So did you ever see the documentary that made you never want to set foot in a fast food restaurant again? I mean seriously, I couldn’t even picture a Big Mac without having that little reflex of acid slide up my throat… ok sorry. The “Super Size Me” documentary took us all on a little journey that left us with a pit in our stomachs. Actually it felt just like well… like what you feel like after you would eat their food believe it or not. Amazingly enough, this gorilla style documentary/reality show brought conversations of reform to all the major chains and seemingly some level of change (as long as the nutrition facts are true :).
I grew up loving McDonalds. What 80’s child didn’t? It was a staple to my childhood entertainment. What could compare to a day trip with Grandma to Kmarts (ya’ll know there was an S on the end of it in some parts, or so the locals had grown to believe) for some new velcro kicks or a blue light special outfit followed by the amazing Micky D’s. Absolute bliss. The happy meal. I mean, wow. Sheryl Crow wrote it in the ‘90s, ”if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad”… right? The cheap toys in the cellophane you could hardly open, Ronald McDonald anything, the Monopoly game that no one has ever won, movie themed collector cups, the “playland” and who can forget Hamburgler? I remember holding my breath when traveling with my parents as we would pull up to a McDonalds. You’d see the big tall freeway golden arches and just couldn’t wait to see if that window-clad structure would be dominating the front of the building.
Funny thing is… in the midst of McDonalds’s marketing and “create an experience” success, they forgot they were a restaurant. They serve food. The whole reason people came there in the first place was to be fed (and food that wouldn't kill you if it was all you ate). Without the need for food, wasn’t Micky D's just a mini amusement park that you would have visited maybe once a year rather than once a week? Even crazier is that it only took one man, a few cheap cameras and a decent amount of spare time to expose that fact that they had forgotten who they were and what they were actually offering. The very foundation of their success, which was to serve the best quality (nutrition and taste) hamburger around, had been abandoned.
I’ve been a Christian all my life. I actually remember in 1983, at the age of four, longing to know who God was and asking God to show Himself to me. God would speak to me as a child and I pursued him with everything I could. I’ve kind of been around the block of Christendom if you will… As a ministry family, we moved a lot. My parents have fathered three start up churches and we visited or rather, “fellowshipped” hundreds of churches over the years. Working in full time ministry and community outreach facilities most of my adult years thus far, I’ve encountered thousands more of believers who represent the attendees all the way to leaders of their respective churches. I’m extremely thankful for these experiences and encounters. I’m thankful because it’s given me a broad exposure to what we’ve created as the church. I love the church with all my heart. I believe in the purpose and I want it to succeed.
To The Employees:
Unfortunately for a lot of people, their experience with the church has been more amusement park and less food. The western church (organization and body) has really done a great job of packaging things like never before so that people would sense the efforts to be “relatvent”. But my question is this: what is it exactly that we’re packaging? So we’ve lifted our excellence in our delivery, but what happens when they receive it? What did they receive? You think the dog that chases cars, actually knows what he’s going to do once he catches the car he chases? What now? Isn’t the point of our spiritual journey, to lead people to experience the creator? What if it’s intended that every time someone encounters a believer that it should be a life changing experience? Anyone who encountered Jesus had exactly that.
Well, I believe we have the world’s attention. We’ve caught the car. They’re coming to see our playland, eat our happy meal etc… I think the times of the world are drawing many people to question and search for purpose and life and what are you (as a believer who has access to the very throne of God) offering? Are you willing to offer something that is undeniably of God or are we so caught up in our “happy meal” toy we’re giving away to the first 50 visitors that we didn’t feed them good food. The world is looking for something life changing. Love motivated. Hope Giving. Something that lasts a lifetime. Let’s not forget who we are as believers and what it is that had gotten us here. We have good news for everyone and they need to hear it then SEE IT, from YOU!
To The Patrons:
I pray you encounter a person who knows God in a way that is undeniable and that the character of who they are would be so impacting, that it draw you to a place of wanting to know more about who He is and the wonderful life that is available thru a relationship with Him.
