Todd Hunter and the Rebranding of Christianity

There’s a very interesting interview with Todd Hunter posted today at ChristianityToday.com. For those of you who don’t know, Todd was formerly the director of the Vineyard Churches in the U.S., through which I am ordained. Back in the late nineties Todd caught the post-modern bug and that’s when things got interesting. Todd stood up at a Vineyard national pastor’s conference ten years ago in Anaheim and gave his vision for what he thought the Vineyard should become (The Church That I Would Build by Todd Hunter). In his words, he wanted to build a movement of “Godward, missional, communities.” That conference was a watershed event for me, the beginning of a major transition in my theology, and Todd’s original vision remains a significant source of inspiration for my own journey as a church planter.

If you go back and read between the lines of that vision you’ll discover that Todd essentially predicted the emerging and missional movements (of course, he doesn’t predict Emergent or its demise, that’s something entirely different). Well, the Vineyard didn’t bite, and Todd moved on to get more involved in what would later become the emerging church movement.

Now, ten years later and to the surprise of many, Todd has become an Anglican Bishop, with a mission to plant 200 new Anglican churches in California. The interview is a good snapshot of some of the things Todd has been through, and I want to quote from one of the questions Todd was asked:

What do you think about churches in the seeker mode—if that means “non-participating mode”?

I love all the seeker guys and was one myself. But anybody today who wants to be a seeker and follow God in the way of Jesus is going to want a religion to practice. I’m wondering if Anglicanism and other streams grounded in spiritual practices aren’t going to be used by God in a way they have not been used since frontier America and Wesley.

America is going to become increasingly secular and hostile to the church. But what will build the bridge to whatever authentic Christianity emerges next is going to be a serious practiced Christianity. I think there’s going to be a revival of religion.

I agree with Todd here…to a certain extent (I think there’s a world of difference between the second-to-last sentence, which I agree with wholeheartedly, and the last sentence which I don’t think is necessarily true). One of the major issues with evangelicalism is a general lack of concrete devotion. You hear alot of Christian leaders bemoaning the lack of absolute truth in our culture, or the questioning of the historical Jesus, or the problem of evolution – but I don’t hear many secular folks bringing these issues up. What I hear – over, and over, and over again – is that Christians are no different than anyone else…except for Muslims and Buddhists, in which case it’s often pointed out that Christians are nowhere near as devout.

Guess what? It’s true.

“Successful” Christianity in my lifetime – meaning, whatever forms have gained the most attention for growing numerically – looks largely like a superficial lifestyle choice. In American Christianity we essentially sell brands – just like Nike, Apple, and Quicksilver – and just like other brands our church brands identify how we want others to perceive us. Just think of church names: Willow Creek, Riverview, The Rock, Discovery Church, Genesis Ministries International, Ikon Community (my fav). Each of these is crafted to invoke a sense of identity in those who attend based on how they want to be perceived. You can see it even more prominently in our logos and posters and t-shirts and websites.

This is how marketing works, and successful churches have mastered the approach.  Abraham Maslow would be proud. But brands by nature (unlike the gospel) don’t require a commitment in our life practices. They just require that we buy them. This approach has been reproducible for churches because, as born and bred American consumers, we’re trained from an early age to wear our brands as an identity (I’ve already written about marketing and consumerism in the church here and here)

I think westerners are tired of religion playing this shell game. Actually, I think we’re tired of everyone playing this shell game (click the picture to the right for a good example), but tangible products like computers and running shoes can survive this branding backlash by being physically put to the test. Christianity, on the other hand, is one of the only products on the market that often insists on the privilege of being believed without being tested.

Personally, I think Western Christianity is going to suffer in a big way because of this backlash. Too many Christian traditions still insist that the faith be given intellectual primacy without question – and many of them are still too entangled with the baggage of conservative traditionalism. Those are unrealistic, and missiologically unnecessary, expectations and I doubt those traditions can survive long term. But more importantly, people genuinely interested in God want something they can sink their teeth into and if we fail to give future generations a spirituality they can physically practice and demonstrate as true then all our “truths” will drown in a sea of other competing claims. There are plenty of truths out there, but real truth is proven, not just believed (Psalm 34:8), and people are increasingly going to demand that their spirituality – like their gym membership or their diet program – actually makes a tangible difference in their lives. If it doesn’t, it won’t make the cut.

Hell…if it doesn’t, it shouldn’t make the cut.