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May 14, 2005
BusinessWeek Goes to Church
(Filed under: Demographics/Research)
Evangelicals landed on the cover of BusinessWeek as they explore the booming business of church. But before you get too excited it's more an overview of megachurches and Christianity in pop culture, with hardly anything new to report. They cover the usual suspects, including Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and Joel Osteen.
The piece had a few interesting details, including the fact that Willow Creek supposedly ranks in the top 5% of 250 major brands, sharing space with companies like Nike and John Deere. Also the Willow Creek Association, the consulting arm that hopes to spread the Willow Creek charm, raked in $17 million last year from its 10,500 member churches and the 110,000 leaders who attended their conferences.
Aside from that it's your typical megachurch philosophy: no pews, no crosses, positive preaching and in the case of Osteen and Creflo A. Dollar, the prosperity gospel.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at May 14, 2005 8:51 AM
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» Church Marketing from The Rock at Church Ranch - Denver Christian Blog
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Tracked on May 17, 2005 4:19 PM
» The Business of Church from Fernando's Desk
The wonderfully named Church Marketing Sucks weblog has brought to our attention a very telling article on the business of church. To put it another way, this is the big business of church, where Willow Creek ranks in the top 5% of business brands (an... [Read More]
Tracked on May 24, 2005 11:13 AM
Comments
Great article - thanks for the resource!
Willow ranking in the top 5% with the likes of Nike and John Deere was a bit hard to believe until thoroughly reading and re-reading the article!
Wow.
Posted by: Stevan at May 16, 2005 7:15 AM
i knew about creflo dollar and t.d. jakes being about prosperity gospel, but is joel osteen? i used to think that everyone on TBN was, but i don't think that's necessarily the case. anyone have any details on that?
Posted by: ksc at May 18, 2005 9:28 AM
I think it's sad that mega-churches are neglecting the core symbols of our faith. What's next, no mention of God because that makes people uncomfortable? I can appreciate the seeker-centered mindset, because that's the same mindset Jesus had. However, he didn't water down his message or avoid making people uncomfortable when He was spitting (in a good way) out some truth.
Great site. I'll be checking back often.
Posted by: Todd at May 20, 2005 8:08 AM
What started in Jerusalem as a move of God, became a philosphy in Greece, an institution in Rome, a tradition in Europe and big business in America. The institutionalized church (all denominations and sizes, both Catholic and Protestant, Evangelical and Liberal) is dying in America. What the article won't tell you in Business Week that despite the growth of these megachurches, deeply committed Christians are leaving the institutionalized church in droves. God is currently cultivating an underground church in America (like the one in China) that is neither institutionalized or divided by denominations. They have no budget, no marketing plan, no organizational structure that we've known before. They are organically and humanly following Jesus into the unknown.
Posted by: Frank at May 22, 2005 8:56 PM
Just a clarification to a previous post as well as the BusinessWeek article. The Willow Creek Association is NOT the consulting arm of Willow Creek Community Church. It is a completely separate organization that exists to train, resource, and envision churches all over the world. As far as "raking in $17 million," the WCA is a not-for-profit organization, so all resources coming into the organization are put right back into circulation for ministry purposes.
Posted by: Paul Braoudakis at June 8, 2005 9:04 AM
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