The Gospel Cannot Be a Product That The Church Sells

My friend Todd just emailed me this excellent quote from David Well's latest book, The Courage to Be Protestant. I own this book but haven't read it yet.Commenting on the failed efforts and tactics of the church growth movement to market the church to it's self identified consumers, Wells writes:

"...how likely is it, outside of the intervention of God through the Holy Spirit, that we will identify our needs as those arising from our rebellion against God? No, the product we will seek naturally will not be the gospel. It will be therapy of some kind, a technique for life, perhaps a way of connecting more deeply with our own spiritual selves on our own terms, terms that require no repentance and no redemption. It will not be the gospel. The gospel cannot be a product that the church sells because there are no consumers for it. When we find consumers, we will find that what they are interested in in buying, on their own terms, is not the gospel."