• Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • DNA
  • Encouragement
  • Pastors
  • Resources

Small Church.com

A Big Place for small Churches

Feeds:
Posts
Comments

The Outback Steak Church – (Drury)

The Outback Steak-Church
by Keith Drury

After a delicious steak dinner with our best friends the other night, I couldn’t help wondering what church planting would look like if done with the Outback Steak House method. How would you do it?

1. You’d limit your programming.

The Conventional Wisdom in the restaurant business is 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 some life beyond steakhouse management for their two interests: boating and golf. Figuring their managers should get the same, they determined the Outbacks would only be open in the evenings – one shift a day. They thought offering everything all the time would water down the product. They decided to open less hours and do it better. What they discovered was both their waiters and their pastor avoided burnout (industry average manager turnover = 35%; Outback turnover = 5.4%). The point: doing less and doing it better. The Outback Steak-Church would do a few things really well.

2. You’d limit the seating.

Most Americans in love with vision more than Steak, prefer to dream big and build likewise. Hey, if you’ve got people lined up two hours for a steak dinner what would you do? Tear down your barn and builds a bigger sanctuary, right? Not at the Outback. The typical Outback is 6,000 square feet (with the kitchen taking more than half of that) and seats only 220. Only 220. Why? Because that’s the optimum seating to guarantee a quality steak, according to Sullivan and Basham. Great Steak is
their goal — everything else serves the Great Steak goal. Is this an anti-church growth philosophy? Not necessarily. They just plant more Outback steak-houses in new locations. Which is exactly what they’ve done to the tune of more than 200 steak-house-plants in the last five years. They argue that an optimum facility is better than a gigantic one. An Outback Steak-Church would decide the optimum size then spin off other churches.

3. You’d recruit qualities then train for competence.

A friendly decentralized flat company, the Outback is committed to a friendly informal atmosphere. They worry more about friendliness than previous experience in their hiring. Instead of recruiting experienced cooks and waiters, the Outback hires 75-80 friendly people then trains them to cook and serve. They believe it is easier to add competence to friendliness than the reverse. The application is obvious.

4. You’d treat your workers well.

Outback managers only work from 3 PM to midnight and make about $120,000 a year doing what they love. The Outback’s waiters start later yet and earn about $125 a night. Both work only one shift straight through. Morale is high, the managers stay put, and the Sunday school teachers love it. An Outback Steak-Church would value its workers, making sure they see their intangible eternal rewards which are far greater than a mere paper $120,000.

5. You’d serve first rate Steak-preaching-teaching.

The Outback serves Steak with a capital S. You don’t go there for desserts or vegetables. You go for Steak. Every Outback Steak grew up in a particular area of either Nebraska or Colorado which produces the tastiest Steaks. Sure, the Conventional Wisdom is that people are eating less red meat, and entertainment is what they want from pulpits, but the Outback folk know better. If you serve great Steak, prepared well and seasoned delightfully, people will wait two hours to get a seat. It just might work.

By Keith Drury, You are free to transmit, duplicate or distribute this article for non-profit use without permission.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...

  • Archives

    • April 2018 (2)
    • March 2017 (1)
    • May 2016 (1)
    • April 2016 (1)
    • March 2016 (1)
    • February 2016 (1)
    • January 2016 (1)
    • February 2015 (1)
    • November 2014 (1)
    • October 2014 (1)
    • September 2014 (1)
    • August 2014 (2)
    • July 2014 (2)
    • June 2014 (2)
    • May 2014 (1)
    • April 2014 (2)
    • March 2014 (2)
    • February 2014 (2)
    • January 2014 (2)
    • July 2011 (1)
    • April 2011 (3)
    • March 2011 (2)
    • February 2011 (3)
    • August 2010 (1)
    • July 2010 (1)
    • May 2010 (1)
    • March 2010 (1)
    • January 2010 (1)
    • October 2009 (1)
  • Categories

    • Hidden Gems (1)
    • Leadership (3)
    • Ministry (21)
    • Minitsry Philosophy (1)
    • Personal Growth (3)
    • Principles From My Mentors (1)
    • Random Thoughts (12)
    • Uncategorized (7)
    • Welcome (1)
  • Pages

    • About
    • Articles
      • A Thriving “little” church that doesn’t know any better (Drury)
      • Ability to see Potential (Klassen – 1996)
      • Big Ambitions, Small Church (Schirle – 1999)
      • Church at History’s Hinge (Anderson – 1994)
      • Dynamics of Small Church Ministry (Koessler – 1992)
      • Jubilee Year of The Rural Church Program (Farley – 2004)
      • Lessons from the small Church (Sanchez – 2004)
      • Nature and Characteristics of the Small Membership Church (Bob I. Johnson – 2004).
      • Parable of the Combines (Daman – 1999)
      • Place of the small Church in Today’s World (Gangel – 1984)
      • Retooling for Rural Ministry (Klassen – 1989)
      • The Outback Steak Church – (Drury)
      • Where are the Happiest Pastors? (Schaller – 1977)
    • DNA
      • Culture
      • Global thinking in a Grain Bin World
      • Growth & Money
      • Pastor’s Role
      • Relationships
      • Rethinking Numbers
      • Would Christ go to Mayberry?
    • Encouragement
      • Bird in the Cage
      • Greener Grass
      • Hermeneutics in Everyday Life
      • Hymn vs Praise Music
      • Road of Life
      • Why your New Idea Will not Work
    • Pastors
      • 2 Types of church “Dragons”
      • 6 Rules for a Fair Fight
      • Before you say yes – Questions to ask a new church
      • Budgets – A Narrative approach
      • Compensation
      • Crafting an Expirence (Rob Bell)
      • Funerals – Etiquette
      • Funerals – The Eulogy
      • Has ministry gotten harder over the years?
      • Recommended NT Commentaries
      • Recommended OT Commentaries
      • Should I leave?
      • Small Church Music – McIntyre
      • When Things Get Ugly
      • Writing your Resume
    • Resources
      • Books on Small Church Ministry
      • Small Church Conferences
      • Statistics
      • Websites

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Small Church.com
    • Join 47 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Small Church.com
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: