Thursday; September 27

In an article entitled “Market Myopia”, Theodore Levitt challenged businesses to concentrate on meeting customers’ needs rather than just being focused on selling their products.  In the article he cited the decline the in railroad industry by writing, “... the industry is failing because those behind it assumed they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. They were railroad oriented instead of transportation oriented, product oriented instead of customer oriented.”. Levitt went on to observe, “An organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as doing the things that will make people want to do business with it.”.  As someone with a Marketing Degree, I am fascinated by this approach to marketing and a progressive business model, but the other day I got to thinking about this from a church perspective.  Sure, there are some things that religious organizations can learn from our business neighbors, but does spiritual growth necessarily parallel economic growth?  Now please don’t misunderstand me – I am well aware of the traps of traditionalism in religion and doing things just because “that’s the way we have always done them” – but, I also struggle with losing our primary purpose to appeal to a changing society.  I am not necessarily opposed to reviewing some of the ways we do things (as long as the alternatives aren’t unscriptural), but we cannot lose our focus just to be seen as being “relevant”. 
The more I think about this, the less convinced I am that I have the answer.   We need to do what we can to be able to reach today’s world, but we sure don’t want to hear the same condemnation as the Ephesian church, “... I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4).  Let’s do what we can to be sensitive to the needs of modern society; but let’s never lose sight of our main focus – being pleasing to God and doing His work in His world.
Think About It!

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