McChurch

The moment something becomes popular, people want to duplicate it. That leads to mass marketing and franchises that attempt to recreate the original experience, all in pursuit of the mighty dollar. It has worked great in the business world. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Starbucks and the list goes on and on.

Does it work as well when it comes to church? We know the popular "Purpose Driven Church" model that has been duplicated across the nation. They even give awards for these type of churches. I'm all for unity in the church, but I'm not sure about mass producing them.

When a church adopts a "40 Days of Purpose" program, they are in essence making Rick Warren the teaching pastor. (And paying money to do so) Even though he has never been to the church, never met any of the people and is thousands of miles away. It's a purchased curriculum and it concerns me. Their website says: "Now with the purchase of a resource kit you will have perpetual access to the campaign director site and a discount on core campaign materials." Oh wow, perpetual website access! It's sounds like a spiritual Ginsu knife commercial.

The term "Mega Church" is often applied to churches with large numbers of members. Sometimes it's thousands of people who attend. These types of churches often grow beyond just a place of worship. They become social clubs, outlets for people to sing, do theatre and even sports. They have bookstores and coffee shops. Often the pastor of this type of church becomes somewhat of a celebrity. They branch out into radio and television productions, books and CD's . Other churches look at this "success" based on growth numbers alone, and want to accomplish the same thing, all in a supposed effort to reach more people. But what are they reaching them with?

From what I have seen over the years Jesus is not really the focus of these types of churches. They won't admit that because they don't realize it. They gather to worship the music, the pastor, the environment, the state of the art multi-media display and a mass produced gospel.

We recently talked about a new church branch in the Pittsburgh area. By that I mean the church has it's main location and sends a video sermon to the secondary location with a live secondary pastor. I have not experienced this, but I'm not sure I'd want to. Some of the things that were mentioned in describing this new branch concern me.

It was described as having a Panera or Starbucks feel to it. I guess if you are going to franchise church you might as well look at some franchise examples. Yet are we to use a modern model to make church more acceptable? The music is modern and leads the worship, while the video supposedly brings you closer to the pastor. (The pastor that isn't even there.)

Maybe I'm just too old fashioned. I know that would choose a stained glass window over a powerpoint presentation any day of the week. I'm not against reaching people where they are, but we must also be cautious about what we do when we reach them. Not every evangelist needs to be a pastor and start a church. Often times we use Christ as an excuse to build a shine to ourselves. Bible study groups, a place for the community to gather, an alternative to what the world offers is fine ,but it's dangerous when we confuse it with a sacred place of worship.

Scripture is universal. It does not need to be re-written, jazzed up or presented in a way that has proven to be more widely accepted.

On Sunday, I along with millions of Catholics around the world gather in a place of worship. Despite the different languages, we will all hear the same Scripture. We all recall the death of Jesus. And we will all receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ as it has been for over 2000 years. This is Mass, not to be confused with mass production.