is still in print, and
in the lengthy fiftieth-anniversary introduction by Mark Crispin Miller we find
this recommendation:
The
book is frightening in its prescience. Studying the national bazaar, and some
of its chief planners, half a century ago, Packard saw the start of trends and
practices that have by now wrought terrible destruction on our lives, our
minds, our politics, our culture and our planet…. a nation built for shopping
cannot possibly endure as a democracy.
We
cannot say we were not warned.
Among several for-instances, Miller includes the use of marketing research to fill churches and sharpen sermons.
I
have no quarrel with courses designed to help churches evaluate themselves
biblically in hope of church growth; and I have ideas for biblically enhancing
sermons; but the key word is “biblically." There is, however, the subtle
nuance of a problem in the expression “in hope of church growth.”
God has no problem growing his church. First century Jerusalem and twenty-first
century China attest to the fact that He is very capable. The issue for any
local church is whether it is walking with Him in such a way as to be available
for Him to use in their community as He sees fit. That availability has to do
with being a light (doctrinal truth) and doing good (which the Bible identifies). This is important to understand in the
throes of a "christian" culture driven by the idea that church growth and good preaching have to do with satisfying the demands of a “consumer base.”
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