“The Burger King Church”
I remember as a kid when Burger King came to town, it was pretty cool; they offered things much different than McDonald's across the street. I can remember one of the early jingles Burger King had. “Have it your way at Burger King”. It was a different concept for fast food restaurants at that time. You could actually go in and order your burger the way you wanted it; and for me as a kid that was pretty cool. I hated pickles and hated taking the time to lift up the bun and then scraping off the ketchup mustard and onion from those nasty pickles as not to lose any of the good stuff. So when Burger King introduced the idea of being able to order it the way you liked it was a huge hit for me. “Hold the pickles please!”…Just the way I like it, made to order.
I wonder if this kind of mentality has crept into the life of the church. “Have it your way” where the church is all about you. We want services that make us feel good or it’s no good, made to order. Not too convicting and certainly not to long. We want the preacher to act a certain way and preach sermons we like, and the songs have to be just the way we want them. Really the list could go on but I think you get the point. So I wonder when the church became a hotel for the saints. You know where you come in and have it your way; where you get your pillow fluffed and a nice mint on your bed; the service is catered around you? Well that’s not the church at all. You have certainly heard the phrase many times already but it is so true…”It’s not about you!”… What is it really all about then? It is all about Him and Them…Knowing Him more deeply, worshiping Him and growing in His grace and then taking what we have gleaned from our relationship with God the Father and making Him known in our world. When the focus is on us, we become less productive in Kingdom work…But when we understand that and place things in the right perspective by placing the focus on Him and not us, we then grasp His heartbeat and His agenda and see the real needs around us; a world of people lost and dying in their sin. While many in the church want to have it their way, many are missing the only way….Jesus.
Do you have a Burger King church mentality?
Pastor Bill
