Restaurants are known to do one thing – sell food. That’s relatively simple and not a mystery. What would keep you going back to a restaurant? Ultimately, it would be the food. Maybe they have the best burgers or steaks in town. Chick-fil-A, KFC, Popeyes, Church’s, and Bojangles have all made a successful go of it with chicken. Other places are known for their barbecue.
These restaurants retain customers by giving the best food possible. It doesn’t hurt that there is also great customer service. However, when the food isn’t of stand-alone quality or you think you need to do something special to draw a crowd, you must find a gimmick.
Enter the mascot.
McDonald’s has had Ronald since 1963, 23 years AFTER the restaurant chain began. Ronald had a cast of characters like Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Officer Big Mac. For a time, they also introduced Mac Tonight, a piano playing, sun glass wearing, grinning crescent moon that played piano and tried to draw in a hip crowd.
Burger King brought in the Burger King Kingdom and King Burger King. It started with a normal faced individual in a kingly costume but eventually became the more familiar plastic-faced character with a creepy grin.
Not to be outdone, Chuck E. Cheese had their animatronic band. Quiznos had the Spongmonkeys. Taco Bell had its chihuahua. And, Dominoes had the Noid. Have you noticed, though, that these mascots have all but disappeared?
Ronald has gone by the wayside because their restaurant chain has been linked to obesity. Having a clown sell obesity to kids isn’t a good marketing strategy. And there is a growing hatred of clowns. Mac Tonight and King Burger King are just creepy! The Chucky E. Cheese Band has been replaced with video screens. The chihuahua was deemed racist. The Spongmonkeys were so weird that some Quiznos franchises
disavowed any connection to them. And, a very real Kenneth Lamar Noid, a paranoid schizophrenic, went into an Atlanta Dominoes and took a couple of employees hostage. He believed the Noid was an insulting parody of him. The employees escaped while Noid became hungry and decided to help himself to some pizza before being arrested.1
True story!
Again, why do you go to a restaurant? Why do you keep going to a restaurant? It’s about the food, right? Shouldn’t we apply the same common sense to church?
The church should be about the body of Christ who is hungry for good spiritual food and wants to come together in community to worship, honor, and praise the Lord who made it all possible through His gift of salvation. Looking at websites of many churches, though, leads you to believe that gimmicks are the draw, not the food.
Guest celebrities, live bands, trendy series, playlands and gymnasiums for the kids, and flashy advertisements and mailers for seasonal events seek to pack the house so you can rock the house. To keep the people, the gimmicks must constantly evolve, improve, and be relevant to the culture.
Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 21:13 at the second cleansing of the Temple. “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Prayer was to be a primary focus. Have we become a den of thieves if prayer doesn’t play a prominent part of worship?
Paul ordered Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” This Word is supposed to be preached “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” according to 2 Timothy 3:16. If this isn’t happening and the powerful preaching of the Word doesn’t have a preeminent place, hasn’t this also promoted spiritual thievery?
Singing plays a big part of a church service. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Our music is not supposed to be entertaining. Instead, it must honor the Lord. Our lyrics are to be based upon the Word of Christ. The song ought to teach and admonish us. Ultimately, we are not singing to please the ear of someone sitting beside us. It is to please God.
We don’t need gimmicks to have church the way God intended. We just need to stick to His plan and refuse to get sucked into a gimmicky Gospel.
Acts 2:42 and 47 says, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers … (47) Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
1https://www.grunge.com/1549587/real-reason-popular-fast-food-mascots-vanished/
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