RELIGION / JOHN DART : Pastor’s Book Assailing Marketing of Churches Becoming a Hot Seller

Christianity: John MacArthur writes that ‘user-friendly’ tactics downplay the ‘difficult truths’ of Scripture.

A new best-selling book by John MacArthur Jr., pastor of a large San Fernando Valley congregation, assails the adoption of “user-friendly” tactics by churches, charging that their ministers are downplaying tough preaching to fill the pews.

MacArthur claims that entertainment, pop psychology and upbeat sermons are becoming accepted techniques to reach nonbelievers.

“Once they feel comfortable, they’ll be ready to receive biblical truth in small, diluted doses,” MacArthur wrote mockingly.

“Ministry has married marketing philosophy, and this is the monstrous offspring,” MacArthur said in “Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World.”

Fellow Protestant preachers are familiar with the polemical words ricocheting out of MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in Sun Valley. MacArthur stands in the tradition of fundamentalist preachers who brook no soft-pedaling of sin and take aim at those perceived to be falling short of Christian orthodoxy.

But his latest volley has attracted considerable attention in conservative church circles. The book, published by Crossway Books, sold 60,000 copies before its July release, placing it 17th on the Christian best-seller list in its first month out.

Taking the most fire in “Ashamed of the Gospel” are not individual pastors (few are named) but evangelical pollster George Barna of Glendale, who disputes MacArthur’s contentions.

With books such as “Marketing the Church” and “User-Friendly Churches,” Barna has become a widely read advocate on the subject. Opinion surveys by his Barna Research Group, Ltd., largely for evangelical clients, provide data on how churches are perceived by the public.

Last week, according a Religious News Service story, Barna reviewed the characteristics of a “user-friendly” congregation before a forum of 1,000 Episcopalians in St. Louis. They were: a vision that makes it unique, prayer that is “not ritualistic but creative and participatory,” evangelism done by the laity and encouraged by the minister, a unique youth program strongly supported by adults and, lastly, a flexible structure.

Barna and MacArthur are not strangers. Barna Research once analyzed an audience survey for MacArthur’s radio program “Grace to You.” And for two years Barna was among the 9,000 or so churchgoers who attended Grace Community on a given Sunday. But Barna left after disagreeing with MacArthur on various matters, including the pastor’s criticism of a popular Christian singer.

As human nature attests, the strongest religious disagreements can occur between people closest in theological perspectives.

For instance, Barna said in “User-Friendly Churches,” published in 1991 by Regal Books in Ventura, that the churches he described were not interested in “compromising the Gospel of the historic faith of the church just to make friends” with contemporary culture.

MacArthur quoted Barna’s disclaimer in his book, yet immediately countered: “But in fact the truth of Scripture is being compromised if it is decentralized and if in order to forge a friendship with the world hard truths are avoided, vapid amusements are set in place of sound teaching and semantic gymnastics are employed to avoid mention of the difficult truths of Scripture.”

MacArthur has contended that drama, dance, videos, appearances by Christian bodybuilders and show business celebrities, among other things, are debilitating forces in churches.

Asked to respond to MacArthur’s recent book, Barna said in an interview that he agrees with MacArthur that bad doctrine is intolerable, that the goal of ministry is purity not large membership and that unchurched people need to be “reconciled with God on God’s terms, not on their own terms.”

Barna said that MacArthur’s premise overlooks the possibility of maintaining a conservative Gospel approach in a pleasing environment.

“I think John built up an argument that doesn’t hold water,” Barna said.

A recent Barna survey of 1,000 senior pastors in mainline and evangelical churches nationwide found that sermon preparation (an average 10 hours weekly) was their most time-consuming task and that they ranked preaching or teaching as their primary source of joy in the ministry.

“Frankly, the Bible doesn’t give us a single model for ministry,” Barna said. “It gives us truths, but doesn’t tell us how to communicate those truths.”

Barna advocated “niche marketing” by churches rather than trying to have mass appeal--another tactic decried by MacArthur.

“Niche marketing enables a church to specialize and achieve excellence in ministry, rather than being spread too thin and accomplishing comparatively little,” Barna wrote in “Church Marketing: Breaking Ground for the Harvest,” a book published last year by Regal.

Indeed, Barna asserted that MacArthur’s church is “user-friendly” for a certain niche within Christianity.

“He is trying to reach the fundamentalist, ultraconservative market,” Barna said.

Barna proposed in a book published two years ago that churches with a large hall or auditorium organize community gatherings around major sports, political or entertainment events to function much as the corner tavern did for people to watch the World Series or other events.

MacArthur responded in his book: “(The church) is not a pub for the neighborhood. . . . It is not a community center where parties are held. It is not a country club for the masses.”

In an interview, MacArthur said that the church is a meeting of those who come to worship God and to be taught.

“In that context, unbelievers are more than welcome,” he said. “They will watch the church being the church in the word, presence and power of God.

“They are more like eavesdroppers at worship than targets. The Gospel is very offensive, preaching about sin and hell, and the (unbeliever) then will have to grapple with his own sinfulness.”

MacArthur said that he cited Barna’s books repeatedly because “his stuff has become the database, the defense for the movement. He’s not only giving research results, but drawing conclusions that fuel the movement.”

Although he did not mention it in his book, MacArthur said that Willow Creek Community Church of South Barrington, Ill., a church complex that draws more than 14,000 adults on an average weekend, “is unquestionably the leading church in this movement.”

Its pastor, the Rev. Bill Hybels, a high-profile preacher popular at church growth conferences, gave the keynote speech at last month’s large Christian Booksellers Assn. convention in Atlanta.

“Hybels had given a sample of the new ways to do church,” MacArthur recounted, “and when people came out of the auditorium and into the book displays on the convention floor they would see my book back-lit at the highest point in the exhibit area.”

MacArthur said that he autographed “hundreds and hundreds” of copies of his book at the convention, signifying, he said, that the debate over marketing techniques “is extremely important in the church.”