{"id":11691,"date":"2009-06-26T10:26:30","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T10:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2009\/06\/26\/drive-through-church\/"},"modified":"2009-06-26T10:26:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-26T10:26:30","slug":"drive-through-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-through Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n                                <\/div><\/figure><\/p><p>It&#8217;s Friday. How about a parody video? The target\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.buildingchurchleaders.com\/articles\/2009\/divine-commodity.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">consumeristic attitudes<\/a> toward church\u2013is an easy one. Yet it&#8217;s also an easy trap to fall into. <\/p><p>I&#8217;ll admit to sometimes being like the character in the video whose excitement for church is influenced by who is preaching. Now if my excitement was fueled by a desire to be changed by God&#8217;s Word, and I thought a certain person had a gift for opening the Word to me more clearly, then great! But it&#8217;s often just a desire to hear a great speaker speak\u2013a temptation that Paul saw in the Corinthians, leading him to avoid &#8220;clever speech&#8221; in his preaching (1 Cor. 1:17).<\/p><p>What&#8217;s an easy trap for you? And thinking as a leader, how do you guard your church from acting like a fast food restaurant?<\/p><p>(Side note: I love to see people debate the divinity of Christ in the comments section of a YouTube video. Always great dialogue there!)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Friday. How about a parody video? The target\u2013consumeristic attitudes toward church\u2013is an easy one. Yet it&#8217;s also an easy trap to fall into. I&#8217;ll admit to sometimes being like the character in the video whose excitement for church is influenced by who is preaching. Now if my excitement was fueled by a desire to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[3160],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3726,4662,5129],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-11691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-tim-avery","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-technology"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drive-through Church - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When consumerism and church collide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drive-through Church - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When consumerism and church collide.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Avery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\"},\"headline\":\"Drive-through Church\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\"},\"wordCount\":176,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\",\"name\":\"Drive-through Church - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"When consumerism and church collide.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Drive-through Church\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\",\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CMS Admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Drive-through Church - CT Pastors","description":"When consumerism and church collide.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Drive-through Church - CT Pastors","og_description":"When consumerism and church collide.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","article_published_time":"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tim Avery","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CTpastors","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/"},"author":{"name":"CMS Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3"},"headline":"Drive-through Church","datePublished":"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/"},"wordCount":176,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","name":"Drive-through Church - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-26T10:26:30+00:00","description":"When consumerism and church collide.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Drive-through Church"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3","name":"CMS Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CMS Admin"}}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Drive-through Church","url":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/drive-through-church\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Uncategorized","author":"Tim Avery","creator":"Tim Avery","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"CT Pastors","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z","datePublished":"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z","dateModified":"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Drive-through Church\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/drive-through-church\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/drive-through-church\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Uncategorized\",\"author\":\"Tim Avery\",\"creator\":\"Tim Avery\",\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-26T10:26:30Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/christianitytoday.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","byline":{"writer_byline":"Tim Avery","writer_byline_override":""},"primary_category":null,"secondary_categories":[],"featured_video":null,"related_articles":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11692,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions\/11692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_books","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_books?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=11691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}