A Pepsi and a Hot Dog

I can put my finger on the heartbeat of the church in America today, friends, and tell you that I could go out tomorrow and build the biggest church in this town of megachurches, and I would have it packed to the rafters every week because I know how to get folks in the door and keep them there. It's a simple formula for church growth of giving folks what they want instead of giving them what they need. And if you get them into the front door of your church with a Pepsi and a hot dog, then you have to keep them there with both those things.

That's why we have so much superficiality in the church today. You feed folks a junk food gospel, that's what they'll hunger for. You get them used to hot dogs, they won't want a steak, and that's why our churches are full in America, because we have gotten them in the door with a Pepsi and a hot dog, and we have gotten them accustomed to that same diet every week.

You can hardly find a place to park in most church parking lots in this country because people are crawling all over each other's backs to get in there on Sunday so they can have their Pepsi and a hot dog. But you go travel across the pond to England and you'll have a hard time finding a Bible-believing church with more than 20 people in there. England has some of the best preachers in the world, but they can't scare up a crowd in a nation of pagans.

Pigs don't like pearls. But in America, you are considered a small preacher if you have less than 500 on Sunday. Most churches have 1,000 to 3,000.

Some have 5,000 or more. The more Pepsis and hot dogs you hand out, the bigger your crowd will be. You see, friends, when the church in America turned her focus to church growth, she walked God to the back of the door of the church and escorted him right out the back door.

There was no room for a narrow God and a narrow gospel if you wanted to grow a church. So we had to get rid of God if we wanted folks to crowd our sanctuaries. We soon learned it was easier to get folks to come to church if we handed them a Pepsi and a hot dog gospel that was void of any spiritual nutrition and had no claims or demands on them.

And instead of our seminaries turning out prophets of God, they crank out hot dog vendors. That's where we are today in the church in America. But in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 6 and verse 16, it describes our situation pretty much today.

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. If you're a young preacher boy and you want to grow a church as fast as you can, then start giving folks what they want instead of what they need.

And start serving folks a Pepsi and a hot dog and you will gain the end of your ambition at once.