Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Jesus Cropped from the Picture

were nurtured in this SLIM environment, the more disaffected they became, and the more likely they were to leave the church. Those who were new to a SLIM approach found it new and exciting at first, but it wore thin over time. Rather than cease their SLIM approaches and chart an EPIC course, they considered how to make their activities even more targeted to the individual. For example, one of their options was to provide believers with a spiritual mentor, akin to a personal trainer, 87 to help individuals experience their own personal spiritual fulfillment and growth (more Individualism), rather than re-orient believers to contribution to the Kingdom.

Instead of catering to a personal desire to be “spiritually fit,”a better approach would be to orient new believers to their Kingdom identity, as People of the Story .

The Pragmatic Method is formed by the Marketing Concept , defines nostalgia in a personal way, and fights against anything that competes with church attendance. For the Pragmatic, the current church decline is especially distressing because the pressure is on to find a clever marketing solution. Because of these factors, their slogan could be: “Does it work? If not, we need to fix it.”

134