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Date Posted: 08:53:26 06/14/01 Thu
Author: Dionysos Thriambos
Subject: Re: "Would You Like Fries With Your Communion?" An article on mega-churches
In reply to: SM78 's message, ""Would You Like Fries With Your Communion?" An article on mega-churches" on 08:08:01 06/14/01 Thu

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

S-M, your title is no joke, when some megachurches now include McDonald's and/or Starbucks. An article in a recent issue of Time suggested that the rank commercialism and "branding" of such putatively sacred space would make parishoners more comfortable. Yeah, if people want to go to the mall on Sunday mornings, just make the church into a mall.

The article claims that "Of the 300,000 to 400,000 churches in America, between 5 percent and 10 percent average more than 1,000 members, according to numerous studies." But the average religious congregation in the US has less than 50 members, which suggests that "traditional" churches with congregations of a few hundred are in serious decline.

One item overlooked in the article is how butt-ugly megachurches tend to be. There's a megachurch less than a mile from my house that is one of the most hideous excuses for architecture I've ever seen. Of course, it's surrounded by 100 acres of parking lot, so it pretty well dominates the horizon in that area.

In downtown Austin, there is a megachurch that is trying to crush the residential neighborhood around it. To begin their expansion, they want to build a five-story parking garage (even though their current parking is sufficient for the membership now), and they're trying to bend and break every kind of zoning and code to do it. When, after long debate, the city refused to permit the garage (a decision still being appealed), the church got sympathetic representatives in the state legislature to sponsor a state law to exempt the church from city codes!

The church I attend is more micro than mega, although it's statistically "average." We have about 50 members, and an average mass will have 10-25 attendees. Since we hold services in a rented warehouse space, our sanctuary is pretty ugly from the outside too. But we haven't had the opportunity to throw obscene amounts of money at it, so we have an excuse.

Love is the law, love under will.

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