“I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:23)

Like many of you, I enjoy a good steak.  And when I go out to eat steak, it’s rare.  By rare, I do not mean that I like my steak practically raw. I mean I rarely go out to eat steak at a restaurant.  When I do, I enjoy going to the Outback Steak House. 

The Outback is known for their motto: “No Rules. Just Right.”  As a matter of fact, The Outback breaks the rules to get it right. Conventional wisdom in the restaurant business is this: find a good location, operate as many hours as possible to spread the fixed costs, and keep the food costs as low as possible. The Outback Steak House breaks all three rules. When Chris Sullivan and Robert Basham started the chain they wanted to have a life beyond steakhouse management for their two interests—boating and golf. Figuring their managers should get the same, they determined the Outback would only be open in the evenings—one shift a day. They thought offering everything all the time would water down the product. So they decided to open fewer hours and do it better. What they discovered brought sheer delight.  Both their waiters and their managers avoided burnout.  The industry average manager turnover rate is 35%.  But the Outback turnover is a paltry 5.4%. The point is clear. Doing less and doing it better makes all the difference. Maybe the church can learn something from the Outback. We cannot become all things to all people, but we can concentrate on doing one thing well—advancing the gospel.

How well are we doing that?  It’s hard to know that from the inside. The longer a church exists the harder it becomes to see ourselves from the outside.  Traditions become regulations. Peripheral issues get confused with the gospel.  But a church can just as easily swing the other way.  It offers so many programs that it is difficult for outsiders to know what really does matter.  In an effort to win the world the church can become too much like the world.  That was another trap the church at Corinth had fallen into.  Trying to package the gospel in the world’s wisdom, it effectively hid the gospel not only from the world, but from itself and led its own people astray.

 We can’t be all things to all people.  We can’t provide programs for every conceivable need.  But one thing we can and must do is this.  We can share the gospel.  Advancing the gospel must be the motivation for everything we do.