Big Box or Specialty Store?

 by

Rick Presley

A lot of the emergent discussion online hasn’t progressed much past whining about what’s wrong with the modern church and where we got off track. Typical whipping boys include church marketing, seeker sensitive, Willowcreek, Saddleback and all the rest. You all know the tune, just pick your key.

Well, I for one am tired of it.

Let’s talk about something I like – coffee. We all agree (those of us that are coffee drinkers anyway) that coffee is much to be desired and worthy of our praise, adoration, devotion and consumption. I am a firm believer in the Conehead philosophy of “Consume mass quantities,” when it comes to the juice of the roasted bean. Not only am I a practitioner of coffee consumption but I endorse it heartily and encourage others to participate with me.

My chief difficulty is that I am a postmodern coffee drinker. I’m not a purist. I’m not an elitist. I’m really a rather poor coffee drinker. Sometimes I buy my coffee from Big Box stores like Wally World or Sam’s Club. When I can get the Folger’s in bulk I jump at the opportunity to keep the cupboard full. On other occasions I will swing by the Caribou Coffee, Cup O’ Joe, or (gasp!) Starbucks, and cough up my hard-earned dough for the same thing only different – regular coffee, black, straight up. When it comes to the caffeinated confection, I am just as likely to imbibe the “cheap stuff” as the “good stuff.” Effete snobbery has never been one of my character traits. Quaffing the ceramic cup clad in flannel and jeans is as good as it gets for me. Unless my main motivation is to sit in a quiet cozy nook with a good friend and chat about the important things in life – bird dog breeds or virtues of one car manufacturer over another. Then it makes a difference. Or if I’m having a lot of folks over for a big family get-together where the game is to keep the coffee coming as thick and fast as possible so no one’s cup has a chance to chill. Then it makes a difference.

Basically, whether I buy Big Box coffee or Specialty Store coffee is a both/and for me. Each of them serves a purpose and each of them meets the needs of their respective consumers. I don’t see coffee drinkers spending a whole lot of angst worrying over who’s doing it “right” and who missed the boat. We drink what we drink for reasons other than the coffee itself. There is no one right way to drink coffee.

But you know I’m not talking about coffee, don’t you?

The Big Box churches serve a purpose. They enjoy economies of scale that allow them to do things Specialty Store churches could never hope to do. They can host major concerts, big conferences, large productions and all at a lower unit cost than the little guys. They serve more “customers” and do more “things” than their comparatively smaller sisters. Does this make them better or badder? Honestly, I don’t think that’s even a question we should be asking. Which is better – Sam’s Club or Starbucks? It’s like comparing oranges to orangutans. It defies comparison.

The Specialty Store churches may charge a premium for their “services” but they have a cozy intimate feel. They have more opportunity for individual interaction and attention. They don’t do nearly as many things as the Big Box churches but the things they do, they do well. It’s a primo experience when it works well and “consumers” are willing to “pay” for the experience by sacrificing breadth to get depth. Is that better? Well yes, for some people.

There are plenty of coffee drinkers who never touch Starbucks. Does that make them wrong? So why do we think Big Box church-goers are wrong? Or if we don’t think they’re wrong, we think they are seriously missing out on an important experience. And they may be.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why does one have to be better than the other? Aren’t these modern arguments? 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that for a balanced body we need eyes, ears and all the rest. One is not better than the other but each contributes to the whole. Rather than complaining and criticizing, let’s just drink our coffee wherever we find it – in the foyer of a Big Box church or around the table in a Specialty Store home church.