The Main Thing or the Gimmicks?

I remember when major league baseball had a players strike a couple of decades ago. Baseball was in dire straights. Fan turned against both players and team owners. Some say that had Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals not closed in on and surpassed Roger Maris' single season home run record the nation would not have returned its interest to the supposed national pastime.

I think that was when owners and stadiums started to ramp up the entertainment value of what can be a slow sport. Jumbotrons became standard equipment in stadiums. Various contests and mini-shows filled the time between innings. At the stadium where I follow my favorite team, you can text messages that will show up for all the fans and God to see all around the infield. League officials assumed that if the entertaining add-ons were attractive enough, people would show up to games. That was the desired goal - get as many people as possible through the gates.

Now, closing out the first decade of a new millennium, the same rule has proven true that has governed baseball forever. People will follow a team that consistently wins. The goal is to win baseball games, playoffs, and World Series pennants. I am a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. Across the state the Royals baseball club calls the Kansas City area home. Both teams do the same cheesy stuff between innings to entertain the fans - hot dog shoots, kiss-cams, guess the attendance, etc. One team packs their stadium on a regular basis. The other struggles to keep their stadium even half full. What's the difference? One team gets into the playoffs consistently and has ten World Series pennants in the outfield. That team doesn't depend on the attractive bait of entertainment draws. It depends on the main goal of baseball - winning games. Once that's in place, people will come.

It isn't much different in my world - the world of churches. Many, many churches and church leaders sweat and strain over the right combination of advertising, slick programming, entertainment value, and whatever will get people in the buildings. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but sometimes it can take the place of the main goal; connecting with the real Presence of a living, dynamic, life-transforming God. United Methodist pastor, author, and teacher Terry Teykl says, "While other churches are seeking more people, the Presence based church is seeking more of God." Such churches focus on the latter as the main thing, and, as a result, don't have to worry about the former.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.