Television chef Gordon Ramsay's controversial series Kitchen Nightmares has been a real eye opener in more ways than one.
The fiery chef is infamous for swearing so much he would have most grandmothers reaching for a bar soap with a semi – automatic action!
Ramsay seeks to help struggling restaurants in England, France and the United States, who are often in dire straits, get out of trouble and on a road to success. He himself is a very successful chef and restaurateur having earned twelve Michelin stars.
For a chef a Michelin star is the equivalent of winning an Olympic medal.
My wife and I have become "fans” of the show, and when we sit down to watch the show we pretend we have censorship beepers going off in our minds.
Watching Ramsay help other restaurateurs or chefs in need of serious guidance and watching how they respond is interesting.
In every show Ramsay orders from the menu first, usually the menu for him is, along with the quality of the food and cooking … or lack of ..., is the starting point.
He will ask the waitress if the food is fresh ( often it isn't ) to get an idea of how much they know about the food they are serving.
After he has finished … if he has eaten the food at all … he will meet the chef and the staff, inspect the condition of the kitchen and see what produce they are using.
Ramsay's keys to success are simple: a simple menu with rustic delicious food, local produce and fresh ingredients, staff who work like a team and a strong leader in the kitchen and front of house, and an owner who is willing to understand what it is in their community and what they think the culinary needs of it might be.
Chefs with over the top menu's, chefs who can't cook and are lazy in the kitchen … leaving it filthy dirty, and in some cases even cooking rancid food, have been common on the show.
Other times there are staff members at war with each other and owners who don't know what it is they are trying to achieve. Instead of looking around and getting to know the community the restaurant is in and finding out what fresh produce could be at their doorstep, they're cutting corners with outdated culinary practices.
And surprise, surprise, no customers come in and dine at their restaurants.
Ramsay quite often is tearing his hair out with chefs and owners who won't listen, and usually confronts a lot of denial.
And if they do listen and take on board what he has to say and implement the changes he is suggesting, surprise, surprise, success awaits them.
After three seasons of Kitchen Nightmares only 9 of the 22 restaurants Ramsay has helped are still open.
NIGHTMARE CHURCHES
Its not hard to think of church whilst watching this show.
Natural Church Development has been unearthing some nightmarish situations in churches around the world.
Having once been a member of a church that had a nightmarish situation, Ramsay's show spoke volumes of similar situations in churches.
I came from a church where its first result was minus ten for its minimum factor, and I think from memory, its maximum factor barely registered a score above twenty.
The result was so bad the senior pastor had a nervous breakdown.
Two surveys later and a leadership change, the results improved dramatically, however failing to continue with the NCD cycle now has the church in a far worse state then it was prior to its first survey.
In each church there will be good and bad situations, but its not necessarily the good ones that need attention.
In one of Ramsay's episodes, he visited a French chef who was trying to convert Scottish people with sophisticated French dishes.
The chef had a dream of wanting to win a Michelin star and he had the potential to do so but he did not stand a chance because the locals weren't buying it.
After many arguments Ramsay convinced the chef that in order to win a Michelin star, the restaurant needs to be a good eating experience first. If you can't win over the locals, forget it.
WESTERN CHURCH NIGHTMARES AND CHALLENGES
Western churches have a similar dilemma.
What is wanting to be achieved is often either overstated or understated, there is never anything clear.
The mega – church phenomenon is something that teases Western Churches, particularly in Australia, particularly small churches, and its understandable.
Every leader, every pastor, and every lay person wants to see their church packed with no empty seats.
To have this means success, well it does in the restaurant business, but does it necessarily mean success with church?
From a Natural Church Development perspective success is not determined by how many people we are able to get through the door.
The most well thought out plan will not get people through the door.
Five year plans, numerical growth chart goals, usage of wiz bang multi – media, the need for relevancy, preachers who can perform like stand up comics and actors on a soap opera, contemporary worship music and a whole host things that are often tried, are not enough to get people through the door.
They are all good but they are a means to end in themselves.
Christian Schwarz says the best measure of success for a church is not the programs used but buy how many people have been evangelized too, and how many disciples are being made.
Programs will work and programs will fail. That is reality. And if a program is not working, don't continue to use it.
Perhaps a good exercise for leadership groups could be is to ask simple matter of fact questions about their church?
Are our people inspired?
Are our people involved in ministries based on their gifts and passions?
How well do we know our community?
Do our people come to church with an open mind and a healthy attitude, are they bringing something good with them?
In Australia we have a situation where atheism is on the steady increase, and the national NCD result based on international settings, correlates well with results from the 2006 National Census.
Passionate Spirituality and Inspiring Worship Services are national minimum factors.
What the country is telling churches is, "Yeah life is good, so why do I need God?”
The challenge has never been greater as far as evangelizing to people and making disciples.
But how do we do that with out cutting corners, resorting compromise and falling in to the trap of pretension?
The answer could be as simple asking the question, " How well do I know my community and is it possible the Gospel of Jesus Christ has something to say each and everyone in it? ”