I used to love hanging out at Barnes & Noble, sipping tea and browsing books. But I haven’t been there in months. Here’s a great read from the “Church and Culture” blog that explains why Barnes & Noble has been floundering and offers excellent advice for the church:
“How did Barnes and Noble fall so far so fast?”
This was the question asked by James B. Stewart of the Wall Street Journal as the giant bookstore chain put itself up for sale this month.
Simple answer? The internet. More to the point, the internet of amazon.com, kindle, the iPad, e-readers and digital books.
But here’s the real question insight-fully raised by Stewart: with such market-share dominance in the book business, why didn’t Barnes and Noble, with dominant market position, do what it should have done? As Stewart observes, it could have “out-Amazoned Amazon, leveraging its brand and innovating when it began marketing and selling books online.”
Stewart’s conclusion: Barnes and Noble never really embraced the internet or e-books. In truth, it stayed tied to the old-fashioned world of physical books and stores. It was unwilling to destroy its old business model, so it simply focused on managing its decline, leaving Amazon to concentrate on the new world it was creating.
A similar story is happening with USA Today. As Jeremy W. Peters of the New York Times notes, “The history of USA Today is full of firsts for the newspaper business: the first general-interest national paper of its kind, the first to use color widely in charts and photographs, and once first in the number of copies printed each day.”
Now? Its advertising revenue has collapsed and its circulation has plunged.
But unlike Barnes and Noble, USA Today is fighting back. It recently announced the most extensive reorganization in its 28-year history, shifting “its business model away from the print edition that has become ubiquitous in airports, hotels and newsstands across the country.”
Now the paper will focus on its digital operations, breaking news on its website, a stand-alone sports edition called USA Today Sports, and making content more available in digital form in order to snag a larger percentage of the tablet and mobile phone news market.
There are lessons here for all businesses.
Ther
e are also lessons here for all churches.
You can go the way of B&N and simply manage your decline. Or you can go the way of USA Today and preserve your core while attempting to stimulate progress.
What is the core of the church that must never change? The message of the gospel; a defined new community in Christ; worship and the sacraments; the Great Commission, and the cultural commission inherent within it.
What must change? Methods, strategies and forms of communication.
USA Today is not in the newspaper business. It’s in the news business. They are realizing that this means they don’t have to live, and eventually die, with the newspaper.
Similarly, the church is not in the business of the hymns of Fanny Crosby, age-graded adult Sunday School, door-to-door leaflet campaigns or the King James Version of the Bible.
We are in the business of worship, community, discipleship, evangelism and the Bible itself.
Many argue that it’s God’s church and it isn’t our job to rethink it. What do you think?
This is very thought provoking. Yes it is God’s church, but we do not sell all our possesions and live together and give to whom ever has needs. This is what the first church did because that was relevant to that time and place. I think you are exactly right that the message has not changed, only the way to deliver it. The world is changing and God uses change to change us. Thanks for the time you take to share what you have learned and your insight.
Ed: I thought you might find the following post interesting.
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2649_keeping_the_men_in_mentoring/
Jon,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
As you pointed out there are many cultural issues in the Word that we no longer follow. Another example is I wash my own feet these days. So, we must bring the deeper truth of a “broken spirit and contrite heart” into an appropriate context.
If not, we’ll be just a banging gong and a tinkling cymbal.
Keep the faith,
Ed
Luke,
That video choked me up. I’m one of those older guys he’s talking about. And, there are times I’m just tired and don’t want to invest anymore.
Thanks for sharing that with me. I needed the provocation. God used you this morning.
By the way…I was with Darrin Patrick for two days a few weeks back in San Francisco. He’s in that “Future Travelers” group I’ve mentioned. It’s a group effort with 12 large church pastors that is pioneering ways to start and develop movements…the very thing he mentioned in the video.
Hope all is well Luke.
Blessings,
Ed
I watched that video too, I will second the thought of our culture needing strong men. I look at my four boys sometimes and the one thing I hope for them is that they will not be soft men that can’t stand up to anything. I want so badly for them to take the hard road when it’s right. To prefer strength over apathy. But they have to be challenged to that end…it’s like they don’t think of doing it on there own at all, someone has to show them the ropes. Every generations of men needs to point the way. It needs to look right, not easy. It needs to look like an adventure, not some boring existence that is self-serving. We can all figure out the selfish route on our own with no help or imagination.
An
An,
Thanks for your thoughts and your passion for the boys. I think your on the right track.
Ed