What Drives Your Church?

Orginally published on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 7:41 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Seth Godin writes, "Most successful organizations are driven by something. Figuring that out isn't always easy, and is often misunderstood." Here are some of the common drivers Seth sees in organizations. Some could apply very well to the church. So... what drives your church?

MARKET DRIVEN: Lots of people claim this one, but few achieve it. Creating what the market wants. I’ll put JetBlue in this category.
Example Churches?

MARKETING DRIVEN: Much more common. This involves creating what the marketing department wants. Like American Express.
Example Churches?

FASHION DRIVEN: This involves changing the market to have it want what you just made. Armani, certainly, but also an art dealer at Basel.
Example Churches?

FOUNDER DRIVEN: Idiosyncratic activity, usually by the person who’s name is on the door. I’d put Virgin in this category.
Example Churches?

SKU DRIVEN: More titles = more success, even if it’s not true. Publishers live this model.
Example Churches?

SUBSCRIPTION DRIVEN: How do we transform a stranger into someone who uses what we do, all the time. Intuit, certainly.
Example Churches?

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN: When you launch products because you can, not because they’re particularly useful. HP did this for a while.
Example Churches?

COMMUNITY DRIVEN: Making decisions based on what’s best for the community you serve. Room to Read makes my list.
Example Churches?

TROLL DRIVEN: Growth by enragement. Engage others, say annoying things that aren’t true and bask in the attention. No examples will be given, which is the best way to deal with trolls.
Example Churches?

MONOPOLY DRIVEN: Create a system and a standard and charge increasing tolls to travel on your roads. iTunes.
Example Churches?

EGO DRIVEN: Just be sure you spell my name right.
Example Churches?

REVIEW DRIVEN: Don’t worry about the public. Worry about people with a pen. Broadway certainly qualifies.
Example Churches?

IDEA DRIVEN: This includes the Segway.
Example Churches?

PHILANTHROPICALLY DRIVEN: Paul Newman is well into giving away a few hundred million dollars so far.
Example Churches?

Interesting to think about!

For those of you who just want to rave about how churches should just have Jesus taking the wheel… don’t think I haven’t forgotten that Jesus is the focus of all we do… still as we follow Jesus, there are different ways that shows itself, and many of the ways above are things that churches do.  If you just want to comment about how far the church has gotten from Jesus, I have two words for you… STOP IT!

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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