Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
After a few minutes I initiated a second ques- tion What is Chryslers product The immediate response was cars. I then suggested While its true that Chrysler makes cars cars are not really their product. As confusion began to break out among the group I continued on. Chryslers ulti- mate product is transportation. They manufacture different kinds of cars in order to satisfy a wide range of transportation needs. The pastors seemed to readily accept this notion. I then restated my first question So using this illustration what is your product After several minutes someone responded The product of the local church should be Christ- like people. What a great answer We should be producing people whose lives truly reflect the life and love of Jesus Christ. However arent Christ-like people the same as the car You see I believe that the product of the church ought to be a godly world. It would follow then that the product of a local city church ought to be a godly city. I wanted these pastors to see the big picture. Just as Chrysler remembers each time they manufacture a car that their primary purpose is to satisfy and provide transportation needs we as leaders need to recognize that the primary pur- pose of building up Christ-like people is to draw others to Him and ultimately produce godliness in our communities. In keeping with this train of thought who is our customer Many would suggest that those attending our churches are our customers. This is not the case. Our real customers are lost individuals and those in attendance are in training to reach them. I believe it is critical for us to understand this paradigm. I continued on with a more challenging ques- tion. Most of us would agree that Chrysler is doing a pretty good job in delivering a quality product. Now tell me how do you think the church is doing In other words if the church were an actual factory whose bottom-line profit was directly related to the quality of its product would we be in business The silence was deafening. BUILDING A BETTER MACHINE L ets assume that Chrysler has purchased the best raw materials available. Then they throw all of this rubber glass metal plastic and so on into a box on the factory floor and call it a car. Obviously we would never identify this box of parts as a car. Disassembled those parts could never satisfy our need for transportation. Now I want you to think of an average man 26 WWW.AGRM.ORG MARCHAPRIL 2016 After several minutes someone responded The product of the local church should be Christ-like people.