Seth Godin shared a very intriguing thought yesterday on his blog. Something he is calling the “passion/pop curve"…
The bell curve to the left represents acceptance by the focused/excited/tastemaking community. Those are the people who love independent music and haute couture and Civil War memorabilia.
The bell curve on the right, you'll notice, is bigger. This is a second market, a bigger market, the market of pop. These are the folks who go to the Olive Garden for a nice Italian meal instead of the authentic place downtown.
Seth said that the reason you need to care is that gap in the middle. Every day, millions of businesses get stuck in that gap. They either move to the right in search of the masses or move to the left in search of authenticity, but they compromise. And they get stuck with neither.
A delta blues guy who plays for tiny audiences in Memphis is in the sweet spot of the “passionate.” John Mayer is in the sweet spot of “pop.” Both are great guitarists, neither is too edgy or too trite. Both made a choice. But there are a thousand guitarists who are neither. They're afraid to embrace one curve or the other and end up with neither.
I think churches face this dilemma too. Should you be the most innovative, experimental, artistic church in the world, catering to the edge of the passion market? Some examples might be Imago Dei Community in Portland or Echo Park in Des Moines. These churches return to many of the ancient practices and traditions of the faith. They communicate the gospel with distinctive forms and language, which seems to draw in artists, musicians, and the well educated (early adopters).
Or should you develop a church that appeals to the masses by leveraging pop culture to reach those outside the church. Granger Community Church would be a good example here. They use Beatles songs or a popular television series to translate the gospel into the language of pop culture. This seems to work well for churches in the suburbs with an Applebee’s next door.
The sad part is that so many churches get lost in the gulf between passion and pop. Seth says that inevitably, you'll itch to move to the other curve (cause it's bigger or because it feels more authentic) and he says, “I worry about your ability to do that.”
The best choice is to choose.
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