We Don't Care About Your Fancy Building

Posted by Scott Williams
13 Comments
November 26, 2007
Ministry | Strategy

This week I am going to share some quick Drive-Thru Lessons that I have learned from several successful Drive-Thru type restaurants.  I think these lessons can be applied to life, work or ministry. 

Drive-Thru Lesson 1 (of 4)   

One of my favorite Drive-thru or rather Drive-in spots is Sonic Drive-in.  Here is a business who has it all figured out.  Sonic has basically said that we are not going to spend a whole bunch of money on a building, nor spend a bunch of money on personnel costs; instead we will give you a parking space with a screen to push a button to place your order.  What if churches were to take a similar approach?  At LifeChurch.tv we don’t spend a bunch of money on our buildings and we staff very lean; however we provide a quality, consistent and memorable experience.  

It’s important to remember that We Don’t Care about Your Fancy Building or Stained Glass Windows, but rather your product.  I am not saying that we should not invest and spend money in our place of worship; we just need to be wise with our spending.  As the “Church” continues to evolve, I believe people will be more and more turned off by lavish buildings. 

Thoughts from Sonic:

  • The Mint- Tradition started by founder to remind customers that they are worth a mint.
  • The Ad Campaign- Two hilarious and goofy guys in the drive-thru
  • The Product- Consistent, Fresh, Variety and Evolving
  • The Results- 3,300 Stores, Forbes Magazine, 20 years of positive sales growth 

Do you really care about a fancy church building?  Do you appreciate the Sonic concept?  Share your thoughts! 

I think I am going to order a Cranberry Apple Limeade, easy ice, extra cherry!

  • http://www.annameadows.com Anna

    Hey Scott!

    Welcome back!

    You crack me up! =) Are you as complicated as your drink choices?

    You’ve made some great points here. I totally agree that this generation is going to be turned off by lavish buildings and stained glass. It’s not relevant to them (and is it really to anyone?). It’s my generation of church go-ers that needs to re-learn and re-think some old thoughts…mostly that the church is not there for us!

  • http://www.manymeadows.blogspot.com Robin

    Uh-oh! That wasn’t Anna! That was me, Robin. I think she must have logged in to my computer over the holidays!

  • http://www.annameadows.com Anna Meadows

    Interesting point. I think the internet campus is the farthest along on this concept. No building at all!

    I know we don’t put a lot of money into our buildings, but when I look out over the lobby at Northwest, I’m struck by how nice it really is. Maybe growing up in Lifechurches have caused my oppinion of “nice” to be a little warped.

    Good post. A sonic drink sounds great! We should all go get one after we take our pictures today!

  • http://www.floatingaxhead.com michael

    i thought you hacked an upcoming post of mine for a second. i was in a new concept of an old restaurant recently and told my wife, “if this doesn’t epitomize america, i’m not sure what does.

    restaurants are great places of insight.

    as to your post, i think people are realizing jesus would want them to downsize their lives (i call this downward mobility) and our church home is part of that. we laughed at lg recently when someone walked into south and asked one of our lg’ers who was serving, “where’s the sanctuary”. man that’s funny.

  • http://dturn.wordpress.com david

    More impressive is people that God has changed who welcome in people who are longing for the everlasting touch of our Father.
    Buildings are cool, but if all we are going to do is stand around and stare at the “stained glass”, what good are we?

  • http://www.floatingaxhead.com Scott

    No matter what your building looks like, eventually you’ll be judged by the product or service you produce.
    Great building are easy to come by. Great churches are harder to find.

  • http://knowgreaterlove.org/wordpress1 Avery

    Great building are easy to come by. Great churches are harder to find.

    Oh snap!

    Scott, it was good to meet you! Sorry about the sick kid!

  • brittney

    lol you and your long drink orders! your killin me! always have to have extra something! lol :-) but i agree with the idea of people being turned off by the big fancy buildings… after all, we the people are the church… we just meet in a building… what does it matter what it looks like… and nice quote! :-)

  • http://www.tillhecomes.org/blog Jeremy Myers

    Excellent post. I think that church buildings are on their way out…especially the lavish expensive ones. I have written about this several times on my own blog. It just seems that while some sort of meeting place is necessary, there may be better, more “kingdom oriented” ways of spending the billions of dollars every year that go to church buildings around the world. One church in my area recently spent $50 million on a new building! Ouch.

  • http://insomniachronicles.com Chilly

    most of my favorite places to eat are little hole-in-the-wall places that simply have seriously good food for a decent price. I have several places like that here in Detroit…

    IF the food is GREAT and the service is EXCELLENT, people will crowd their way in!!

    Simple concept.

    still far too many churches are going with gimmics (because the food is microwaved crap and service is done by cranky clock-watchers)… no thanks!

  • Scott Williams

    Robin- “It’s my generation of church go-ers that needs to re-learn and re-think some old thoughts…mostly that the church is not there for us!” Great Quote! BTW~ I can be complicated!
    Anna- The Internet Campus has a great concept! :-) Thanks for the feedback!
    Michael- I learn a lot from restaurants, stores, service people….. Downward Mobility—hmmmm!
    David- Thanks for the soul vitamin.
    Scott- “Great building are easy to come by. Great churches are harder to find.” I agree w/ avery that’s a great quote.
    Avery- It was great to meet you, your wife and your daughter. Thanks for bringing your friend. How did you get that quote bubble in your comment?
    Brittney- I do always have extras, kinda like my starbucks drink. Iced carmel machiato, carmel in and out, double pumps of vanila. “We the people” sounds a little constitutionist, if that is a word! :-)
    Jeremy- I know of a church that is spending a bunch of money on a convention center and a school. It’s up to each ministry to set the satandard for stewardship for their church. There is a lot of variance in those standards.
    Chilly- I am just like you with the hole in the wall spots with good service and good food. Cranky clock-watchers LOL

  • http://knowgreaterlove.org/wordpress1 Avery

    How did you get that quote bubble in your comment?

    You mean like this one…

    sneaky, sneaky, web design has it perks…!

    Here is a sample of how to do it (If I do it actually another bubble will appear)
    it would look like this
    “blockquote” phrase you want quoted “/blockquote”
    except instead of quotation marks it would be an arrow like this …

  • http://knowgreaterlove.org/wordpress1 Avery

    oh man it still blocked out the arrows… but this time I’ll use parantheses so you can see what it would actually look like

    (blockquote)the quote you want to appear in brackets (/blockquote)

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