JC Penney was a successful chain of stores, but it was time for a new CEO and as times were changing, the company knew it needed to make sure it stayed current so as to reach customers and accomplish its retail mission. They decided to tap a successful CEO who had a track record of success with Apple. Ron Johnson was thought to be behind the Apple store design which had done well. He was a follower of Steve Jobs and had taken some of his greatest lessons to heart.
He came to JC Penney and began to quickly make the changes he thought would help update the store for future success. His changes emulated what had worked for the Apple stores. One not-so-minor problem; JC Penney wasn’t Apple, it wasn’t selling technology and its target clients were not the same as Apple. If you watch the video embedded below, you will see the catastrophic decline that immediately followed these changes.
There is a cautionary tale for today’s church. Culture is changing and the church must constantly adapt its methods so that it can continue to deliver the Message and accomplish the Mission that Jesus gave it; to Make Disciples. Some churches choose to go the way of Blockbuster Video (a separate idea and future blog post) and just quietly go out of business by not figuring out newer ways to do the same thing. There are many churches that do know that there needs to be change and often they look to what has been successful for others and try to copy that success.
Churches need to change, but each church needs to change according to their own culture, their own community, and the unique circumstances that God has placed them in. Even in the early church, things that worked in Jerusalem didn’t necessarily work in Galatia. As some churches became primarily filled with Gentiles instead of Jews, there were cultural differences that had to be taken into account.
When we try to blindly emulate the style and methods of someone else’s success, we will run a great risk of destroying the good parts of what we have. Change must be done carefully and thoughtfully with a careful study of your own culture, your own gifts and weaknesses, and the unique situation that God has placed you in. This is why I’m a big fan of churches bringing in an Assessment Team who can listen to the church, help the church take stock of itself, and then help guide the church through the correct changes. Otherwise, we risk thinking that one size and one method will fit all and we will only hasten the decline we were trying to avoid.
If you are a pastor or other leader who longs to see the church grow in its Mission to make disciples, make sure you don’t trade your Penneys for Apples.