Is Your Church Netflix or Blockbuster? By Ron Hunter
Disclaimer: The following article was written prior to the ongoing Netflix controversy. I acknowledge Neflix's misstep into extreme depravity with the release of the movie Cuties. However, the principles of the article still hold true, and we can learn from the two different mindsets of adaptive leadership.
When your kids interrupt a conversation, you teach them about patience and manners. Culture, on the other hand, displays little restraint in disrupting our norms. Disruptions produce changes in our culture. Seemingly overnight, a disruption changes habits and makes previous items of value nearly useless. A classic example is the invention of the iPhone. Can you count how many devices the iPhone replaced? Other notable disruptors include Redbox, Netflix, and Uber. History offers countless examples of disrupting events that shape how we think and act today: the Protestant Reformation, Gutenberg Press, Internet, 9/11, and yes, for sure, coronavirus. Each of these events, almost overnight, changed people, policies, and practices. Although you may dislike and avoid such changes, recall how much you loved rewinding your VHS tapes before driving back to Blockbuster to pay your late fees. Try as you may to avoid it, some disruption sweeps through, and you must find ways to keep sound principles alive even when methods change. It is said a crisis is an accelerant that speeds up negative trends or exposes structural cracks. We can see how accelerating trends have affected our churches. You can’t control people’s behavior, but you can help them think differently about how to respond.
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ONE | DECEMBER 2020 - JANUARY 2021
Netflix changed how people view videos and television. It’s important to remember disruption changes habits, but not the actual practice. People still watch movies, but they access that content differently. What does that mean to our changing church landscape? If a large number of parents feel apprehensive about sending their kids back to school and opt for homeschooling or remote learning, those same decisions affect the church’s ability to disciple families. Providing the Sunday adult worship service online is not enough for the family’s other generations. Zoom LifeGroups peaked the first four weeks and fell off as fatigue and frustration set in. Which do you want to be: Netflix or Blockbuster? Look around. Do you see any Blockbuster stores? The command to make disciples of all ages remains in effect, even during a pandemic. So how do you adopt a Netflix approach to discipleship? 1. The pandemic has caused many not to venture out to church for discipleship and worship. For many years,
