THE MCDONALDS PRINCIPLE

When we first started our church back in 1998, our children's area was pretty basic and in retrospect, downright sad.

It's far from that now, as everyone could see from the look of the whole of the west wing of Regal Cinemas in Ronkonkoma last Sunday.

Much of that stems from something that came from reading Seth Godin's Book The Purple Cow three or four years ago. His main theory there was that for any venture to succeed it needed to stand out - like a purple cow would. I felt back then that our children's programs should be a huge part of the purpleness of our church and we have gradually developed until that is now definitely the case.

I call it the McDonalds Principle, which goes like this.

Millions of adults, who probably don't even want to, go to McDonalds every week because their kids want to be there. What is on offer to children isn't that outstanding - let's face it their food is unremarkable and their playgrounds are basic - but youngsters want to be there.

So my idea is that you don't have to be outrageously, breathtakingly brilliant to attract kids, just good. And if you get the kids, you have the parents and grandparents too.

Maybe I'll write a whole book about that one day and become as rich and famous as Seth Godin, because the McDonalds principle works.