Weird Churches

Seth Godin has a new book out called We Are All Weird. While Godin is primarily a marketer, he dabbles with comments on religion every now and then. In this book, he writes:

When people in power tell other people what to do with their hobbies, their work, their passion, and their lives, we run the risk of enforcing the status quo by pretending we’re talking about morality when we’re actually using fear or corporate greed as a motivator. Hence the stress that so many organized religions face today. When the religion ceases to be about faith and hope and connection and love and positive change and begins to focus on compliance, this organizational embrace of the status quo runs straight into the trend toward the weird (84).

I preached a message last month that included how the modern era valued organizations over individuals and how today's era now values individuals over organizations. There's varying evidence to this theory, but Godin nails it here with his comments on religion and churches. If the goal is to bring people in and make them fill some role within the organization (and consequently adhere strictly to the organization's views on doctrine, programming, ministry philosophy, etc), that probably won't work in the long term. If, however, the goal is to coach individuals on matter of faith and provide communities and opportunities for them to practice and learn, that model could make it in this new era.