You don't have to wait for inspiration: You can buy it!

If preparing sermons is becoming drudgery, and you'd much rather be meeting with movers and shakers, honing your golf game or hosting a creative conference on leadership, don't worry. No longer must you take time to dig into scripture or try to discover what God is saying to you or your congregation. It's all done for you at very reasonable prices.
Online sermon sharing sites, as well as sermon purchasing sites, are at the ready.

• My Sermon Vault helps when your "well runs dry" and provides 10,000 sermons that will "blow you away" Don't forget to check out the Pastor's MegaPack
• Sermon Central offers a free newsletter and pastors devotional as well as messages to buy.
• Sermons on the Cheap? ifindsermons says, Why pay five bucks for sermons when you can get them for a buck seventy five? Why indeed?
• At the Redeemer Sermon Store, the first four in the list are about money, so you know this resource is going to be a winner! The site should probably be called the Sermon Redeemer store, but this works, too.
• Want to preach Saddleback Sermons and be just like Rick Warren? For about four bucks each, you can get transcripts, and even study guides are available for some of the messages. Hey, if it worked for Rick, it can work for YOU
• Sermon Series: Here you can purchase inspiration by the sermon OR the series. You can be inspired and empowered for only two fifty. You can use the content "in full or in part." If you use it in full, think of the time you save!

Cheeze Whiz Church

For months I'd been denying that my church was trying to become a megachurch. Then, when I began to understand that, yes, I guess it was into the "church growth movement," I figured that wasn't such a bad thing.

So I began to study the church growth movement. What a blast! It's like a whole circus rolled into town and began setting up in the church parking lot. Then, after few objections from anyone important, the circus just rolled right into the sanctuary, renamed the sanctuary a "ministry center" and started putting on performances for packed crowds.

When I came to articles on church "branding," I knew that it all sounded familiar. What do you call something that is consistent, is colorful, sounds exciting, pretends to be something it's not (how much cheeze is in Cheez Whiz?), tastes pretty bland, contains very little nutrition and sounds a lot like Jesus but isn't? Hmmm. Cheeze Whiz? Gotta be Cheeze Whiz. Thus the name of Cheeze Whiz Church. Yeah, I know Cheese is spelled with an "s" and that Cheez Whiz doesn't have an "e."

This blog chronicles the whacky, colorful, bizarro world of the Growth Movement. I'm calling it the Growth Movement instead of the Church Growth Movement because the more it grows the less church is in it. They actually want it that way. The word "church" is yucky, icky, bleaach, pooh, yick. The less like church they can get, the better.

This is not an angry, diatribe against the Growth Movement. I even actually like some parts of it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with creative innovation. Instead, it's a spectator view, popcorn in hand, supersized pop, Milk Duds at the ready. While my own church transitions into a Growth, and I discover more and more notable features of Growth bodies, I'll post findings here.