Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

It's Friday. How about a parody video? The target—consumeristic attitudes toward church—is an easy one. Yet it's also an easy trap to fall into.

I'll admit to sometimes being like the character in the video whose excitement for church is influenced by who is preaching. Now if my excitement was fueled by a desire to be changed by God's Word, and I thought a certain person had a gift for opening the Word to me more clearly, then great! But it's often just a desire to hear a great speaker speak—a temptation that Paul saw in the Corinthians, leading him to avoid "clever speech" in his preaching (1 Cor. 1:17).

What's an easy trap for you? And thinking as a leader, how do you guard your church from acting like a fast food restaurant?

(Side note: I love to see people debate the divinity of Christ in the comments section of a YouTube video. Always great dialogue there!)