Feeding the Flock: Restaurants and Churches You’d Stand in Line for

Author: Russell Chandler

This thin, uninspiring guide compares running a successful church to operating a successful restaurant. Each chapter begins with a visit to one or more restaurants; chains like Taco Bell, Denny’s, and Boston Chicken are favored. Successful restaurants provide a welcoming atmosphere, attentive service, reasonable prices, and tasty and plentiful (in the case of a church, “spiritual”) food. Chandler, a Presbyterian minister who writes on religion for the Los Angeles Times, describes the actual food only in passing. Recommended actions, ideas borrowed from restaurants, and questions to encourage thoughtful self-examination follow each chapter. Chandler’s analogy between the missions of restaurants and churches remains weak and unnecessary, and his advice for improving church attendance, while clear and helpful, seems obvious. He should have avoided forced comparisons and written a more detailed book on problems facing many churches today.