Too Big For Their Own Britches

I came across a discussion of this blog post yesterday. What a long, sad tale of mega-church madness and the devastation it can have on the people in it's wake. Sometimes the people in power forget that their are real human beings with real lives, real loved ones, and genuine hearts under their sway.


It would be an understatement to say that I'm no fan of the mega-church dynamic. I've been a guest performer at several, 1st Baptist Atlanta and Bellevue in Memphis among them. The "campus" at Bellevue was freaking enormous. There were a couple of guides assigned to us just to help us find our way from the tour bus to the sanctuary and vice-versa - and they were needed. When a church "campus" has become so large and boisterous that the common person can't find their own way through it, it doesn't give one much hope of the spiritual landscape being all that much more navigable. A hurting person, broken and spiritually battered, left bleeding by the wounds of life (or the church) can, and often does, get lost in the shuffle.


This isn't to say that there aren't some wonderful people who attend mega-churches. There most certainly are. Also, the staff members assigned to us at mega-churches were generally very cordial and friendly. Truth be told, it's harder to gauge the staff members cause they were obviously assigned to begin kissing our aesthetics the second we stepped off the bus, and some were genuine, unabashed fans of the artist I was with.


The problem for me was this: With every turn of my head I could see a dozen new social goodies and amenities designed to attract, yet at their core, I can't help but believe they take the focus entirely off of Christ. So much of the experience seemed to be about developing and promoting the brand. I've seen coffee bars, bookshops, libraries, gaming, and just about every other kind of trendy do-da. Worship "team", Praise "team", big screens, video people, light apparatus, sound techs, equipment techs, greeters, ushers, parking attendants, Senior pastor, Executive pastor, Associate pastor, Youth pastor, Music pastor, Worship pastor, Sunday School pastor, you name it. And those pastors wear the label proudly, let me tell ya, relishing in being referred to as "Pastor Steve" or "Pastor Lyle" or "Pastor Joe". We would have complete access to all of the above - with the notable exception of the Senior pastor. To be graced with his presence, we would be whisked away to a private room in the inner sanctum where we'd get to shake the man 'o God's hand, exchange a couple of pleasantries, and then have the privilege of being prayed for. And...other than that, we had as much access as anyone else in the church - none.


In every corner of the facility, the brand is being peddled. The Senior pastor's books, audio tapes/cds, and dvds dominate the bookstore or library, along with the latest musical offerings from the "Worship Team" under the title of "{insert church name here} Worship", and posters or fliers litter the hallways and coffee bar walls promoting the soon coming releases of books and music.


Hillsong has made a fortune doing this. Others are following suit. Just the other night I saw the last few minutes of the broadcast of Elevation Church in Charlotte (which is extremely closely tied to the church in the blog post linked at the beginning). All of the same stuff, right down to promoting their music as "Elevation Worship", copying the stylings of the Hillsong crowd, with equal blandness and slightly less musicianship. Their television shows are just a 30 minute infomercial for the brand. It's like there's a big mega-church cookie cutter. It all becomes very cultic. It can also become dangerously coercive aside from the obvious cult of personality aspect.


It's big business. I just wish it could be done without slapping God's name all over it. He gets blamed for enough already.






I've always been a bit skeptical of why people attend these churches. Mind you, some attend for genuine and innocent reasons, and I don't knock that or them at all. Others, though, and perhaps most of those who attend, do so for all the wrong reasons. It's easy to do. If you're looking for social gratification, they're just like honey on a biscuit. Trendy? They got ya covered. Looking for some place hip and happening? Check. Want to be in the general vicinity of a spiritual rock star? Meet the Senior pastor (and perhaps the Worship pastor).


Funny stuff here...
Courtesy of ChristianClips.com


That makes me double over laughing every time I watch it because the portrayal of the superficiality of it all is so frighteningly accurate...but if you think of it in the deeper context, it's pretty sobering.


I'm sorry to say that for every mega-church I've been in, there's a dozen medium-sized churches (300-500 members) striving diligently to become a mega-church. It's troubling. They even put in the coffee bars (that may have a dozen patrons in a month), try to market their pastor as a rock star, record and try to sell their "Worship Team" (which in most cases ranges from middling talent to a human tragedy), assigning staff members to line up and kiss our aesthetics and look "mega-churchy" doing it. Building the brand for the time when, if they follow the business model properly, they'll one day be a mega-church financial windfall all their own and swim with the big boys.


Even the folk at Landover Baptist are catching on (and for the record, I don't recommend Landover for the faint of heart or church ladies anywhere - this clip just happened to be appropriate for the subject at hand)...





All too often a reasonable representation of Christ gets squeezed out, a "spiritual experience" is substituted, and you end up with something about as deep as a day-old muddle puddle...like this...





Frankly, the people in attendance there could get the same "spiritual" experience at a nightclub - but of course that would be sinful and all - so they do it in a church, with a big cross out front, a coffee bar and bookstore in the lobby, et cetera. 


The power paradigm gets distorted in these settings, as I wrote about here. Lots of other potentially unhealthy little nasties, too, such as the midweek bible study and cell group dynamics in some (not all) mega-churches being used to reinforce a particular indoctrination. That's something I'll probably write some more on in the future. Yes, groups of any and all sizes have problems, just as any and all people have unique problems. I just happen to see the mega-church phenomenon as a HUGE problem with an ample supply of satellites orbiting - it never ends well and people get hurt. 


I've seen my share of this kind of baloney - pimping the love of Christ to sell more units. As soon as I see a church beginning to "brand", it's the only red flag I need to see to know that before long I'll just be seeing red.