OSX Snow Leopard & The Church
It’s here. I haven’t had a chance to install it yet but Snow Leopard is here and like all the other crazy apple fans, I can’t wait to get it going. I’ve been thinking a lot over the last week about why it is that Apple customers are so eager and quick to adopt new software and hardware when apple releases it and I’ve come to a conclusion. It’s because they know it will work. There’s trust. Apple works very hard to make sure that the quality of their product meets or exceeds expectations in every way. It makes innovation exciting. Contrast that with Microsoft and it’s launch of Vista and now Windows 7. There’s a little bit of buzz but in reality, nobody is fighting to get in line for a copy of windows. The brand has no trust, users are frequently disappointed and the result is a lack of market penetration.
Why is it that Apple customers are so loyal?
It’s all about trust. So, seeing as I work in a church it’s only natural that the conversation lean toward that. When people think about church–let me rephrase that a little; when CHURCH people think about church, is there trust? Are those who already attend church so sold out to the cause that they are committed to telling everyone they know about it? Not really. Why not? Why can’t Apple’s brand loyalty transfer over to the church? The reality is most people are ok with Jesus, it’s the church that gets in the way. People who attend church for whatever reason, grew up in it, found it as a teenager, wandered in for a specific program, however they’ve ended up there, they’ve found something that keeps them there. The problem is that although they were able to jump in, most people don’t really think their friends could fit in.
I think apple’s brand loyalty can totally happen in the church. So what do we have to do in church to make that possible? How do we build trust? We can start by telling the truth. People really dig honesty. They like it when the truth, however messy, is made available to them. They want real people as their leaders, not performers.
I think we do church in a way that breaks down barriers and doesn’t set them up. Guilting people into doing things doesn’t work. It might for a couple but for a vast majority, instead of building trust, it tears it down and makes it less likely for people to want to invite others to experience church. I have a rule when it comes to some of the more charismatic leanings of my own worship style, “Don’t Be Weird.” Jesus may have been confusing to some people and challenging to others but I don’t think he was weird. He didn’t use a foreign language or dance around whooping, he met people where they were at, addressed their physical needs, ultimately hoping to address their spiritual needs. He was approachable.
I think we do church with an attitude of service and humility toward those who are seeking Christ. The church is not about itself it’s about everyone else. Too often we put the covering of ‘outreach’ over our self-indulging events hoping that people will come, knowing that they won’t but that we’ll have a really cool event out of it. Too often the church is really about closing itself off to the outside world and celebrating itself rather than acknowledging Christ and living in sacrificial obedience (social, financial, emotional, physical, etc.) to him.
So what is it going to take for the church to develop the kind of brand loyalty that Apple can boast? Effort. It’s going to take effort. We need to be willing to live in the uncomfortable for extended periods of time in the hope that through it all people, those whom Christ came to earth for, those whom Christ died for, might discover the life, passion and adventure of following him.
I think we can do it.
With a willingness to do what God wants and not what we want…I think we can do it too!
As this blog is syndicated through some other feed readers I thought I’d include some comments posted from other readers…
randyw says, “I have to digest this article a bit. I’m not sure that you can make a direct parallel. Sure the church has a lot of issues that destroy trust, but I think that there’s a loyalty to Apple that is based a bit on the reality distortion surrounding the products. We aren’t trying to create the kind of blind followers that are around Apple. I know this is an offensive idea to a lot of Apple fans out there but I’m not sure the parallel is what I am looking for in Church!”
hzonio says, “While I am an Apple fan, I’d have to agree with Randy. The reason I buy Apple stuff is because I like the Kool Aid (shhh, don’t tell anyone that). I get what you are saying, but I think we have to VERY careful in comparing brand loyalty with the Church lest we become even more consumeristic in our approach to Christianity. I think more of our problem in the Church is that we have substituted Spirit-empowered transformational living with a set of rules and regulations and turned the Church into more of a country club rather than a life-giving community that seeks to be a part of God’s redemptive story in individual lives, communities and the world.”
I love how you connected those two ideas… but I have to agree, a lot of Apple’s brand loyalty isn’t just about trust, and we should careful about it (it’s not too hard, just have a little digression and explain how you only want to focus on one aspect of Apple’s customer brand-loyalty). That said, the connection can go quite a bit further
. Sometimes, I find, the Church undergoes transitions, adding new programs, staff, and newcomers. As the Chruch grows, it can sometimes be “bloated.” I sometimes wonder if we have gone that route, and now we need to “refine” and rearchitect the way Church works to fit new paradigms and programs that benefit the Church Family and renew our connection to God. Kinda like how Snow Leopard is a refinement of Leopard and a renewal of the Mac OS. People aren’t just buying Snow Leopard to be cool; people are buying it because they feel that a less bloated, trustworthy OS that “just works” is a valuable investment. I know you’ve been working hard to transform the Church, James, and thank you for doing that. Just know that we’ve been praying for you! Gosh, I’m a lot more wordy online than in real life.
Solomon. Some very wise words. I couldn’t agree more. We are very good at ‘bloating’ aren’t we? You are also right in that I could have digressed much more into the particular aspects of brand loyalty I was referring too, but then I couldn’t get such great comments from people like you! I realize that brand-loyalty and what makes an Apple addict an Apple addict is a lot bigger than what I’ve said. My point I guess really has to do with perception. If the average attender has the perception that they can’t trust the church then we have issues! The goal, obviously, is to help people draw closer to God, for their lives to be transformed as a radical God through his Holy Spirit does the radical work of sanctification (some good Alliance doctrine in there). Where I think we can learn something from Apple is to be conscious of the fact that everything we do either builds trust or tears it down. Not caring, not thinking about it, isn’t an option when our actions can affect the way people think about God. When we’re honest about our mistakes, sincere in grace and missional in focus we can help those far from Christ and those who have been wading in the shallow end, dive in and experience life in Christ with all its fullness.