Tuesday, September 8, 2009

For The Love Of Jesus . . . Or A Chicken Sandwich

The college football season has arrived in earnest and the first weekend provided a number of highlights, a couple of upsets, and a few close calls for ranked teams. And for the second year in a row Chick-Fil-A sponsored the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff football game and the Labor Day Giveaway. On Labor Day any customer visiting a Chick-Fil-A wearing any sports-related apparel received a free chicken sandwich. Well, that is an offer too good to pass up. So my son David and I pulled out our favorite Arkansas Razorback apparel and headed to the store on North Germantown Road. We weren't alone. In fact, I suspect most of north Shelby county was at Chick-Fil-A. The place was packed. I have never seen so many people in one place all for a chicken sandwich. Even though the lines ran all the way to the play area, and even though we were standing elbow to elbow and crammed in the place like sardines in a can, it was kinda fun. Everyone was proud to be donning their team's logo, there was lots of laughter, and no one seemed upset by the crowd or the long wait. In fact, I didn't hear a single person complain as they stood in line for 30-plus minutes to receive their free $2.75 sandwich.

As I stood waiting to receive my sandwich it dawned on me that the church could learn something from Chick-Fil-A. We should have an annual Labor Day Giveaway. This would be a great way to get our AWOL members back in church. Every member or guest that wears his or her favorite "Jesus apparel" to church the Sunday before Labor Day would receive a free chicken sandwich. It can be a WWJD bracelet, a t-shirt with an embroidered fish symbol,
a prayer of Jabez prayer shawl, or even a "faith, hope, and love" toe ring. Surely attendance would soar. After all, everybody loves Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. They sold over 270 million of the things last year. No doubt people would show up in mass for a free one and probably no one would complain about the length of the service or the overcrowding.

Now I know some people would complain saying the expense is just not worth it. I mean, do we really want to spend thousands of dollars just to get people to come to church? But wait, think about it. If the thousands of members who never come to church came to get their free sandwich certainly they would drop at least a dollar in the offering plate. Some might even drop a ten spot in the plate. If nothing else we would break even.

I think I am really on to something. If people won't come for the love of Jesus maybe they will come for the love of a chicken sandwich. : )

Journey On,

Michael

2 comments:

  1. I think you're definitely on to something! I especially like the break-even proposition...

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  2. I like it as long as we can wear shorts and flipflops.......Haha. I'll do it if you will.....lol

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