The Pizza/Church Turnaround

If you are from anywhere that has good pizza then you can completely understand why Domino’s relaunched their company in 2010 with new marketing and a new pizza.  They threw out the old pizza and introduced a new one that did not taste like cardboard with ketchup on it. Domino’s admitted that they could no longer ride the success they had in the eighties any longer and began to listen to people and hear what they wanted in a pizza.

I’m impressed that Dominos was willing to throw it all out and start over although I am pretty sure their declining sales may have had more to say about their product than the people.  It got me thinking.  If Domino’s can relaunch with new marketing and new pizza why can’t the church?  I wonder if churches are concerned more about the bottom line and the fear of losing market share if they change than they are about what the people really want and need?  I wonder if churches are still riding the success of the past rather than risking it all in faith for the church of the future?  The product is still pizza and in the church the product is still Jesus, however, many people have a bad taste of Jesus in their mouth due to various reasons; seems fake, judgmental, angry, guilt driven, only want money and so on and so on. What if the church was to do a major marketing makeover?  What if the church was throw out the old ways that are not working and start over?

Jesus is the greatest thing in the entire world and offers us something that nobody else anywhere is offering.  People are not rejecting God, they are rejecting the ones who are supposed to be living out God in a real and authentic way.  They are rejecting the very organization that God created because it has been mismanaged and used as a way to exalt ourselves instead of exalting the one who died for it.  I don’t believe all churches are doing this or have done this, but sometimes a few can spoil it for the many.

I love being a part of a church that is thinking outside the box and is truly concerned for the lost, the broken and the ones who feel like they are on the outside.  I love being a part of a church thats connecting people not to programs but to a loving God.  I love being a part of a church that is all about the relationships and not about the religion and the barriers that it brings with it.

If Domino’s can do a turnaround and draw people back in for pizza, why can’t the church draw people back to a real, authentic relationship with Christ?