I think the church that will struggle in the future is the mid-sized church. People will want the intimacy of a small gathering or the “excellence” of a large one.

David, I think YES, we’re seeing the end of the recycling of the saints. But what do we do about guys like Osteen and Schuller, those who continually create spectacle that lures away many a gaze. I suspect those two types probably appealto the boomers and older. I know all of my friends, even the non-Fuller ones, between the ages of 20-35 find them repulsive and even antithetical to the message and way of Jesus.

I do wonder at the popularity of places like Mars Hill Bible Church with Rob Bell. I would say the majority there from what I know are not baby boomers. Yet that place is packed. I’m sure there has to be some outlet for community there, but I think alot of people just plug in for one service a week. Maybe that’s an exception to the rule, they do give one a sense of community I would think from my download of messages from there, but in itself that is not adequate.

Thanks for the response. I figured that, being Canadian, you would know the French. It sounds, however, as if whoever the dude was who used the phrase, was being quite cleverously funny:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_et_lumi%C3%A8re_(show)

“Son et lumière (French, lit. “sound and light”), or a sound and light show is a form of nighttime entertainment that is usually presented in an outdoor venue of historic significance. Special lighting effects are projected onto the façade of a building or ruin and synchronized with recorded or live narration and music to dramatize the history of the place. The invention of the concept is credited to Paul Robert-Houdin, who was the curator of the Château de Chambord in France, which hosted the world’s first son et lumière in 1952. Another was established in the early 1960s at the site of the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.”

I like, “Essentially the format involves no active participation by actors but a recorded narrative of the history of the building concerned by one or a cast of voices. To this is added music or sound effects as appropriate, all of which is synchronised to lighting effects which provide the visual dimension.”

Sounds JUST like your typical church service! Everything is a copy/recording of something some distant God said long ago but who often seems to no longer have any substantial presence with us now.

“Pyrotechnic effects are occasionally included to give added spectacle.”

LOL. “God is a consuming fire” – a bunch of Medieval mystics.

“A relatively recent variation is that, rather than the music and narration coming through a concert-like sound system, they may use headsets, such as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s “Lights of Liberty”. This allows an audience to move through a historic district as the show proceeds.”

Ah yes. Movie time with God. Eternity for “show” at church! “Real time”? Who needs it anymore.

“In Britain, where the majority of such productions have been staged at churches, cathedrals and abbeys, indoor presentations are frequently preferred, particularly as architectural gems might otherwise not be shown to best advantage.”

“Best advantage.” Argh. Because…oh yeah…100 watts crafted and controled by us is much better than the sun…argh.

Blessings

Thanks, as always, for a great post.

I am currently employed as a youth pastor at a mega-church. It is the second that I have worked within. My education and life experience gave me the heart to work within megas and try to inspire change (maybe that’s a bit bold and egotistical, but it’s honest). What I’ve discovered in both churches, and maybe this isn’t very profound, is that it is highly unlikely that any of these signs will be taken seriously by a mega-church. They do not want to change, cannot imagine doing things differently, and don’t see why they would need to anyways.

I guess what I’m getting at is this; do we just give up on mega-churches and watch as the gigantic buidlings become large echo chambers? Does the criticism aimed at them really do any good, or is it falling on deaf ears? What role should those who are not involved in the mega-church world have within it? I ask these questions with sincerity and with honestly no idea what the answer should be.

I really like this post…of course. A couple things…

Its been a good ten or eleven years since I stopped taking French. What is “son et lumiere”, of “but really: why the son et lumiere? I found the medium more than a bit out of whack with the message.” I have a sense of what he’s talking about, but no definite image. Is he talking about some flashy power point or something of the sort?

And sometimes when I’m actually not numb to God and reality, I can be a bit of an emotional girl, if you will. I was quite moved by: “My fear had left me, there was a calm sense of wonder now…he spoke very calmly in a quiet voice that exuded a wisdom only achieved through many years of heart wrenching reality…I could tell then and there we had found what this experiment was set out to accomplish, a church that saw past the money, power and the heighten sense of moral superiority that we have grown accustomed to…Amidst all the pomp and circumstance of the Christian world out there, here lies a simple, honest place that really means it.”

Recently I watched “Andrei Rublev,” by Andrei Tarkovsky. It, along with church the night before, began to reconcile me, I think, to “years of heart wrenching reality.” In my case only five or six here in the market driven world of “architecture.” But what I find interesting is the film’s…as well as the wise and seasoned pastor’s…apparent understanding of and centering of his Jesus message…not on “pomp and circumstance” (like most films and churches)…but on an understanding of suffering with Christ.

Blessings,

Jason