CUSTOMER OR OWNER?

By -
I've been a pastor for almost 33 years.  I've had the opportunity to pastor thousands of people over that period of time.  After seeing all shapes and sizes and personality types, I've realized their are basically two types of church members: OWNERS & CUSTOMERS.

What's the difference?  Simple...

               CUSTOMERS                                                                           OWNERS
*Are there to be served by the owners                             *Are there to serve the customers
*Are concerned that their experience is good                   *Are concerned that the customers' experience
                                                                                            is good
*Have no loyalty to this place                                           *Have total loyalty to this place
*Tied to quality of the product                                          *Tied to quality of the relationships
*Tendency to voice complaints                                         *Tendency to fix problems
*Refers to church as "They"                                             *Refers to church as "We"
*Main concern is what "I want"                                       * Main concern is what "they need"
*Consumer                                                                       *Producer
*Asks "What do you have for me/mine?"                        *Asks "What can we do for them/theirs?"
*Taker                                                                              *Giver
*If absent, would not be missed                                       *If absent, would leave a void
*Important part of the crowd                                            *Imperative part of the team

All in all, where do you see yourself?  Are you a CUSTOMER or a OWNER?  The answer to that question is more important than you think and says volumes about your maturity and value to the Kingdom of God.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 1, 2013 at 10:45 AM

    I am definitely a customer and slowly trying to become an owner. I know it should be something that I can just "Boom," turn on, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't making up excuses or leaning on certain insecurities as a crutch. Well said, Pastor Tom.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHOULD JOHN KELLY APOLOGIZE?

By -
In case you are unaware, Dr. John Kelly is the Superintendent of Schools for Pearland ISD.  Recently, he, and other Houston suburban superintendents were asked about the mandate sent down from President Obama requiring all school districts in America to allow any transgender student to be allowed to use the restroom or locker room, not of their biological sex, but of whatever sex they "identified with".  Here were his comments. " When the Supreme Court re-defined marriage and invented new constitutional rights, the door was opened for re-defining all social norms, now including Executive Branch dictates about bathroom and locker room rules in local schools," he said. "A hostile vocal minority now rules in America aided by an apathetic, unengaged   majority. What's next? Legalizing pedophilia and polygamy? Unless we return to the Biblical basis on which our nation's laws were established, we are in serious trouble — and cannot expect God's con...
Read more

Who's Your Coach?

By -
Ever play on a team without a coach? I have. You know, a church-league basketball team. Softball league. Flag football. It's not exactly the same as the sports experiences you remember from your earlier years. Back in High School, everyone knew exactly who was in charge. Everyone knew who was calling the shots, determining the strategy and calling the plays on gameday. But, even before that, every day you knew who was in charge of practice. And you knew what his purpose was. Sure, to win games, but also, to make you the best player you could be. After all, that's what makes it possible for him to win games. My playing days are over, but recently I got myself a coach anyway. Not to help me with my jumpshot or put a few more MPHs on my fastball, but to help me be a better pastor. For the past six months, I've been part of a coaching network, along with some other pastors from accross the U.S. and a few other countries. We have a coach whose sole purpose is ...
Read more

BUNNIES, BOUNCING & BAIT

By -
Yesterday was the day before Easter. A few months ago, in a moment of insanity or inspiration, I'm still not sure which, I mentioned in a staff meeting that we should rent the local football stadium, hire a helicopter and drop a few thousand Easter eggs out of it. Yesterday we did it...with a few exceptions. We dropped 30,000 eggs. We had 15 inflatables. We had games, face-painting, popcorn & cotton candy. We gave away thousands of dollars of prizes. And it was all free. We really didn't have any idea what to expect. I mean, we'd never done this before. Initially, we thought if 1,000 people showed up it would be a success. Then we reassessed and revised our expectations. We hoped for 1500. I don't know how many people showed up yesterday. I know that after the parking team had parked 5000 cars they quit counting. I know that we caused such a traffic jam in Pearland that the Pearland PD had to dispatch 5 units to handle the traffic backups we c...
Read more