The Church: A Vendor or Missionary?

Jan 05, 2022

In 1994, George Hunsberger described the shape of the American church as a "vendor of religious goods and services." Building on David Bosch, Hunsberger states that the Reformation Heritage gave us the implications that the church is the place where certain things happen. Specifically, it was where the preaching of the Word, the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline took place. He then adds that the present shape of the church is a variation of this "place" understanding of the church. The church has now become a place where religious goods and services are sold.

"In the North American setting, we have come to view the church as "a vendor of religious services and goods." To this notion we attach the language of production, marketing, sales, and consumption. A congregation becomes a retail outlet or franchise of the denominational brand. Staff at all levels become sales and service representatives. The denomination is the corporate headquarters in charge of everything from research and development to mass media imaging."1

He then argues that most churches reinforce this idea through their mission statements, which all too often make a dichotomy between the "church" and its "members." So, for example, “Local Community Church exists to nourish its members to love God, others, and the world.” Sounds good, right? But notice the church and the members are set against one another. In this kind of structure,

‘The members are not conceived as being the church and themselves having a mission on which they have been collectively sent. Instead, they are the customers, the regular consumers for whom the religious services and goods produced by the "church" are intended. On such a model, evangelism devolves into membership recruitment, which may more accurately be called "capturing market share." This kind of "church" is in the business of religion, and its livelihood is dependent on having a sufficient number of satisfied, committed customers."2

I want to address two questions regarding this: (1) is Hunsberger’s claim that the church has devolved into a vendor of religious good and services still true 28 years later; and (2) why has the church devolved into this state of being a vendor?

Question 1: Is the church still a place where religious goods and services are sold?

Notice the last part of the above quote: ‘The church's livelihood is dependent on having a sufficient number of satisfied, committed customers.' This is the crux of the matter. Do churches care more about having the right programs to attract people and continuously improving those programs to keep people than organizing a group of people to be faithful missionaries together in their city?

I believe a large swath of churches are consciously and/or subconsciously continuing to operate out of this vendor model. Not much, in my humble opinion, has changed in 28 years. The primary questions churches continue to ask are the following: What programs do we need to build a church? How can we improve our kids' programs? Who should we be hiring to run our youth group? How can we make our music more engaging?

They are not asking primary questions like the following: How do we work out being God's saved people together in our city? How can we create spaces where our people intimately know each other so that the outside world will daily see Jesus at work in our midst?

There is this eerie pull into the vendor model. On the one hand, pastors know that the church should generally be about Jesus, the church growing in their faith, and it becoming a faithful witness to Jesus in their cities. However, the pull to attract people through vendor programs to get people is hard to reject. I feel this pull as a pastor all the time. I regularly want to adopt the vendor model to grow my church. In many ways, it is much easier and cleaner.

But it is not just the pastors and leaders of the church who feel this pull. The people who attend church also feel the allure into the vendor model church. The more the church has to offer them and their families, the more comfortable and convenient, the more willing they are to attend.

I see it in the people who come and go out of our church. We regularly lose families who have been with our church for years as soon as their children become teenagers. Why? Our church does not offer the traditional youth group they want, need, or expect. This is not a pity party for me, and the people who leave for a better youth group are great Jesus-loving people. It is just a reality that the church faces today.

But can’t you have your cake and eat it too? Can’t the church use the vendor model to get the people so that they can grow in their faith and become faithful witnesses? I would offer three reasons why it nearly impossible and ineffective.

1. History teaches us that this model is ineffective. The church has tried this method for a long time and it is futile. In almost every category that matters the church is declining. So how many times do we have to do the same thing expecting a different result?

2. The way the church structures itself teaches the people in the church what the church is. Church structure is no small issue. It informs and shapes the people who attend. If a church builds a vendor model to attract people to the church, then the people instinctively begin to believe that the church is a place to consume. If a church structures itself to be a place where people are becoming a community of missionaries in a neighborhood, they are teaching people that the church is a missionary people.

3. What it takes to get the people is what it takes to keep them. If you need religious goods and services to get the crowd, then once you stop offering them they will leave to find another place that offers them. It is as simple as that. This is why the draw to a vendor model for pastors is so alluring.

Capturing these last two points, Jared Wilson writes,

“The way the church wins its people shapes its people. So the most effective way to turn your church into a collection of consumers and customers is to treat them like that’s what they are.”3

Programs are not wrong or evil. In fact, good leaders employ paths to help their people grow. Every church has “programs.” The issue concerns the ends. Where are all the programs leading and how are they shaping the people? Do the programs a church employs lead God's people to become faithful missionaries together in a city, or are the programs creating insular, consumer-oriented people?

Question 2: Why has the church become a vendor of religious goods and services?

Why are churches asking these wrong questions? I definitely do not think their motives are malicious. I really feel there are tens of thousands Jesus loving pastors out there. I believe the wrong story is influencing their actions. The problem with the vendor model is syncretism. It is the church merging with the prevailing culture.

Think about it this way.

If you need a new computer, what do you do? You find a vendor that matches your needs, your price point, and promotes your cultural status. Apple, anyone?
If you need clothes, what do you do? You find a vendor that matches your style, your body type, and promotes your status. Patagonia, anyone?
If you need tacos, what do you do? You find a vendor that matches your taste, your price point, and your convenience. Chipotle, anyone?
If you need a soccer club for your kids, what do you do? You find a vendor that meets your expectations, fits with your travel schedule, and maximally exposes your kids to colleges.

So, if you need a church, what do you do? You find a vendor that matches your needs, your commitment level (Don't demand too much out of me), and your happiness.

Why would we select the church we attend any differently than the way we choose everything else in our lives??

My point is the following: we make choices every day about our lives based on me, my needs, my desires. We search to find the right product for ourselves because we have been swimming in a stream of individual consumerism since we entered the world. And to say that this story has not influenced or permeated us is pure ignorance.

We need a better story to shape us. We need God’s story to displace our individualistic consumerism.

So what do you think? Is the church still struggling with the vendor approach? If so, why? If not, why not?

Mission Forward

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