Cracker Barrel, Church, and Change

I love everything about Cracker Barrel, from the logo of an old man sitting in a rocking chair, and leaning on a barrel, to the triangular wooden game with holes and golf tees, to the menu, to the sale items that one described as, “a garage sale with food.”  Now the new CEO has decided to change the brand and rather than appealing to senior adults and road-weary travelers, the appeal will change to all people, thus hopefully increasing clientele and income.   Unfortunately, we are now asked to endure the loss of Uncle Hershell on the logo, the change in the description of players on the golf tee game from, “Leave three and you’re just plain dumb,” to “Leave three or more – No reason to be embarrassed, try again,” to the change in menu and seating area from home-style familiar to something that looks like it was designed by AI.  Is the change working?  It may be too early to tell, but in the first few days of change, the 47 year old restaurant chain lost almost $100 million in market value as its stock plunged.  My next question will likely cause major discussion and disagreement, but does the church have anything to learn here?  Some Southern Baptist churches drop the name “Baptist” in order to reach more people.  Worship style changes to reach the younger crowd, and in the long-run, loses the “older crowd.”  Guest cards are replaced with a request to go to a link and complete an online card. Even the weekly prayer list that had been sent via e-mail, is changed to having to go to a “Church App,” thus losing the largest group of prayer warriors, who may be too old to have a “Church App.”  And who knows what a QR Code is?  OK.  End of opinionated, old-man rant!  I really do believe in and support reaching more people, especially the younger group.  I just wonder if “changing the brand” is the best way to accomplish that.  Share your agreements or disagreements, but just remember that little verse, that we used to memorize in Vacation Bible School – that is when we used to memorize scripture – “Be ye kind one to another . . . “ (Ephesians 4:32).  Apologies for the use of the King James Bible, but that is what we memorized from before we had multiple translations and paraphrases from which to choose.