THE MCDONALDS PRINCIPLE

I think I may have blogged about this before, but some news I got today indicated that we are getting increasingly impressive results from what I call The McDonald's Principle.

It goes like this.

I don't eat McDonalds much at all - let's face it, their food looks a heck of a lot better in commercials than it tastes in the real world. And it's not even the cheapest way to attack every vital organ in your body nowadays either - you need to take out a second mortgage to feed a family of four there!

You'll only find me underneath the golden arches for one reason - and one alone ...

I'm with one or more of my grandchildren.

They love it there and they're the only reason you'll find me forcing artificial looking and tasting french fries into my system. I go there for the kids and I reckon a high percentage of the adults to be found in any McDonalds at any given time are pandering to the younger segment of society, period.

Time was when kids went wherever and did whatever they were told, but that went out long before Elvis became passe. Nowadays the wishes of the child are paramount and love it or hate it, that's the way life is.

A couple of years ago I developed the theory that if the church followed McDonalds' example and developed an environemnt that kids would demand to frequent, inevitably adults would follow.

The stats are in - my theory works.

Over the past four months participants in our children's programs have increased by almost 50% - we are just a handful short of being a church with 100 kids.

And where the children go, the adults have followed.

That's why we're growing. A great job by our children's ministry team!