Product fatigue

In recent months, a number of church leaders have talked to me about product fatigue, and you could easily extend that same sentiment to programme fatigue.   What are they getting at and should we be concerned about it?

In recent years, a huge number of products, programmes, ideas and initiatives have come onto the Christian market.  Every since the days of Church Growth courses in the 1980’s through to Willow Creek (Seeker Sensitive Church) and Rick Warren with his Purpose Driven Church in the 1990’s, Redeeming our Communities, Street Pastors, Hope, Café Church, Fresh Expressions, Messy Church, Healing on the Streets, Back to Church Sunday and many, many more in the last decade it seems to some leaders that we are being overwhelmed with bright ideas and so the subsequent feeling of product fatigue.   “Please don’t tell me about any more ideas”, is the core reaction of a good number of church leaders.

At one level that response is understandable.  There is a limit to the number of newsletters, promotional events, and product descriptors that we can usefully absorb.  At another level, part of the reason for the fatigue is the underlying feeling of disappointment that flows from the unfortunate fact that some initiatives are oversold as the “silver bullet” which will solve everything.  In the situation we are in, namely massive culture change, nothing solves everything.  That is not the nature of the problem we face.

What we really need is a new set of capacities to understand the problem that we face combined with the courage to be content with not having all the answers.  It is by understanding our landscape that we can see where programmes of all kinds truly fit and how they might be useful.  No programme or product can of itself change the landscape but in the hands of a good gardener most of these initiatives can make a small contribution.  Product fatigue can be relieved by landscape awareness.  As leaders we are called to lift our eyes to the landscape before us.

How might we be aware of the landscape?

1. Recognise that most products and programmes can make some helpful contribution but we need to be discerning and not feel obliged to respond to everything.
2. Most programmes and products need to be used with discernment and so often need adaption to the local context in which we are working.
3. Never over promise to your people what a programme or product might achieve on the basis of someone else’s experience.  Sometimes programmes and products succeed because of other local factors not present in our situation.
4. Don’t become closed to all programmes and products because we have tried before and not succeeded.