Seth writes:
Twenty years ago, the Cowboy Junkies released close to a perfect breakthrough album. It sold a bazillion copies.
Every since, they've been touring ... as they've released almost twenty records, none of them monster hits in the US. The paradox occurs at their concerts... when they play one of the old hits, the crowd goes wild.
The people most likely to come to their concerts are the ones most likely to encourage them to become an oldies act.
...the fans create the paradox. The fans, the ones that should be cheering on the hits and the misses, the ones that should be demanding the next thing, they are the ones that create the paradox, because they're the ones that cheer loudest for the old songs...
This was really interesting to me because I run across it so often in the church. Most of the best churches start off by doing some cultural analysis of their unique community and then forming a church that is a natural expression of the Body of Christ in that community.
This is not a bad thing... it is what we are supposed to do... It is a simple incarnational reflection of what Jesus did when he came to the earth...
Something wierd happens as good churches age though...
Seth sums it up this way:
Your current customers want nothing but the old stuff, but the new customers don't know you exist, so they can't speak up.
Seth rightly identifies that often it is the strongest fans, customer or congregates who can cause an organization or church to become irrelevant and decline.
The more we demand the ways things were... the further we distance ourself from reaching the community that we co-exist with today...
When churches lock into a particular culture or expression, and link it to the gospel, they become incarnations of the pharisees who held to tradition rather than embracing the living expression of God that was right in front of them...
Everyone accepts that the Bible must be translated into new languages... but we need to realize that it needs cultural translation as well...
Where have you seen this principal at work for good or bad?
